Lots of blog buzz about a new Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey showing that support for torturing terrorists is highest among white Evangelical Christians and those who attend church weekly. The question they asked was this: Question wording: Do you think the use of torture against suspected
terrorists in order to gain important information can often be
justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be
justified? The actual data is not as dramatic as all the headlines when compared across the board, and next to longitudinal data on the general American public's view on the matter. The graph tell the story and the story is pretty wide support for torture across the board, from 49% of the overall population saying that torture is often or sometimes justified, about the same as white/non-Hispanic Catholics (51%) and a bit higher than Mainline Christians like Lutherans (42%) What I was drawn to is the percent that say torture can NEVER be justified, my position, and grounded on theological reasons having to do with the dignity of the human and the way I interpret the command to love the neighbor. Here the Mainline Protestants beat every other category, including the 'nones', by at least 5 points. The question is, in my mind, how do we gain support for that group, only 1/4 of the population as a whole, and significantly less (only 1/6) among White Evangelical Protestants.
In my class dealing with these topics, we just finished reading Bernd Wannenwetsch's work on political worship in which he describes the political power of loving one's enemies and praying for those that persecute us (Matthew 5:38-47). I'd like to see a breakdown of the correlation of those who have practiced communal prayer for enemies and views on torture. Might be telling. You know, it is too easy to be literal in our reading of scripture texts we can use to critique others; the hardest texts to take literally are the ones that pinch our own bias and perspectives.
Anon, and peace,
Chris
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