Churchgoers: More likely to support torture?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/

You can't conclude much from that. You have to control for other things correlated with church-going and views on torture. Especially since I expect church-goers to be more likely to vote Republican.

scary

but in the states i believe "going to church" covers very different people.
I'm not sure ordinary (normal? sane?) believers will support torture much more than non-believers. The statistics are twisted by the fanatic christian fundamentalists.
Or so i hope.

well i should have read the article before posting!
That's what they say, especially the last paragraph is interesting!

church going IS torture

Originally posted by divegeester
church going IS torture

only the sermons, with them bible wavers

Originally posted by rbmorris
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/

Did the article say anything about whether chopping a baby up in its mother's womb is torture ?

Originally posted by rbmorris
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/

Take it to the white house press room, they are looking for more weak excuses for guantanamo bay

Originally posted by shorbock
scary

but in the states i believe "going to church" covers very different people.
I'm not sure ordinary (normal? sane?) believers will support torture much more than non-believers. The statistics are twisted by the fanatic christian fundamentalists.
Or so i hope.

a true fundamentalist would know that Jesus taught followers to "love their enemies - do good to those who hate you"

but the problem is that many Christians have replaced Christ and the Bible with the Idols of Conservativa & Republica and the rantings of their talk-show "prophets" -- (not to be confused with the Idols of Liberalia & Democrata)

Originally posted by Melanerpes
a true fundamentalist would know that Jesus taught followers to "love their enemies - do good to those who hate you"

but the problem is that many Christians have replaced Christ and the Bible with the Idols of Conservativa & Republica and the rantings of their talk-show "prophets" -- (not to be confused with the Idols of Liberalia & Democrata)

one need not be a fundamentalist to know what Christ taught about loving others. You will find that most of the "main line" denominations heartily dissaprove of any torture whatsoever.

Originally posted by rbmorris
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/

I suppose that depends on your idea of what torture is. Is torture trying to extract information out of someone when innocent lives are a stake or is it random pain inflicted at a whim? My guess is that church goers are more in favor of capital punishment than nonchurch goers. I have no statistics to back me up, but that would be my guess. You see it is based upon the idea that if one is a murderer or will particiapate as a murderer based upon what they know or do, they automatically give up certain rights to life, liberty and happiness.

Originally posted by rbmorris
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/

You might want to read the article again. In fact, the Protestant churchgoers look just as against, if not more against torture than the non-churchgoers.

Over 30% of the Protestants said torture is never justified while just over 40% of non-churchgoers said it is allowable seldomly.


It was the Evangelicals that (inexplicably) skewed the survey with over 60% supporting torture at least on some level.


Anyway the point is, it has a lot less to do with "going to church" than it does what your core beliefs are.

And then of course there is political leanings and the definition of torture to muck everything up anyway.

It is my opinion that the issue of equal importance is the devisive nature of the people who concocted this survey; obviously to use as cannon fodder verses Christians. I say that because as the article admits, the survey didnt target a single non-Christian churchgoer of any kind.

Kind of obvious what their agenda was in putting this survey together but I'm pleasantly surprised to see that the Liberals who think terrorists should be negotiated with over a hot meal and a warm cup of tea--if not set free altogether--didn't manage to skew the non-churchgoer answers enough to show them less likely to support torture than the churchgoing Protestants. That's interesting!

Originally posted by jaywill
Did the article say anything about whether chopping a baby up in its mother's womb is torture ?

Nice bit of bubble-gum-like 'politics'. Torture is the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty. What revenge or confession is being extracted from a foetus in an abortion procedure? So your wordplay falls flat. And we're left with nothing but a nasty, shrill, vacuous little post. I appreciate that you probably feel strongly about the issue, but this means surely the onus is on you to not just blurt out non-sequiturs, but to make your case properly.

Originally posted by FMF
Nice bit of bubble-gum-like 'politics'. Torture is the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty. What revenge or confession is being extracted from a foetus in an abortion procedure? So your wordplay falls flat. And we're left with nothing but a nasty, shrill, va ...[text shortened]... urely the onus is on you to not just blurt out non-sequiturs, but to make your case properly.

wrecked and rec'd