A new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows a strong direct correlation between American’s support for the torture of detainees and the number of church services they regularly attend.
54 percent of people who attended services at least once a week indicated that they believed the use of torture was “often” or “sometimes” justified. In contrast, among those who “seldom or never”attend church services, only 42 percent agreed. Over 60 percent of white, evangelical Protestants responded that torture was “often” or “sometimes” justified, a higher rate of approval than any other religious group. Those lacking any religious affiliation were least likely to agree on the necessity of torture, at an approval rate of only 40 percent.
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Thankfully, some religious groups seem to retain their sanity: so-called “mainline”, non-evangelical Protestants (Lutherans, Episcopalians, etc.) where the most likely to say that torture was “never” justified.
The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations — such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians — categorized as “mainline” Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.