8 commentsTorture and evangelicals
Digging back a bit, a Pew study released in September showed that “nearly six in 10 white Southern evangelicals believe torture is justified”, compared to “48 percent of the general public think torture can be justified”.
I can’t say I’m shocked anymore about this, but it should be shocking. Christians should be leading the charge against torture, but they haven’t, and they’ve supported politicians who have tortured in our name. A platform focused on issues of poverty and torture seems so much more relevant to the teachings of Jesus than spending all this time and money obsessing over what gays are doing or abortion. It’s not that I think those are illegitimate issues, I just think the focus is entirely in the wrong place.
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oooh… controversial post… though I must say I agree. Really, if you’re a Christian, how can you be for torture or against gay rights? If there were a right-winger here, I’d expect rhetoric with lots of “but it’s really about family values”… or “it’s really about ending terrorism”… and a lot of moral, philosophical gobbledy gook. But I couldn’t imagine Jesus saying to a person: “sometimes torture is a necessary evil to get the info”, nor could I imagine Jesus saying, “we should treat those people like second-class citizens because we don’t understand them”.
Basically, Jesus spent the entire New Testament helping the “second class” citizens, the outcasts of society. In my opinion, this is directly synonymous with helping gays, Muslims, and other people in society who aren’t getting equal treatment and are looked down upon. And Jesus was tortured to death… I think if anything were hypocritical it would be to support torture and claim to be a Christian. Still, it’s not as though most “Christians” truly stand for what Jesus stands for. If they did, we’d have a society more based on love than greed.
Let’s take Sarah Palin (again)… in the VP debate, she basically conceded that she was for “gay rights”. But now, on the stump, she is leading the charge for a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. I think this is the case of someone whose conscience compels her to speak one way, but whose greed in politics calls for something else. Because, to be against gay marriage, but supposedly “for gays”, is completely hypocritical. You either support equal rights, or you don’t. And as far as I know, states call marriage “marriage”, not “civil unions”, so they either call it marriage for everyone, or civil unions for everyone. And I think this is all common sense, and anyone who believes in Jesus, should be all about equal treatment— Jesus loved the crooks, the lepers, the prostitutes, the tax-offenders— and yet modern day Christians can’t love gays, who have done absolutely nothing wrong— ok, I’m done– off to work! -P
Just because you’re part of the church doesn’t mean you agree with them all of the time.
I agree completely, it makes no sense. The same is, unfortunately, true of the stance the average person who identifies as a Christian has on many social issues. But on a slightly different note, Sam Harris argues in his stridently anti-Christian book The End Of Faith (see my review here), that weapons with collateral damage are much worse than torture, and that if torturing suspected militants would produce information that allows us to avoid killing even one innocent civilian, then it is the morally right thing to do. I’m not sure I agree, but he makes a fairly compelling argument.
@Peyton- Thanks, I agree with what you wrote… actually, I think you pretty much wrote the rest of the post that I intended to write but had to go to bed.
@Brendan- I’m not sure who you’re replying to, but if it’s me, I agree but I’m not sure how it applies. My concern isn’t church doctrine, it’s about Christians (in the pews) having a higher-than-average acceptance of torture.
@Chad- Interesting argument, I hadn’t heard that before. It’s dependent, though, on the premise that torture will produce valuable intelligence. Everything I’ve read on the subject suggests that it won’t. Or, at least, that it’s less effective than other methods.
I guess my point is that I’m not really surprised by this news. My religious beliefs are only a part of my larger philosophical and political beliefs. I am a Catholic and a conservative. I hold them in somewhat equal esteem for the most part in that I “pick and choose” what I support or agree with. For example, I support gay marriage and gay rights but do not support abortion. In that example, I am both agreeing and disagreeing with the church’s teachings at the same time. I believe that most Christians similarly “pick and choose” what they support and thus, for that reason, I am not really surprised that these people are so religious while also supporting torture.
It seems to me that most modern day Christians would not get along with Jesus if they met him on the street. They all seem to be hung up on the old testament, when Jesus clearly said he was bringing a new deal. Not that I think any of it is more than fairy tales personally, but c’mon, at least keep your mythology straight!
@Brendan I see what you’re saying, but I think torture is a much bigger deal than gay marriage, but I get your point about compartmentalization.
@Ted Yeah, agreed. There are a bunch of parody political attack ads against Jesus, they’re pretty funny and accurate.
[...] I’ve already written about this phenomenon a while back.. this is nothing new. In the comments for that post, Brendan brought up a good point: people tend to compartmentalize and only apply religious doctrine and morals to certain topics. However, it seems like there are some things that are just too fundamental to be opt-out. I can’t express this better than The Onion, so I’ll just leave you with the article I’m Not One Of Those ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ Christians. [...]
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