themattscott

A lot has been said, at least in the circle I run in, about the Pew Forum study on the approval of torture. Most of what I have read is a condemnation of Evangelicals for their apparent lack of moral standing on the issue. Beyond that first topic I’ve also read calls from evangelicals to their brethren to “repent” and I’ve heard (I don’t know if it’s true or not) that a prominent SBC leader has flat out said that torture is never justifiable, and that those who think it is need to rethink their position. All of these have been great conversation starters, and hopefully have begun making some waves within Evangelical Circles. 

In my opinion, this puts one more nail in the coffin of Evangelical Moral Superiority. For decades the religious right has viewed itself as the moral compass of the nation, going as far as calling itself “The Moral Majority.” The failure in that thinking is staring at us in this study.

I should take a moment here and say that the researchers did not define torture, they simply asked the participants if they felt torture was acceptable (often, sometimes, rarely, or never). The participants were left on their own to define torture, so there isn’t any wiggle room in saying “Oh, well we have different definitions of torture.”

Here’s a quote from the study.

It shows that currently, more than six-in-ten white evangelical Protestants (62%) say that the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can be often or sometimes justified. This is significantly higher than the number of white mainline Protestants (46%) and religiously unaffiliated (40%) who say torture can be often or sometimes justified.

Growing up I was taught to view mainline protestants as “Liberal” and thus “Bad” and less “Moral,” but in the face of this study, we see that mainline protestants have over a 15 pt gab in justifying torture. What should be more striking, those who are religiously unaffiliated are 22% less likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified.

Take a second to process that.

Those who don’t affiliate with a religion hold the moral ground on this issue.

Remember when you were being taught about Atheism in Sunday School? Remember your teacher telling you that apart from God we have no hope for morality? Remember how evolution (which I will affiliate here with the religiously unaffiliated) was supposed to lead to an endpoint in which we were no longer subject to morality? Those viewpoints stand in stark contrast to the evidence here. It seems that, in this case, the religious heart is far more blackened then the irreligious one.

Perhaps a new thought pattern needs to emerge within the Sunday School teachings of the evangelical church? Perhaps an aknowledgement that no one group can lay claim to the highest moral standards. Perhaps an understanding that none are perfect, and that all should strive toward greater understanding and learning from the other?

Anyways, those are my (scattered) thoughts, what say you on the topic?

This entry was posted Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 10:27 am and is filed under church, failure, religion, social justice. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.