Do Evangelicals Approve of Torture?

Published Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 in Culture & Society

Prominent scholars, leaders from the faith community, former military officers and a victim of torture will gather to speak at a sold-out National Summit on Torture at Mercer University’s Atlanta campus Thursday and Friday.

Titled “Religious Faith, Torture, and Our National Soul, Dr. David P. Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer, organized the conference.

Gushee, who also serves as president of Evangelicals for Human Rights, a conference co-sponsor, said the program is designed to “go to the source of the problem, to diagnose how we got here, and to chart a way forward to a better American future.”

Among the conference highlights are results from a new poll commissioned by Mercer University and Faith in Public Life and conducted by Public Religion Research.

Among the findings are evidence that white evangelical Christians in the South are significantly more likely to oppose torture if they rely on Christian teachings or beliefs to form their views and that a majority agree with the Golden Rule argument against torture — that the U.S. government should not use methods against our enemies that we would not want used on American soldiers.

What’s your stance on torture? Is it OK to torture terrorists who are withholding information about plots against the U.S.? Is waterboarding torture?