{"id":25937,"date":"2014-12-16T18:25:12","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T23:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=25937"},"modified":"2014-12-16T18:25:12","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T23:25:12","slug":"torture-poll-demonstrates-quantifies-depravity-of-pro-life-white-evangelicalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/12\/16\/torture-poll-demonstrates-quantifies-depravity-of-pro-life-white-evangelicalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Torture poll demonstrates, quantifies depravity of ‘pro-life’ white evangelicalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Sarah Posner at Religion Dispatches \u2014 \u201cChristians More Supportive of Torture Than Non-Religious Americans<\/a>\u201d \u2014 reports on the recent polling data demonstrating the perverse vapidity of \u201cpro-life\u201d white evangelical moralism:<\/p>\n

A new Washington Post<\/em>\/ABC News poll finds that Americans, by a 59-31\u00a0percent\u00a0margin, believe that CIA \u201ctreatment of suspected terrorists\u201d in detention was justified.<\/p>\n

A plurality deemed that \u201ctreatment\u201d to be \u201ctorture,\u201d by a 49-38\u00a0percent\u00a0margin.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, the gap between torture supporters and opponents widens between voters who are Christian and those who are not religious. Just 39\u00a0percent\u00a0of white evangelicals believe the CIA\u2019s treatment of detainees amounted to torture, with 53\u00a0percent\u00a0of white non-evangelical Protestants and 45\u00a0percent\u00a0of white Catholics agreeing with that statement. Among the non-religious, though, 72\u00a0percent\u00a0said the treatment amounted to torture. (The poll did not break down non-Christian religions in the results.)<\/p>\n

Sixty nine percent of white evangelicals believe the CIA treatment was justified, compared to just 20\u00a0percent\u00a0who said it was not. (Those numbers, incidentally, roughly mirror the breakdown of Republican versus Democratic voters among white evangelicals.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What is the one common trait uniting all of that 69 percent of white evangelicals applauding\u00a0CIA torture? They\u2019re \u201cpro-life,\u201d of course.<\/p>\n

That means they have the moral high ground. It\u2019s what makes them morally superior to\u00a0everyone else.<\/p>\n

Just ask them, they\u2019ll tell you.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That 26-percent minority of white evangelicals who say torture is never\/rarely justified? Those are the folks the other 74 percent like to refer to as \u201cpost<\/em>-evangelicals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Brian Zahnd<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know of a greater indictment against American evangelicalism than the fact that a majority of its adherents actually admit they support the use of illegal torture on suspected terrorists. \u2026<\/p>\n

Evangelical support of torture is what we might call an \u201ceruption of the real.\u201d It\u2019s a horrifying moment of unintended truth-telling where we discover that allegiance to national self-interest trumps allegiance to Jesus Christ. Now with the release of the Senate\u2019s report of the C.I.A.\u2019s use of torture I\u2019m calling on American evangelicals to stop playing games and decide if they are going to be Christian or not. \u2026<\/p>\n

Apparently Christianity has become so incomprehensible in the security state of America that millions of evangelicals think they can be Christian and support torture. But they cannot.<\/p>\n

These evangelicals have reached a crisis of decision. They can choose security. They can choose to endorse torture in the name of security. But to do so is to renounce the Lordship of Jesus Christ.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obviously, Zahnd is just an unwitting apologist for the Satanic baby-killers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the one common trait uniting all of that 69 percent of white evangelicals applauding CIA torture? They’re “pro-life,” of course. That means they have the moral high ground. It’s what makes them morally superior to everyone else. Just ask them, they’ll tell you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29,47],"class_list":["post-25937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-satanic-baby-killers","tag-torture"],"yoast_head":"\nTorture poll demonstrates, quantifies depravity of 'pro-life' white evangelicalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the one common trait uniting all of that 69 percent of white evangelicals applauding CIA torture? They're "pro-life," of course. That means they have the moral high ground. It's what makes them morally superior to everyone else. Just ask them, they'll tell you.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/12\/16\/torture-poll-demonstrates-quantifies-depravity-of-pro-life-white-evangelicalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Torture poll demonstrates, quantifies depravity of 'pro-life' white evangelicalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is the one common trait uniting all of that 69 percent of white evangelicals applauding CIA torture? They're "pro-life," of course. That means they have the moral high ground. It's what makes them morally superior to everyone else. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Torture poll demonstrates, quantifies depravity of 'pro-life' white evangelicalism","description":"What is the one common trait uniting all of that 69 percent of white evangelicals applauding CIA torture? They're \"pro-life,\" of course. That means they have the moral high ground. It's what makes them morally superior to everyone else. 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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