Evangelical Christians support torture. Unbelievable.

This report on CNN really got to me. It makes no sense. Torture is not exactly the Christian thing to do. My own religious beliefs are extremely personal but a I am well versed in Christian tradition... I do know that the story is Jesus includes torture.

JESUS WAS TORTURED.

How can any Christian possibly think torture is okay? How many Christians were tortured throughout the centuries.

What is most telling is that Evangelical Christians were most likely to support torture while the religiously unaffiliated were the least likely to support torture. This tells me more about Evangelical Christian religious thought (different from "evangelical") and their political goals than their understanding of Jesus' teachings.

According to a 2003 survey taken before the Iraq War by beliefnet and the Ethics and Public Policy Center, 81% of Evangelical Christians believed it was "very important" to evangelize Muslims in other countries, 83% believed it was "very important" to evangelize Muslims in the United States.

While 76% believe Islam opposes religious freedom and 73% believe stopping religious persecution should be a top priority of American foreign policy, only 52% believed Muslims should be welcomed in America, 54% believed there should be a dialogue with Muslims, 17% believed Muslims prayed to the same God and whopping 2% believed the other religions in the world are equally true and good.

Which faith opposes religious freedom?

And while only 45% believe the current conflict is between the United States and Islam only 9% believe there could be peace with Islamic nations if conditions of poverty were eliminated.

It's not hard to see how Evangelical Christians came to this world view. Their leaders teach it. Franklin Graham, whose charity, Samaritan's Purse, has done wonderful work, is one of the leaders in the anti-Islamic movement. He has said, "We are in a Third World War... It is a global fight against Islamic fundamentalism." (Franklin Graham, Oct 17, 2004)

A November 16, 2001 article in MSNBC discusses comments made by Franklin Graham, Chairman and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse:

“But now Franklin is in trouble with political friends for comments made recently, calling the entire Islamic religion ‘wicked, violent and not of the same God’. “I don’t believe this is a wonderful, peaceful religion’, said Graham. Asked by NBC News to clarify his statement, Graham repeated his charge that Islam, as a whole, is evil.”

Is it any wonder then, that the majority of Evangelical Christian's believe torture is justified? If the question asked were, "An Evangelical Christian knows of a terror attack imminent in the United States, would torture be justified in gaining information?" would the answer be different.

The new survey by the Pew Research Center shows that "mainline" Protestant groups - such as Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans and Presbyterians - are the religious groups least likely to support torture. They are also the religious groups most involved in social justice, ending poverty, promoting social principles that are thoughtful and prayerful.

The Pew survey really speaks more to the xenophobia, racism and religious intolerance of this countries most vocal religious group than to the honest beliefs of American Christians. It once again puts Evangelical Christians on the wrong side of almost every social/political issue we face today. While they can quote chapter and verse, it exposes them as woefully ignorant of the true nature of Christ's teachings.

Torture is wrong.

Period.

Christians should know this.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

The Washington Region Religious Campaign Against Torture rallied on Capitol Hill in March 2008.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small. See results of the survey »

The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The survey asked: "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?"

Roughly half of all respondents -- 49 percent -- said it is often or sometimes justified. A quarter said it never is.

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Methodists, 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.