Obvious

From An unchristian response to torture, by William Pitts, Jr.

You’d think people who claim connection to a higher morality would be the ones most likely to take the lonely, principled stand against torture, writes Leonard Pitts Jr. But you need only look at history to see how frequently Christians acquiesce to expediency and fail to look beyond the immediate.

Between 1933 and 1945, as a series of restrictive laws, brutal pogroms and mass deportations culminated in the slaughter of 6 million Jews, the Christian church, with isolated exceptions, watched in silence.

Between 1955 and 1968, as the forces of oppression used terrorist bombings, police violence and kangaroo courts to deny African Americans their freedom, the Christian church, with isolated exceptions, watched in silence.

Beginning in 1980, as a mysterious and deadly new disease called AIDS began to rage through the homosexual community like an unchecked fire, the Christian church, with isolated exceptions, watched in silence.

So who can be surprised by the new Pew report?

Specifically, it’s from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, and it surveys Americans’ attitudes on the torture of suspected terrorists. Pew found that 49 percent of the nation believes torture is at least sometimes justifiable. Slice that number by religious affiliation, though, and things get interesting. It turns out the religiously unaffiliated are the “least” likely (40 percent) to support torture, but that the more you attend church, the more likely you are to condone it. Among racial/religious groups, white evangelical Protestants were far and away the most likely (62 percent) to support inflicting pain as a tool of interrogation.

I think it’s obvious why Christians support torture. Fundamentalist Christians are more likely to vote Republican, and during the George W. Bush years, W. argued for having unchecked power to fight terror (and torture falls under that). Also, Christians are by definition followers–they’re less likely to be critical thinkers on any and all issues. They vote with the pack*. If the pack of sheep they happen to reside in seems to prefer torture, they’ll blindly support it without question.

*This behavior, obviously, is not unique to Christians. Humans in crowds will riot when others riot, for instance.