You have got to be kidding!…

But I think under the circumstances the intelligence community was in, they should be forgiven for this. What, after all, are you supposed to do when potentially thousands of lives are at stake, and you need to get information that might save those lives? That should be the question of the day right now, not whether we should prosecute our own people for trying to protect us.

And another thing is also bothersome…how is “torture” defined in the Pew survey? I have a hard time believing that all these churchgoers are really a bunch of sadists in favor of torturing people. What they are is probably confused and angry. They feel, like I do, that we have the right to protect ourselves, and to question people who want to take us down.

Are no harsh methods allowed at all against people who want to kill us? Should we just grovel at the feet of the world and say, “We are so horrible! We are so evil! Do whatever you want to us because we deserve it!” We’re talking about folks who think nothing of cutting someone’s head off and putting it on video…are we really worse than they are? I don’t think so.

It has always struck me as peculiar that this could be preached in church for… well, for more than a thousand years, without it ever apparently having made the slightest impact.

Where is the Antichrist? In the front pew. Pillar of church and community. And how else could it be, eh? Take that in a literal or allegorical sense as you please; the principle is absolutely identical.

Anyway, I have my own name for them. Chromefishtians.

What an idiotic thing to stay? This survey was most likely put together by someone who fights against common stereotypes and the injustice behind them, but will turn the other way to stereotypes of the common majority. I am a strong evangelical Christian. I am against waterboarding. Most of my friend at church are also against it. I have friends who do not go to church and approve of it.
So what does that conclude? I realize that the survey shows that people who go to church are more “likely” to approve of it. But why weren’t other groups surveyed? Why? Because the author wouldn’t want to write about “People Who Live in America Approve of Torture?”.
Good job of raising hatred against Christians.

Where else in the world can you be waterboarded an average of 6 times per day?

How about China? I have seen photos of captured Christians who were burned, beaten, and tortured in other ways by Chinese officials…simply for being Christians. And, this was 4 or 5 years ago. These weren’t suspected terrorists. These were ordinary men and women who were charged with being a member of an illegal religious group. The fact that we support this communist regime by buying cheap stuff from them is horrific indeed.

I agree that there is no justification whatsoever for these barbaric incidents, but to claim that US treatment of prisoners is worse than it is anywhere else in the world is absurd. That kind of thing really does detract from the main message of this piece, which is right on the money.

If you answered that poll with anything other than “seldom or never”, you are not a Christian. If you claim to be a Christian you’re actually a Satanist. Your beliefs are heretical and condemned by every early Christian leader (you might be able to find a few Satanic Popes that support your views). Following this type of heresy is considerably worse than mere nonbelief. You are literally on the road to Hell.

I challenge anyone here to come up with a single significant Christian leader than endorsed torture. Pat Robertson and various Popes don’t count. I’m talking about one of the Apostles or someone like Saint Augustine.

HinduVeg: Adolph Hitler was a vegetarian. The Thugee were/are vegetarians. The Hindu caste system, run by vegetarians, was incredibly brutal and resulted in de-facto slavery for large segments of the population. To this day, Hindu religious leaders try to violently supress other religions in India. I presume these modern Hindu terrorists are vegetarian.

Sorry HinduVeg, Indians aren’t any less violent than anyone else.

Jeff: Please present ANY statement by Christ or the Apostles in support of torture. Old Testament references to punishments in the Law are not applicable. St. Paul specifcally states that the Law is not relavent to gentile Christians (this is repeatedly reinforced by early Christian leaders).

Explain why your exegesis should be taken more seriously than that of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Lutherans, Calvinists, and all other large Christian organizations, who all agree with me?

Those complaining that the statistical difference is non-significant between the church goers and the non-religious on the issue of torture have proved noting of the kind. The 12 percent difference between the two groups means very little in the absence of knowledge about the size of the sample, its representativeness of the general population and the “p” value (that is, the probability that the difference is due to chance). The Pew Forum has a good reputation for providing reliable and valid statistics and for the academic integrity of publishing the results regardless of whether they are favorable for Christian groups.

The level of probability is not quoted in this article. It is mentioned, however, that agreement with torture varies positively with the degree of religiosity as measured by such things as church attendance. This makes the finding much more than unlikely to be unconnected to religious (and specifically American Christian) belief.

Those who argue that those who believe in torture are “not real Christians” has to explain why the more a person attends church the less of a “real Christian” they become and, conversely, why a person becomes more of a “real Christian” the less they attend church or even profess to hold any religious belief at all.

Even Regan, Regan for god sake signed the convention on torture.

If you believe in god and an after live, and you thing the almighty is going to give you a pass because your boss told you to do it, you are sadly mistaken

You make an illogical argument if you say you are a good person just because you are a Christian.

Isn’t there a Christian moral: Do unto others as you would have done unto you? Not considering religions too logicai..this statement has a certain logic to it.

We need to call people on their s h i t. This is the backlash the republicans are learning now. Some are still not “Getting it”.

People are JUST starting to see through the B S. (to me, that it’s taking so long, is scarier than the torture issue itself)

We need to start calling people on their hypocracy and B S. NOW1

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” ~Benjamin Franklin

The only reason you think you are the good guys is because Hollywood portrays you in a good light, go anywhere outside the western world, where America has no allies, you will see your government is the bad guy, even at your doorstep, you are the bad guys, mexico dislikes you, and so does everyone in south america, how can you shit on your own dorstep, (oh they are nice to you when you go on holiday is cos they like your money..)

Is it the OK to rob a bank because your neighbour does it? Is it OK to rob a bank because some other bloke on the other side of the town does it?

What defines the good guys is that they follow the rules, no mater what. And the rules are quite clearly stated in documents that almost every western country has signed, including the US.

http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/genevaconventions

Fake Christians aren’t Christians!

Fake Conservatives aren’t Conservatives!

You can go ahead and attack the FAKES all you want, just don’t assume that you’re actually attacking CHRISTIANS and CONSERVATIVES, cause you’re not.

Example: RON PAUL IS “TRUE” — and you’ve got NOTHING — NOTHING — on him, because he is NOT fake, he is REAL.