Please Forward this link to White Evangelicals you know
The good people of Associated Baptist Press released a disturbing story today …
600 Southern white evangelicals were recently polled on their views of torture. White Southern Evangelicals are more likely than the general populace to believe torture is sometimes or often justified. The article explains …
A new survey suggests the very Americans who claim to follow the Bible most assiduously don’t consult it when forming their views about torture and government policy.
On a more encouraging note …
On a more encouraging note …
…their views seemed to change when asked to consider torture policy in light of the Golden Rule. When respondents were asked if the United States should “never use methods against our enemies that we would not want used on American soldiers,” more than half agreed.
The article quoted Tyler Wigg Stevenson …
“This is a spiritual crisis, I suggest, that should alarm all Christian leaders regardless of what we think about torture,” said Tyler Wigg Stevenson, a Baptist minister and human-rights activist from Nashville, Tenn., at a press conference announcing the survey’s results. “This bad news for the church is a plus for any special interest who wants to take advantage of us.”
However, he added, “The good news this poll reminds us of is that, as with any issue when Christians remember that our calling is to follow Jesus, he changes everything.”
David Gushee commented …
“My message to [Illinois] Sen. Barack Obama … is that you have an opportunity to make torture a moral and, in fact a religious issue—a values issue,” said Gushee, who teaches Christian ethics. “This is in your interest, because you are trying to communicate to religious Americans—and especially to evangelicals.”
But he warned Obama not to soft-pedal the torture issue in his campaign speeches for fear of alienating middle-of-the-road voters. “I say: Say more about the issue of torture and not less,” Gushee said. “Don’t run away from the issue.”
Gushee noted that two-thirds of poll participants who support McCain support torture. He advised McCain …
For McCain, the veteran Arizona senator who endured years of torture while he was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, Gushee had different advice. “I say to Sen. McCain: Make the tie between your personal narrative and your policy stance on human rights perfectly clear,” he said.
Gushee noted that two-thirds of those in the poll who said they were supporting McCain also support torture. According to the ABP article,
Gushee said he was disappointed with McCain’s actions on specific legislation earlier this year that seemed to indicate he was backtracking on his previous anti-torture stance. Gushee said one vote in particular was “grievously disappointing to all who follow … this battle for our national soul.”
Gushee’s advice to McCain:
“Tell your own voters why they are wrong on this issue, and why you are committed to the positions that you have articulated since 2002-2003 on the issue of torture.”
I hope that white Southern Evangelicals will have some thoughtful dialogue on what this poll tells us.