Release of poll on Southern Evangelicals’ attitudes toward torture
Poll memo available here
(ATLANTA) — Results of a new poll on Southern Evangelicals’ attitudes toward torture were released at a press conference on September 11, at 10:45 am. The press conference was held at Mercer University’s Atlanta campus during the opening day of A National Summit on Torture, and streamed live over the Internet.
Sponsored by Mercer University and Faith in Public Life and conducted by Public Religion Research, the poll is the first major survey of Southern Evangelicals on the issue of torture.
Among the key findings:
• While a majority of white evangelical Christians in the South think that torture is often or sometimes justified, they are significantly more likely to oppose torture if they rely on Christian teachings or beliefs to form their views on the issue.
• A majority of white evangelical Christians in the South agree with the Golden Rule argument against torture—that the U.S. government should not use methods against our enemies that we would not want used on American soldiers.
Read the poll memo here. The results of the survey are based on telephone interviews with 600 white evangelical Christians in the South conducted under the direction of Opinion Access Corp. August 14-22.
WHEN: Thursday, September 11, at 10:45 am
WHO: Dr. David P. Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, Mercer University and President, Evangelicals for Human Rights
Tyler Wigg Stevenson, Director, Two Futures Project, a nuclear disarmament initiative centered around
young evangelicals
Dr. Robert Jones, President, Public Religion Research
Moderated by: Katie Paris, Director of Communications Strategy, Faith in Public Life
WHERE: LIVE STREAM: The press conference was streamed live over the Internet and the video is available at http://events.thefaithlab.com/index2.html.
# # #