New Poll Shows Religious Right and Left Look Very Different
Those on the religious right and left not only diverge wildly on everything from abortion to torture, but in their composition and distribution as well.
Conservative Gary Bauer’s recent attempt to justify American torture of prisoners using Just War Theory is found wanting.
President Carter on Religion: Stop Harming Women and Girls
In a recent Op-Ed, Elders member Jimmy Carter noted that religion is used to excuse slavery, forced prostitution, genital mutilation, and more.
Disco-Reggae at Abu Ghraib: Music, the Bible and Torture
What does it mean when a country that likes to proclaim itself a defender of freedom plays a song about liberation to people it is torturing?
St. Paul the Pacifist: A Christian Response to Torture
In light of a recent finding that evangelical Christians are more likely, statistically, to support the use of torture, a scholar proposes an approach to nonviolence based on the teaching of Christianity’s first theologian.
Withholding them at this point further fuels the idea that we have done something so horrible that it cannot be seen. This notion is a powerful recruiting tool for terrorists.
Are Christians Theologically Prepared to Accept Torture?
The results of a new Pew survey indicate that going to church increases the likelihood that people will support torture, especially if they are white evangelical Protestants. This is not good news.
Evangelical Church of Torture and Jack Bauer
A recent poll showed that white evangelicals are the religious group most likely to support torture. How can that be?
RD blogger Hussein Rashid, disturbed by the silence of the American Muslim community on torture, drafted this statement. Who will sign?
Talmud v. Torture: The Jewish Case Against “Enhanced Interrogation”
During the Bush Administration, Rabbi Melissa Weintraub wrote a definitive condemnation of torture according to Talmudic teaching and Jewish collective memory. With the release of the CIA “torture memos,” these essays are worth revisiting. And, as Israel celebrates the 61st anniversary of its independence how does the Jewish nation itself stack up to these ideals?
Is Torture Utilitarian?
As politicians argue, and our pragmatist-in-chief tries to find an angle, we can agree that not all moral dilemmas can be reduced to a cost-benefit analysis of pleasure and pain. There are some kinds of pain a morally serious person ought never to inflict.
If American Muslims do not oppose torture and participate in the conversation on American morality, they become a special interest group with little relevance. But within Islam there is a strong religious case to be made against torture.
RDPulpit: Torture Needs You
Relieved that Guantanamo Bay is closing? Don’t rest easy. Until we accept our collective responsibility for torture, and the fact that it requires not just the torturer's denial, but ours, it will prevail.
RDBook: Darwin and Slavery
Darwin’s abhorrence for slavery, and his determination to counter the wrongs being done in the name of science, was a spur to his research on evolution. He was committed to proving that humanity had a common ancestor.
A pair of desperate Republicans attempt to smear their opponents with suspect claims about their religious commitments. Responses were swift and harsh.
RD News Round-Up—September 22, 2008
Evangelicals on torture; BornAliveTruth.org targets Obama; Focus on the Family and gays; the Evangelical Youth Vote; Regnery's Islamophobia; the Religious Left
RDPulpit: Religious Bloggers Campaign to Stop Torture
Religious bloggers push the media to go beyond “soundbite theology” to challenging questions about torture and America.