All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Read all 'justified' posts in Political Hotsheet

May 4, 2009 12:35 PM

Churchgoers More Likely To See Torture As Justifiable

(PEW)
A Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey released last week found that those who attend weekly church services are more likely than those who rarely or never attend services to say the use of torture on suspected terrorists is justifiable.

Here's the analysis from Pew's Forum on Religion & Public Life. The poll found that fifty-four percent of those who attend weekly services say the use of torture on terror suspects in order to gain important information can "often" or "sometimes" be justified. That's twelve percent higher than the 42 percent of those who seldom or never attend such services who say the same.

It's important to note that the percentage who says the use of torture can never be justified is roughly the same in both groups, about one in four. See the graphic above.

The poll also suggests that those who are religious are more likely to say the use of torture can be justified than those who are not religious. While roughly one in two Americans say the use of torture can "often" or "sometimes" be justified, a smaller percentage of those who are unaffiliated – 40 percent – say the same. Unaffiliated, for Pew's purposes, are those who call themselves atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.

Read full post…

Tags:
torture ,
poll ,
justified ,
pew
Topics:
Polling

About Political Hotsheet

Stay up to the minute on the latest news and developments from Washington, from the White House to Congress and everything in-between with the best political reporters from CBS News and CBSNews.com.

E-Mail Political Hotsheet
Follow On Twitter

Add to your favorite news reader
google
yahoo
msn
  • MOST POPULAR
HOTSHEET ON TWITTER