You might think that after all those tens of millions of Evangelical Christians watched The Last Temptation of Christ, they perhaps developed at least a mild disdain for governments that hire soldiers to inflict violent brutality upon their prisoners.

Guess not.

A new national survey just released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reveals that it is precisely those folks who ate up Mel Gibson's blockbuster -- church-going Evangelical Christians -- who are far more likely to support the use of torture than non-religious Americans. And of several groups representing various religious orientations, it is secular Americans that are actually the group most opposed to the use of torture.

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Debbie

I don't recall there being anything in the Bible forbidding torture. There's only one specific incidence of torture that comes to mind - the torture of Job - and God was A-OK with that. There's also hell, of course. God is A-OK with that as well. Mostly though, the Bible just encourages the efficient and indiscriminate slaughter of the masses.

I think Christians pretty much have to accept that torture is justified when applied to non-Christians, since they find the hell doctrine acceptable due to the fact that the torture is happening to people who supposedly deserve it.