i've heard people say that going to church is like torture, but this is ridiculous

this is one of the most heartbreaking and infuriating things i can imagine reading. i mean look, i understand people facetiously talking about going to church as torture, or when kids say things like church bores them to death. maybe that's what i'm missing here: that so many people view their own churches as torture that torturing others can't seem to be that bad, because it's like going to church.

ok - not sure if that level of sarcasm is quite right here, because this is disturbing stuff, but it seems so preposterous that the most avid church goers would be the biggest group of people supporting torture. to be fair, the survey does show a significant disparity between white evangelical church goers (the biggest torture supporters) and primarily white mainline churches (least likely overall to support torture). perhaps this signals the opportunity to have a broader discussion, and i don't want to demonize or even make assumptions about groups with differing opinions, as i have stereotype-shattering friends across the spectrum on this.

but really, what does this kind of survey do for peoples' perceptions of people of christian faith? particularly after this other story on the shifting religious paths of americans. in some ways, spectacular stories like this don't seem to drive people away from deeply held beliefs, but i do wonder how they affect those looking at it from a vantage point that isn't insider-y? we have friends of myriad backgrounds that don't want their kids going to a church-run pre-school because they are concerned about the kind of indoctrination that their kids might receive. other friends were skeptical about an organization like invisible children because of their christian foundations, and were relieved when they found that ic really was about serving the people and not just doing a bait and switch to proselytize.

i'm rambling at this point, but here's the thing. torture is what happened to jesus, and now a large % of jesus' followers advocate torture. that is messed up.