I was intrigued with the finding in the Pew poll that those Americans who did NOT go to church were the most opposed to torture.  Over 60 percent of white evangelical Protestants supported torture, the highest percent of ll groups reported, and those unaffiliated with any religious organization were least willing to back it.  Under 40% did so.  Why?

Any poll asking a major moral and ethical question with few categories into which people may place themselves includes a diverse set of people under every category, but the findings for non-church goers were quite strong. Why did the non church goers do so well?

I think my discussions of Quakers, ‘Biblical’ Christians, and slavery provides a hint.  

Here’s another hint that made a great impression on me at the time.  Still does.  A few years ago I was in Salt Lake City to receive recognition for some work I had done in the social sciences.  While there, I attended a session on philanthropy where the major speaker was a prominent Evangelical philanthropist.  He explained that he regarded himself as God’s steward, for his wealth was really God’s.  If he thought it was truly his, he said, he would not be so generous with it.

I was struck with his stated reason for generosity: not openness of heart, but underling to the Big Guy who would regard him severely if he did not act as instructed.

Conservatives and empathy.

Quakers. religion-by-the-bookers  and slavery.

Evangelical generosity by command.

Atheists and torture.

Certainly a diverse group, but with something that links them together.

Those who regard their morality as coming from following commandments handed down from above, external to them, have little openness of heart or genuine moral sensitivity by comparison.  They follow orders and presumably feel good for doing so.

Those who listen to their conscience because they have no orders, recognize no commandments, or open themselves to what the quiet voice of Spirit tells them, have demonstrably better  results.  Not in every case, but in enough that the pattern seems pretty robust.  And the cases are important.

If the Sacred is immanent in the world, as we Pagans among others argue, I think this is what we would expect.  Learn to look clearly within yourself, beneath the fear and anger and greed, and you find something very powerful and very good.

It was there all the time.