WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- Religion plays a role in how Americans view the use of torture against suspected terrorists, a new poll by the Washington-based Pew Research Center indicates.
The center's Forum on Religion & Public Life conducted a small survey of 742 adults in April and found 25 percent were opposed to torture under any circumstances, Pew reported Friday.
Researchers then broke down the respondents into four major religious groups -- white evangelical Protestants, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and unaffiliated.
Of those four groups, 31 percent of mainline Protestants said torture could never be justified compared to 16 percent for evangelical Protestants, 10 percent for non-Hispanic Catholics and 26 percent for unaffiliated.
At the other end of the spectrum, 44 percent of evangelical Protestants said torture can sometimes be justified compared to 32 percent for non-Hispanic Catholics, 31 percent for mainline Protestants and 25 percent for unaffiliated.
The survey was conducted April 14-21.
Pew says the survey excluded other religious affiliations because of the small sample size.
