So, according to a new study out from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life regular churchgoers are more likely to support torture than Hell bound evil sinners. Well this doesn’t seem very Christian. Torture is what they did to Jesus on the cross, right? The study found that around 54 percent of regular church going folks feel that torture is “often” and “sometimes” justifiable. Where as the sinners who rarely or never attend church services lingered around 42 percent, 12 points lower.

Now I am an evil amoral atheist, I apparently have no morality, according to most religious folks who claim ownership over morals. I’m not sure that they are walkin’ the talk right now. This whole torture thing has been a major stain on the United States, from waterboarding to naked prisoner cheerleader pyramid stacking. And it is supported by the conservative right which draws much of its power from the good ol’ torture supportin’ church folks.

Remember when we used to kick the doors down, shoot all the Nazis, give the kids a pack of cigarettes and moved on to the next town? Whatever happened to the good US? Where has our higher sense of morality gone? When did evil doers (to steal from the conservative right’s own lexicon) take over our government (2000)? We enjoyed the high ground, morally speaking, from roughly the Revolutionary War until Iraq. But the self-proclaimed guardians of morality elected in their people and now we are catching the backside sting of amoral leadership.

The conservative right practically burned the rule book and has made committing amoral acts a calling card of the previous administration. As an atheist, I get very tired of being told I have no morality (or a criminal record, or a hypocritical lifestyle) when some of the most blatant hate and bloodlust comes from the ‘good church going folks’.