Let’s talk about religion.
Let’s also talk about mass murderers.
They’re topics with no obvious commonalities. And yet, there’s a connection here, although there shouldn’t be.
I was raised a Methodist, which in the ice cream store of religions is basically the equivalent of vanilla.
Mainstream. Safe. Unadorned and nonthreatening. Vanilla blends well with just about anything — and ideally, so do Methodists.
It’s a peaceful religion. Theoretically, they all are. People who observe the tenets of any actual faith are invariably reminded to be unfailingly kind to their fellow man.
But sometimes, those tenets get twisted.
Ted Bundy, a sadistic psychopath who confessed to murdering 30 women, was raised a Methodist.
John Wayne Gacy, the “Killer Clown” who murdered at least 33 boys and men in his home, was raised a Roman Catholic.
Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered at least 17 boys and young men in particularly grisly fashion, came from a family deeply involved in the Church of Christ.
David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer who murdered six people, calls himself a born-again Christian and is now a member of Jews for Jesus.
The members of the Islamic State group would have you believe they’re on some sort of Islamic religious mission as they blow things up and lop people’s heads off.
And there’s a commonality in all of these horrific cases: They have nothing to do with the beliefs of their associated religions.
They’re all violent perversions of those religions.
Bundy isn’t representative of Methodists and Gacy isn’t representative of Catholics any more than the lunatics in the Islamic State group are representative of Muslims.
These crimes against humanity didn’t happen because of religion. They happened in spite of it.
It can be awfully easy to blame atrocities on religion, particularly when it’s one you don’t understand. That’s often the case with Islam, which is presented as synonymous with the Islamic State group in certain segments of the American media.
But that’s fallacious logic — unless, of course, you’re also going to blame the Church of Christ for Jeffrey Dahmer, or Jews for Jesus for David Berkowitz.
None of those religions advocate killing people. There’s not a legitimate religion that does.
That isn’t a uniquely religious concept, of course. Atheists and agnostics are ideally just as accepting of their fellow man, and just as disinclined to murder him.
Respecting others knows no religious boundaries. Religions around the world are very different, but the legitimate ones have this commonality: They advocate for followers to do good things — for themselves, and for others.
That holds true if you’re Methodist or Muslim, Catholic or Buddhist, Jewish or Baptist. Religion is intended to be a foundation for positive interaction.
All of these madmen lacked that foundation, even though they all had religion as a backdrop in their twisted lives. Sometimes, it gets used as a rationale instead of an inspiration.
But religion isn’t to blame for what Bundy or Berkowitz did, what Gacy or Dahmer did, what the Islamic State group is doing.
That’s not religion — that’s a sickness. It also comes in a variety of flavors.