Individual’s actions not a reflection of their religion

In my opinion Ammon Bundy is crazy. You can sympathize with him, you can agree; that really doesn’t matter much to me in the end, but I think he is crazy. However, I don’t think that religion should be considered a factor in his antics.

This is actually a pet peeve of mine. When someone grabs national headlines for doing something crazy or violent, oftentimes the first thing we find out about that person is their religion. Most of the time this happens with Muslims and when it is a Muslim grabbing headlines for their insanity the conversation spirals into a discussion about Islam. This is rarely productive.

Lately, though, other religions have been roped into this trend. Bundy is Mormon and grabbed enough attention about that fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had to publicly say it did not condone his behaviors. To me that should have been obvious, but clearly it wasn’t to some, hence the need to condemn Bundy. Robert Dear, the man who went into a Colorado Planned Parenthood facility and killed three people while injuring nine more is described as an Evangelical Christian. Does this mean that his faith determined if he would do that? No.

There are more than 14 million Mormons in the world and only a handful taking a government building hostage in Oregon. There are more than 280 million Evangelicals in the world and only one walking into the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood. There are more than 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and only two, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, attacked the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.

I do think people’s background should be investigated to better understand why this is happening. But too often people only examine religious affiliation rather than upbringing, criminal history or medical history, which to me are all more telling factors as to what leads people to taking the actions they take than their religions.

I am not Muslim, but the fact that people try to point to an organization that makes up such a chunk of the world as a reason for horrific actions of individuals frustrates me. I am not Mormon, but the fact that people try to point to an organization that makes up such a chunk of the world as a reason for such ludicrous actions frustrates me.

My point? Bundy, Dear, Farook and Malik are individuals. It is not fair for us to speculate if they represent religions with millions of people as silly and irresponsible. At the end of the day, let the crazy people be crazy, not their faiths.