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DILEMMA: RELIGION / MADNESS

The preponderance of the adherents of the worlds great and lesser religions are peace-loving people who take great comfort from their faith. These multitudes, content with their quotidian affairs and worship, are embarrassed and jeopardized by the hardcore fringes that surround them.

Is there a way to protect us from that volatile mixture of religious fervor and ordinary madness?

The “Beltway Sniper” is scheduled to be executed tonight. He, with an adopted religion-based name, went on an extended killing spree in areas around the nation’s capital.

Last week, at Fort Hood, a religiously compromised, native-born American army officer – in the matter of minutes -- slaughtered approximately the same number of people as did the sniper.

Who knows how long we will experience the worldwide consequences of the Twin Tower disaster?

In the Middle East and other parts of the world, people gladly strap on designer suicide belts and give themselves up -- along with a host of others – for the sake of the deity.

In Kuwait, during preparations for the misbegotten invasion of Iraq, a religiously disturbed American soldier “fragged” a tent full of his fellow soldiers.

Several years ago, there was a virtual war declared against doctors engaged in reproductive practice. Organized religious groups applauded and praised God.

More recently, a longtime harasser of abortion clinics righteously murdered the head of such a clinic, causing it to be shut down. Organized religious groups applauded and praised God.

Not long ago, one of the more blatant anti-Semites of the world stormed the Holocaust Museum, killed a guard, but was stopped before his rage could go any further. Fellow anti-Semites cheered and praised the Lord.

While tolerating horrendous abuses against humanity in their midst, the Founders were careful to excise religion from the workings of the United States government. They knew whereof they acted. The Crusades, Torquemada’s Inquisition, and the excesses of Henry VIII make quite an impression upon history.

What do we do now? We cannot touch religion. We cannot see madness. Even if we could tell the difference between religious fervor and madness, how would we handle it?