When Religion Becomes Evil

Wake Forest religion professor Charles Kimball has a new book that sounds like it will make for interesting reading. The title is "When Religion Becomes Evil: Five Warning Signs." While the book is not limited in its focus on Christianity, the five warning signs that seem to be custom designed for the anti-gay Christianist and professional Christian crowd. What makes Kimball an interesting commentator is that he is a Baptist minister with a doctorate in the history of religions from Harvard. Kimball believes that it is urgent for us all to be aware of these signs. Here are the five warning signs that a religious tradition is going toxic and becoming a force for evil:

*

Whenever a religion emphasizes that it holds the absolute truth-the one path to God or the only correct way of reading a sacred text-to the exclusion of the truth claims of all other religions and cultures, that religion is becoming evil. Other warning signs include blind obedience to religious leaders, apocalyptic belief that the end time will occur through a particular religion, the use of malevolent ends to achieve religious goals (e.g., the Crusades) and the declaration of holy war.

*

Personally, it sounds like Kimball had James Dobson, Tony Perkins, the men at Concerned Women for America and Pope Benedict XVI among others in mind when he prepared that list of warning signs. Hat trick to Bob Felton at Civil Commotion.