Or Saint Pedro Arbries, a Spanish inquisitor who tortured and burned former Jews for harboring their old beliefs. An ex-Jew assassinated him, and he was canonized as a martyr. I was a newspaper church columnist for many years. Endlessly, I heard ministers proclaim that religion instills love and compassion in believers. It's a universal message.
Politicians always call religion a mighty force for good.
They say it builds brotherhood. But Christians killed 3 million Jews during Europe's centuries of religious persecution, before Hitler secularized the process. And the Reformation wars pitted Catholics and Protestants in a ghastly century of slaughter. And the Third World today still sufferes bloodbaths caused by religious tribalism. There's a tinge of the Twilight Zone in the constant declarations that religion creates love, when opposite results are everywhere.