LETTER: Repudiate all 'radical religion'

Republicans rightly chastised Democrats for not frankly calling out “radical Islamic terrorism” after brutal attacks in Paris and California. I agree that ideologically motivated massacres should be vehemently and universally disavowed.

When faith-addled Syed and Tashfeen Farook discharged legally obtained assault rifles into a San Bernardino holiday party, they were deemed “radicalized” and the FBI searched for when, where and who radicalized them.

But when equally faith-muddled Bob Dear rapidly fired his perfectly legal semi-automatic rifle in a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood facility, he was labeled mentally ill. Although he had no medical history of mental illness and everything from the cross nailed to his house, to his online religious ravings to his confession (“no more baby parts”) screamed radicalization, no one called him a “radical Christian terrorist.”

Blaming faulty gun regulations and stigmatizing mental illness are not realistic solutions for stopping these bloody rampages. Radical religious terrorists will find ways to ruthlessly kill men, women and children even without ubiquitous firearms. The impotent mental illness mantra is merely an NRA strategy routinely deployed to deflect valid gun control concerns. In truth, individuals with psychiatric diagnoses are much more likely to be victims of violent crimes than to commit them.

It’s no mystery how Dear was radicalized or by whom. The flagrant falsehood that Planned Parenthood sells “baby body parts” was persistently perpetuated on the far-right propaganda network. Anyone inciting heinous violence — from ISIS clerics to prattling pundits to puffed-up preachers — should be held directly answerable for the resulting carnage.

Absolutely, repudiate radical religion. Just be fair and balanced about it. —Wanda LaCroix, Arlee