*A Southern California business owner was shot and killed Friday by a man who objected to an LGBTQ+ Pride flag displayed at her clothing store, officials said.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies responded to the Mag.Pi clothing store in Cedar Glen, Calif., at around 5 p.m. local time for reports of a shooting.
Deputies discovered the victim, 66-year-old Laura Ann Carleton, suffering from a gunshot wound. Carleton was pronounced dead at the scene, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
The suspect, who was not identified by officials, fled the scene on foot.
According to deputies, the man made “several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag” that stood outside Carleton’s store before ultimately shooting her.*
Your larger point stands, that Christianity is often used as a weapon of sorts. The same goes for most religions, ideologies, and philosophies, even Buddhism is used to justify violence.
However, most religions themselves are generally peaceful. I’m convinced that Islam is peaceful, despite it being used to justify terrible acts of terrorism, gruesome punishments for deviance, etc. The same goes for communism and capitalism, which have both been used to justify violence (though I have a harder time with facism, it’s just built on hate imo).
The enemy here isn’t religion, but extremism. Even if we eradicate religion, we’ll still have the propensity for extremism. The same people that use religion to justify violence would simply use something else instead. Most people don’t fully understand their religion, ideology, or philosophy, and they don’t seem to care, provided they get the results they want.
I hope that makes sense.