Christian militia arrests: zealots perverting religious beliefs

READERS elsewhere might skim past news accounts of Christian militia members arrested on charges of plotting to kill law-enforcement officers. Not those of us around Puget Sound.

The region knows the pain of a spate of murderous assaults on the men and women who wish to do no more than serve and protect.

Motives change, but the visible targets of irrational frustrations and lethal anger stay the same.

Arrests in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio were spurred by a group's apparent desire to spread the gospel by fomenting armed revolution. If nothing else, it is a timely reminder that no world faith contains all the zealots willing to pervert core religious beliefs.

A group of armed, weekend hobbyists in camouflage with a skewed view of the Scriptures is one thing, but converting those delusions into assassination plots to fuel an imagined revolution is quite another. Too much time on their hands, too much isolation from reality.

This is the creepy realm of the mad bomber Timothy McVeigh, and even the butcher Charles Manson. Evil visions of how to bring about apocalyptic violence to cleanse the world. Yikes.

These nut jobs do not hold up to theological scrutiny or accountability before the rule of law.

Expectations of the world coming to an end flourish from time to time. Check with those who still have drums of survival rations left over from the Y2K apocalypse.

During the Christian Holy Week, the lessons are not about a rump-kicking messiah, but of someone willing to die for others — not orchestrate murder in the name of salvation.