The man suspected of being behind a series of deadly package bombs in Austin, Texas, was a Christian who was homeschooled and advocated for socially conservative views.
Mark Anthony Conditt, 23, an unemployed resident of Pflugerville …
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Schultz said they were both involved in a group called Righteous Invasion of Truth (RIOT), a Bible study and outdoors group for homeschooled kids …
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RIOT events also included 30 minutes to an hour of Bible study, Schultz said.
She said she attended Bible study at Conditt’s parents’ home. She described the family as “more conservative, strictly religious.”
This saddens more than surprises; it’s been obvious for a long time that many on the the Evangelical Right are on the edge of violence, and many churches have been preaching what can only be called sedition for a long time.
This is going to get worse before it gets better, because the carefully cultivated irrationality of the Evangelical Right affirmatively rejects reason. That is, you can’t reason with people like Conditt because they believe reason itself is Satan’s instrument of trickery and deceit — to think is a moral failing. Inevitably, then, as they are moved toward the margins by the evolution of society, their alienation is ratcheted-up. This reaction against modernism is what has happened all over the world as the Abrahamic religions have lost their influence, and is at the root of a lot of domestic and international turmoil.