Evil religion?

At CNN’s Belief Blog, John Blake offers four warning signs of when religious beliefs become evil. These include absolutism, charismatic leaders, apocalypticism, and the end justifying the means. He notes that “the line between good religion and evil religion is thin, and it’s easy to make self-righteous assumptions.”

Blake catalogs “evil” religions and their dangerous actions:

• Army of God abortion clinic bombers
• The mass suicide at Jonestown in 1978
• Aum Shinrikyo’s sarin gas attack on a Japanese subway station in 1995
• The Roman Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal