Categorizing those who do violence is a messy business.

What one writer might call the actions of a terrorist, another might refer to as the work of a freedom fighter.

The very individuals who are called heroes, warriors and revolutionaries by some, can be categorized as villains, murderers, and radicals by another.

But when the morality of a violent person is highly controversial or just ambiguous, we have a separate, more fuzzy term–we call them a vigilante.

The earliest uses of vigilante seem to be taken from the Spanish word for watchmen, vigilante.

Various dictionaries state that a vigilante is somebody who seeks to act outside of the law to enact justice.

For religious people, the idea that what is right and wrong is bigger than just was is legal or illegal, is extremely familiar.

While much of the legal system may coincide with a religious person’s worldview, it is virtually unthinkable that the two would be fully aligned outside of a theocracy.

And, most religious people are content to keep away from legal, but spiritually impermissible wrongdoing by means of their own community and self control.

But for some, this hasn’t been enough. The wrongdoing of fellow citizens and governors is so egregious to them, that they have no choice but to act out–in sometimes violent ways.

In order to understand what kind of person is willing to take the law into their own hands for the sake of their God, I explored religious vigilantism in recent history, very recent history and ancient history.

These stories cover Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in three separate acts with violence ranging from verbal harassment to mass suicide.

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