Spiritual “Psychotherapy” for the Demonic Pathology of Political Violence

Studies show that politics can be even more divisive than racial differences. “[P]olitical animosity in America now exceeds racial hostility…” Paresky, P., The Psychology of Political Violence, Beware of anger, contempt, and disgust (Aug. 30, 2017).  Political violence (or PV) is unfortunately trending upward in the United States. Parker, et al., Political violence in polarized U.S. at its worst since 1970s (Aug. 9, 2023)(reporting that political violence had been higher in the 60s but trended downward in the 80s, only to climb again in 2016).  Political violence is defined as “acts committed by members of the public and linked to an election or partisan political dispute, or premeditated physical attacks driven by a clearly identifiable ideology.” Id.  We are living in a reality where people who have political beefs too often escalate those challenges to the point of violence.  Their terrorizing rants sometimes target people who disagree with them but often affect those who have nothing to do with their grievances—ones who are even less deserving of extreme and radical vigilantism than their opponents, like random shoppers, children, and worshipers.  The last few years have included some of the ugliest and most devastating instances of political violence (the Charlie Kirk assassination done during a public event on a Utah college campus, the assassination of MN legislators done at their homes by a shooter impersonating law enforcement, the shooting of a young couple attending a fundraiser for aid to starving Gazans at the Israeli Embassy, the attack of pro-Isreal protestors on a Colorado college campus, or Black Lives Matters protestors who turn into vandals).  This behavior demonstrates how some in society not only have serious anger management issues but how they also have no respect for human life.  They see others as less important than them and their agendas, treating people like inanimate objects whose only utility is to further their selfish pursuits.

In addition to being an act of gross, cruel force against human beings, political violence undermines one of our most cherished cornerstone American values—our Free Speech, a fundamental right from the Bill of Rights. U.S. Const. amend I; Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Preamble & Art. 19. Even though our 1^st Amendment technically limits only the government from regulating speech, the principle of Free Speech is appreciated throughout private relationships in society as well.  How can citizens feel free to express their views if we must worry about some retaliation for stating them?  When we condone pervasive political violence we indirectly allow others to extort our neighbors, colleagues and community members, attempting to intimidate citizens away from endorsing ideas that challenge them.  That blackmail is very unamerican, inhumane.

Freedom of speech is believed to be essential for progress in science, law and politics.  Wikipedia.com, Freedom of speech (Assessed Aug. 3, 2025)(John Stuart Mill argued that “truth drives out falsity, therefore the free expression of ideas, true or false, should not be feared.”).  Free Speech facilitates several critical functions for a democracy including being a check against governmental abuses, cultivating individual fulfillment and liberty, enabling a search for truth in the marketplace of ideas, providing the public with access to information, discouraging violence, and encouraging tolerance.  Hudson, D., TheFire.org, Arguments for freedom: The many reasons why free speech is essential (Nov. 1, 2022).

"Justice Thurgood Marshall eloquently advanced the individual fulfillment theory of freedom of speech in his concurring opinion in the prisoner rights case Procunier v. Martinez (1974) when he wrote: 'The First Amendment serves not only the needs of the polity, but also those of the human spirit—a spirit that demands self-expression.  Such expression is an integral part of the development of ideas and a sense of identity.  To suppress expression is to reject the basic human desire for recognition and affront the individual’s worth and dignity.'”

How can we brainstorm ideas of how to best solve problems if we censor some sector of society, inhibiting them from sharing their views?  How can we find truth?  How can we globally compete?  And how do we decide which sector of society’s ideas should completely quiet the other?  Are the mighty always righty?  PV actors, private citizens, cannot be gatekeepers of expression, not even the state is sanctioned to do that.  How can we trust private corporations or citizens to do this if we admittedly cannot even entrust our government to regulate speech?  How could Apple or Amazon be competent to make such value judgements about other people’s thoughts?  Obviously America’s cultural phenomenon of violent alternative dispute resolution not only hurts innocent victims but stifles our progress as a civilization.

Spiritual “Psychotherapy” for Political Violence

To treat the spirit of political violence that is growing in popularity in our society, we should use spiritual “psychotherapy” because bloodshed is the most immoral and aspiritual behavior that we can act out.  That is why the law punishes violent offenders the worst.  We must first understand how PV actors think and what spirits they are entertaining; then secondly, we must replace that toxic pathology with godly thinking, treating their mental and spiritual illnesses (in part) with the Holy Spirit.

(i)               How They Think?

As background, PV attackers are often younger, less than 30 years old, right-wing men.  Jahnke et al., Predictors of Political Violence Outcomes among Young People: A Systematic Review  and Meta-Analysis, Political Psychology, vol. 43, no. 1 (2022); Kleinfeld, R., The Rise of Political Violence in the United States, Journal of Democracy, vol. 32, no. 4 (Oct. 2021); and Riccardi, N., APNews.com, Political violence is threaded through recent US history. The motives and justifications vary (June 14, 2025).  Their extreme youthfulness implies that something is happening to these young men at the brink of their adulthood, as if they have recently or are still being guided or mentored into this belief system.  We know this to be true at least sometimes because for the first time in US history, parents were held criminally accountable in the State of Michigan for the (non-political) mass shooting performed by their 15-year-old son, Ethan Crumbley. PBS.org, Michigan school shooter’s parents sentenced to at least 10 years in prison (April 9, 2024).  Persons in their 20s are the most impressionable adults of all adults.  Since these acts are ones of mortal violence, an adult behavior, it is fair to say that they are being targeted as they become grown-ups, i.e., as soon as they can possibly think in a way to carry out these heinous incidents.   They are just old enough to be mortally violent but still underdeveloped enough to be malleable.

In terms of political affiliation, these vigilantes are more often republican than democrat or independent. Kleinfield, supra; Riccardi, supra.  Most of the country is neither democrat or republican but independent, 43% in 2024 versus 28% for either republican or democrat. News.Gallup.com, Party Affiliation (Assessed 12-14-2025).  Therefore, only 28% of the shooters should be conservative if this pathology were naturally developing, instead republicans were 10 times as likely to commit terrorism in 2019 (Kleinfield, supra) or have been reported by the Anti-Defamation League to be responsible for “all of the 61 political killings in the United States” between 2022 and 2024 (Riccardi, supra).  This trend suggests that other conservatives might be aiding and abetting these people, perhaps even secretly celebrating their ideology.  Indeed, polls show that in 2023 twenty percent of American citizens believe that sometimes violence is acceptable if committed “to achieve [their] idea of a better society.” Parker, supra.  This is a troubling reality because in a big free country like America we are bound to have disagreements; if we are to violently resolve some of our arguments then we are destined to have exponentially increasing acts of political violence.

When performing an act of political violence, the perpetrator is acting out a form of vigilantism (or a way of being a vigilante).  “Vigilantes typically emerge when people believe the institutions they rely on for protection, maintaining social order, and delivering justice are perceived as ineffective.”  Chen et al., Communal Narcissism and Sadism as Predictors of Everyday Vigilantism, Personality Science, vol. 4, Article e10523 (2023).  PV actors perceive disappointing government action as either illegitimate or arbitrary. Lupsha, P., Explanation of Political Violence: Some Psychological Theories Versus Indignation, Politics and Society (Fall 1971), p97.  They appoint themselves to be ministers of their versions of justice.

Chen et al. report that common diagnoses among vigilantes are communal narcissism and sadistic personality disorder. Chen, supra.  Communal narcissists have an inflated perception of themselves and their group, coupled with a broader sense of personal responsibility to their group.  Communal narcissists believe that their race or class is more important than others such that people outside of their race (the “slave” race) should be used to facilitate the desires of the “master” race, whether they consent to doing so or not.  The extreme communal narcissist wants to be a leader for the rest of the master race so they commit some act of showing out, declaring their exceptional dedication to their beliefs of superiority by violating others. Id.  One may be inclined to tolerate their narcissism if they are a part of the same community.  However, doing so enables their violence and their extremist views are too costly to society. 

Their desire to go to great lengths to promote communal privileges could be linked to an irrational fear of inadequacy.  Some, particularly white men, have an irrational fear of failure or Atychiphobia. ClevelandClinic.org, Atychiphobia (Fear of Failure) (Assessed 8-25-2025).  They strongly believe that they must work to dominate racial minorities due to insecurities about losing in some other physical contests.  In their minds, they cannot accept failing in other settings as well, like business or socially.  Some are fixated on winning in these areas of life and might rather die than lose again.  While sometimes there may be some benefit to being on the winning side of their favoritism, their causes are not more thoughtful or noble than those of our own government, our own lawmakers who invest immensely in expert research, debate and time to craft our laws with all interests in mind.  Contrastingly, communal narcissists are usually relatively ignorant compared to congress and extremely biased by their own greed and desires for unjust enrichment… something very insignificant and vain compared to human life.

Being able to bring gain, whether fairly or unfairly obtained, to your community may make others treat you like a hero in your circle, thus giving some communal narcissists a sense of significance.  Some political violence perpetuators are said to be on a quest for significance.  Schumpe et al.,  The Role of Sensation Seeking in Political Violence: An Extension of the Significance Quest Theory, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 118, no. 4 (2020).  “Significance Quest Theory” regards a pathology that psychologists have identified wherein which those with a desire for exceptional meaning or purpose in life go to irrational lengths to obtain notoriety.  This can be triggered by a perceived loss of significance in society or a change in position of privilege, some demotion. Other environmental factors that enhance a quest for significance include idle mindedness, boredom or a lack of purpose.  Additionally, those with SQT can be thrill seekers, adrenaline junkies who need to have something exciting happening in their lives often to feel significant or important.  This idleness and desire for excitement increases their extremism or radicalization. Id.

Significance Quest Theory sounds a lot like an adult temper tantrum to me… thrown by spoiled brats who want their way, right or wrong, whether they deserve it or not, whether they’ve earned it or not.  They look like grown men-babies just kicking and screaming in the toy store because mommy will not buy them that extra action figure they wanted, or rebellious adult-kids who refuse to eat their vegetables at the dinner table.  Ungrateful and inconsiderate, unrealistic, selfish spoiled brats.  Do we really want to just give them their way to shut them up today only to pay dearly for encouraging those bad habits tomorrow?  Why hand over our freedom, our emancipation, our equality, our history, our heritage… for that?  No sir!  Communal narcissists cannot dominate our country.

The other diagnosis common in vigilantes is sadism. Chen, supra.  Sadists derive pleasure from inflicting cruelty on others, regardless of any justification or context.  Sadists are violently cynical people who often turn to torture—inducing pain or harassment—to effectuate their desires.  Whereas a normal person might try to debate someone or avoid an annoying person, or even take the disagreement to an authorized arbiter, like a court of law or mediator, a sadist ignores all other options in favor of physical and/or psychological harm.  Violence is their hammer and all problems are nails.  PV actors are selfish people who believe that their goals are more important than they really are (i.e., narcissist) and these actors will do anything, including harm other people to achieve their goals (i.e., sadists).  To accept PV is to let sadists and violence dominate our culture.  Condoning physical ideation ironically cultivates more physicality not only because the actors feel that they will still be accepted, even though they are violent-minded, but also because the victims and witnesses of political violence might follow suit, turning away from lawful Speech and towards brutality to get their points across. Hudson, supra.

"If individuals are deprived of the ability to express themselves, they may undertake violent means as a way to draw attention to their causes or protests.  Justice Brandies advanced the safety valve theory of free speech in his concurring opinion in Whitney v. California (1927) when he wrote:

'Those who won our independence believed… that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies.'”

Finally, PV activists are excessive and unlean as they advocate for their causes, often victimizing irrelevant citizens or people who are tangential-at-best to their goals.  Some shooter is angry with the views of a person who is not even a decisionmaker in our government, like Charlie Kirk, so they punish him… or a gunman is a staunch republican in Minnesota who simply does not want to outargue opponents in congress so he physically disciplines officials for doing their jobs… or a pro-Palestine vigilante targets a young Israeli couple trying to help feed innocent Palestinians, trying to further humanitarian interests in Gaza, and the shooter ironically attacked those who were working for the same cause that the attacker professed to promote!  These PV activists claim to be so much more righteous than our judges, so much higher than our politicians but any reasonable person would agree that this is not justice for these victims who were not even guilty of a misdemeanor.  They certainly do not deserve the death penalty.  They are just more accessible than others, they are too often random people.  It seems that PV actors are playing with loaded guns—anyone could get shot.  What competent policewoman would ever do that?  These malicious menaces are neither nobler or more qualified than our own police, courts and lawmakers. 

(ii)               How Can They Employ a Godlier Pathology?

Political violence actors can become more morally responsible by realizing that using political violence to resolve your differences is neither righteous or smart.  Then we can replace their idleness with constructive goals and objectives.

·        Political Violence is Not Righteous, but Sinful

Potential vigilantes should be conscious of the reality that using Martial Law is not the Christianly response to injustice or disappointment. Baker, H., The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Why Christians should never resort to political violence, (Sept. 26, 2022)(“Christians serve the Lord of the Beatitudes.  Within those passages in Matthew 5:2-12, we see the praise of meekness, mercy, and long-suffering in the face of trials.”).  The Bible advises against a violent course of action to resolve our problems, not because God wants us to be taken advantage of but because such lawlessness breeds judgement. Romans 13:1-7; BibleStudyTools.com, Bible Verses about Violence (Feb. 23, 2021).  To be irreverent to the law is to magnetize yourself towards self-destruction.  If your plight is meritorious then trust God because She is faithful and loves justice more than we do. Psalm 37:27-29.  Trust Her to help you with your case against power.  No matter how aggrieved a PV actor feels, PV is not the answer.

·        Political Violence is Not Smart, but Ineffective

Political violence is not even an effective means for bringing about the change in society that one may want to see. Downing, K., Fortify Your Faith eNewsletter, A Means of Personal Protection Nearly Two Millenia Old, Yet Still Very Relevant: The Whole Armor of God (June 22, 2024)(citing Chenoweth et al., Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict), p6.  The most significant changes toward greater inclusivity in our society were not brought about by riots, uprisings, or assassinations, but by lawsuits, lobbyists, peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins, voting, and/or interactions with all three branches of our government to petition them for remedies for our grievances, e.g., black emancipation, women’s rights, desegregation, gay marriage.  Change is most effectively brought about by going through the legal system, by exposing its hypocrisy, not destroying the entire system.  Never tire of that, always pester our government officials to be competent in their governing.  We are their customers and the customer is king.  They owe it to us to do their jobs competently and in good faith. 

·        Constructive Alternative Objectives

An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.  If we become content with our youth being inactive and aimless, we must realize that we are also being complacent with them becoming more immoral and possibly more violent.  We must remove their boredom, give them constructive objectives.  Instead, we should encourage their legitimate interaction with others and the political process.  Schumpe et al. advocate for the use of “countermeasuring” to offset the pessimistic perspectives of sadism and narcissism that fuel extremism. supra.  The potential countermeasures that they offer include mentoring young men into being active in peaceful groups or into searching for significance through personal and professional achievements.  Another set of psych experts advance that these alternative objectives promote “protective factors.” Jahnke, supra.  Protective factors are the values that cut against extreme violence,  e.g., empathy and democratic values.  Jahnke et al. opine that where protective factors are outweighed by risk factors, extremism is much less likely to occur.

We can target younger people via TV advertisements requesting their involvement in politics, motivate them to work for a politician or volunteer for a campaign.  We can do more to solicit their constructive contributions before someone dark tries to steer them otherwise.  Advise them to do some sort of civic service, take advantage of modern technology to voice their opinions with e.g., podcasts, blogs, websites or e-newsletters.  There are other ways of becoming more politically involved as well, peaceful protests, lobbying one’s political representatives or joining political organizations.  These are the things that have a proven track record of success in bringing about change in our society. 

When aggrieved, our youth need to know that “there is an app for that”—it is called a court of law.  Someone has wronged you: get an attorney to assist you with your grievance.  Doing so is a much better, more productive way of getting compensation or an authentic apology.  “Blessed are the peacemakers…” a personal injury lawyer, a prosecutor, a middle-class person’s attorney-advocate is a peacemaker, policing the wicked in society who try to create hell on earth for selfish gain.  Young adults need to know that this basic citizen’s resource is a part of how we have stayed relatively peaceful for the last 250 years.  They need to know that this resource is here for them now and we hope that it remains available for another 250 years plus. 

Lastly, church involvement is a great means for helping others in need, a way of making our existences about more than just ourselves.  Afterall, God did not create us to feed our own interests alone.  He also has His purposes for us.  God gives us all meaning regardless of life’s circumstances. TheMeaningMovement.com, 15 Powerful Bible Verses About God’s Plan and Purpose for Your Life (Assessed 12-14-2025)(quoting, among other things, Philippians 2:13, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”).  Ask God for your purpose.  What is His will for our lives?  Maybe God has been more generous to you so that you can provide for others.  Charity gives us a great feeling of significance and a sense that we are adding value to someone besides ourselves, something bigger than ourselves.  Perhaps God gave you the gift of writing and teaching, so that you can mentor others in the Faith.  Possibly God gave you the gift of music and song so that you can use that powerful gift to motivate others towards the things He would have society follow, to pull them away from the devil’s use of music.  These constructive goals and targets for our lives ward off the toxic cynicism that can otherwise take over the minds of our youth and steer them into the destructive storm of using political violence.

Until next time: God Bless & Namaste (or the spirit in me recognizes and greets the spirit in you)!

/s/ Kristy Joi Downing