[mountainash]

There was a TED talk that related to this topic. Link broken because it's very graphic.

http://www. ted.com/talks/lang/eng/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html

This reminds me of something Waybe Jacobsen said once about how (paraphrasing) institutions don't make for healthy Christians just like they don't make for healthy children. I know...That's really biased. I'm speaking as an unschooling unchurched individual, can ya tell? But the truth remains that no one should restrict themselves to socializing only with people who believe as they do. We're meant to be a salad bowl, not a melting pot. There's a Mark Twain quote that says, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Similarly, I believe going outside of our comfort zones socially is crucial to the destruction of violence provoking paradigms. This brings to mind Hebrews 13:11-14

The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.