O’Reilly Connects WDBJ Shooting to U.S. ‘Turning Away from Spiritualism’ and Religion

O’Reilly tonight connected the WDBJ shooting to America “turning away from spiritualism” and saying that nearly every killer he’s ever reported on has believed in nothing.

O’Reilly cited “rise in nihilism and a decline in spiritual belief,” as well as the declining number of Americans identifying as Christians and the increasing number of Americans identifying as religiously innovated, to connect this to what influences killers with “few restraints in their lives.”

Psychotherapist Karen Ruskin pushed back a bit and said there are “many cases where people are spiritual and they kill others.” O’Reilly challenged her to name one “outside of the jihadists.” Ruskin asked why not include jihadists as an example of killers motivated by their strong beliefs.

She insisted that mental illness doesn’t discriminate whether you’re a believer or non-believer, but O’Reilly insisted, “Every single murderer over 40 years that I have covered in these circumstances has been either atheistic, agnostic, no religious basis at all.”

He again asked, “Can you point to one person who committed mass murder recently that had a religious background? You cannot.”

Now, in case you’re wondering why O’Reilly isn’t including religious Muslim jihadists in there, here’s his explanation:

“The spiritualism falls apart in the face of the jihad, okay, which is a perversion of Islam, we all know that. But over the years and centuries, religion has been used to justify murder, even in the Christian precincts. That has happened. But individuals in this country now, I believe, are tending away from spirituality and into the secular-progressive ‘it’s all about me.’ And when you combine that with a mental illness, you have what you had in Virginia yesterday.”