At first, I wasn't surprised when I read this.

NAZRAN, Russia (Reuters) - Armed men drove into Russia's
Ingushetia region and abducted up to 15 people including policemen from a
checkpoint and a slot machine parlour, police and witnesses said on
Friday...

Islamist groups fighting an insurgency in Ingushetia against
Moscow's rule frequently target gambling halls and shops selling alcohol, saying
they contradict Islam....

I have read enough stories about people comitting violence in the name of religion (usually Islam, unfortunately), that they don't have much impact to me anymore. But Robert's comment on his Jihad Watch post ("Morality: gambling? No way! Armed kidnapping? Fine,") got me thinking a bit. As a person of strong religious beliefs, one of the challeges of my life is to make sure that my behavior matches up with my professed faith. For some reason, Americans are willing to forgive all manner of immorality and indescretion, but generally have little tolerance for hipocracy, especially when it is a person of faith displaying it. While I have not comitted a kidnapping in the name of stopping slot-machine gambling, I wonder how many times someone has looked at my life and seen a contradiction between my words and my behavior...