Religion & Violence

So I was reading this interesting article on religion and violence in my Harvard Divinity School magazine. The basic gist of the writer's argument was this:

1. People like to say that religion/religious conflict is the cause of many, many deaths.

2. These same people have a very hard time defining what exactly religion is. For example, if it's a set of beliefs about God or gods, then Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism would have to be left out.

3. In fact, "religious violence" is something of a false category used by Westerners to separate "religious" violence - i.e. irrational, uncivilized and therefore wrong - from "secular" violence - i.e. unfortunate but rational and necessary violence.

Does this mean that no-one has religious motivations for asserting their violence? Or that religious beliefs and practices do not sometimes lead to violent actions? No, of course not. What I am saying, though, is that practically speaking there are a lot more people in the United States willing to kill for their country than they are for their God.

In other words, nationalism is at least as deadly as any other form of belief, and separating "secular" violence from "religious" violence is really a strategy for letting Western countries off the hook for their violence.

This is the article, by the way: I've linked to the issue & the cover - the article itself isn't online.
Does Religion Cause Violence? by William T. Cavanaugh