There's a fine line between belief and obsession.

From a distance, that line looks to be a mile wide.

After all, no one expects to behave irrationally.

People throughout history have found that line all too easy to cross.

Take William Dousing.

He was a parliamentarian soldier during the first English Civil War.

And he was a believer.

Specifically, he was a Puritan, a Protestant Christian who wanted to purge all remaining

Catholic Church elements from the relatively new Church of England.

He believed deeply in this cause.

But as I said before, some people take belief too far.

Dousing managed to secure a very special assignment from the Earl of Manchester.

In August of 1643, he was given the authority to travel all over Cambridgeshire and Suffolk,

literally destroying the physical reminders of Old Catholic England.

Staying glass windows, stone carvings, altars, crosses, and anything else that came remotely

close.

Dousing did this for a full year under the self-appointed title of Iconoclast General,

eventually vandalizing over 250 churches.

Think about it.

A believer, so driven by his convictions that he actually destroyed places of worship within

his own faith.

Like I said, passion shares a very thin, very fragile wall with madness, and it's all

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