It's not exactly the same thing but many (most, I dare say) members of the Ku Klux Klan were religious church-goers. It seems rather valid to point out the corrupting potential of religion.
On this topic I'm often reminded of a line from Killing in the Name by Rage Against The Machine: "Some of those who work forces; they're the same that burn crosses." The song was written in response to the beating of Rodney King[0] by LAPD officers in 1991. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if those officers had considered themselves to be a positive force in the world who just had a lapse in judgement on a bad day.
As we can see from more current situations, cops rarely think beating a black guy is wrong at all, so they don't even believe they had a lapse in judgement, they think they were right!
On this topic I'm often reminded of a line from Killing in the Name by Rage Against The Machine: "Some of those who work forces; they're the same that burn crosses." The song was written in response to the beating of Rodney King[0] by LAPD officers in 1991. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if those officers had considered themselves to be a positive force in the world who just had a lapse in judgement on a bad day.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King