Americans believe that many Christians’ beliefs and practices are so far outside of the norm that they deserve one of modern society’s ugliest epithets: “extremist.”

The problem with religious “extremism” is that there is no agreement about its definition—and most are dreadfully inadequate. One psychologist and Huffington Post blogger says, “A religious extremist is a self-righteous person gone too far.” Depending on how one defines the highly subjective phrases “self-righteous” and “too far,” that could be applied to just about any believer. The Oxford Dictionary defines an “extremist” as “a person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action.” Using the word “extreme” twice to define whether the adjective describes someone or something is hardly helpful.