Christian Priest to Atheist to Buddhist

[Confused Ape]

By whose standards? Horrors have and continue to be committed in Buddha's name.

Can you give some examples of horrors specifically committed in Buddha's name? Groups of people who identified themselves as Buddhists have committed horrors but were they doing it to impose Buddhism on everyone else or for some other reason?

Buddhism Survived the Khmer Rouge to Give Hope to Cambodia

Throughout the history of Cambodia, the cultural fabric of popular Buddhist traditions has played a pivotal role in establishing political and moral order, shaping Khmer ethnic and national identity and in nourishing solidarity among Cambodian villagers. Much of Cambodia’s national and cultural identity is engrained in Khmer Buddhism and the sense of peace and camaraderie that comes with it. Under the Khmer Rouge, however, religion and any form of civil society was outlawed.

Was outlawed religion confined to Buddhism?

Khmer Rouge History

Public schools, pagodas, mosques, churches, universities, shops and government buildings were shut or turned into prisons, stables, reeducation camps and granaries.

This suggests that the Khmer Rouge regime was atheistic but were all the horrors committed in the name of atheism?

From the wikipedia article on the Khymer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge (/kəˈmɛər ˈruːʒ/; French for "Red Khmers", French pronunciation: ​[kmɛʁ ʁuʒ]; Khmer: ខ្មែរក្រហម Khmer Kraham) was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia.

Ideology

The Khmer Rouge's ideology combined elements of Marxism with an extreme version of Khmer nationalism and xenophobia. It combined an idealization of the Angkor Empire (802–1431), with an existential fear for the existence of the Cambodian state, which had historically been liquidated under Vietnamese and Siamese intervention.[14]