What do people do in the name of religion!

I have had a horrible e mail with the pictures of some poor kid in Iran being tortured for stealing. What do people do in the name of religion?!! All religions start the same way and yet so many atrocities happen in the name of god. The spiritual journey of any kind should be about love and making something better of yourself. I get angry and i am trying to focus on beautiful things that make all the rest to be worthed it.
I came down with a cold and I am spending my day drinking camomile tea and hugging my cat and as always the cold gave me the opportunity to do some self reflection and soul searching. Our mortality comes in mind and the ways we are trying to reach a more divine side of us. I am wiccan as I probably said before and to me this is the whole point. Improving my self so in this lifetime i will make a step forward big or small, just by learning who i am and understanding what i want to be.
Wicca is a natural based religion but i am a city girl always wanting to be more in touch with nature. Long walks in a forest or by the sea seem to calm me so much but i do not find enough time to spend in the country, just to recharge.Although, every now and then, i gather my friends and go to the beach for some meditation, they call me crazy but they enjoy it too.
When you show to your friends how different you are and what you believe in you can get all different kind of reactions, from excitement, to uncomfortable laughs or in some few cases the lost soul speach. As time passes by, you get used to it a little bit, but when someone you are close to and you love and trust has a weird or even bad reaction towards your believes, it can get really painful. I recently got hurt this way and i am still trying to get pass it and work it through .But even that i see it as an opportunity to prove diversity and heterogenity is not something "bad"!
If anyone gets to read this ...blessed be.