Terry!
I love your reasoning on this. It`s wonderfully politically incorrect, and I often think this way myself (lol). And the argument goes not only to individuals, but also belief systems. For example: Doesn`t it bother you when people say about a certain religion (in which atrocities often occur) that "it`s not the religion itself that is the problem, it`s the culture", and I instinctively think: WHY? Isn`t a religion not just it`s "holy books", but also its tradition? And isnt tradition really the entire sum of the religions history of behaviour?
On the other hand, this line of thought causes other problems: Imagine this scenario: What about a person (A) who has been raised in a shitty religion (like the Jehovahs Witnesses, for example). He is in his early teens (let`s say 12 years old), his entire childhood he was beaten, told he was no good by his parents at home, bullied at school, and then, in addition to this, some ministerial servant (B) takes him aside one day while in ministry, and sexually abuses him. Let`s get rally grotesque, and say sodomy (and whatever else disgusting you can imagine). Person A dies on the inside. He is ruined. At the age of 18, one night he grabs a knife, and during the night, he goes to "visit" the above mentioned person B, and then stabs him to death. The question is: Is person A "evil" ?
The point is: Although I wish it was as simple as deed=personality, unfortunately, I don`t think it is that simple. The individuals history has to be taken into consideration before passing moral judgement.
But certain belief systems/communities/societies more easily breeds people with "dubious" characters`. That`s why its better to aim your guns at belief systems, rather than individuals themselves. Usually, people who commit horrible atrocious acts, have usually at some point in their lives experienced something horrible done unto them. There are definitely exceptions (and in these cases, we could start talking about pure, untainted evil), but these people are usually exceptions to the rule. In my opinion.