The Salem Witch Trials Never Ended
by Pappy November 3rd, 2007, Posted in: History , Religion , World
Who hasn’t heard of the Salem witch trials of 1692? Nineteen men and women, including the town’s Puritan minister, were hanged on Gallows Hill for their participation in witchcraft. Another man was crushed under stone blocks for refusing to submit to trial. Hundreds of others languished in jail under accusations while this madness carried on for almost a year.
A group of teenage girls, for still unknown reasons, began the hysteria by accusing several older women of bewitching them, sending their witch’s familiars to oppress, threaten, and pinch the girls. Preposterous, eh? The real scary part really begins with the town’s response to these teenage pranks. The accused were dragged in for trial. No evidence other than the girls’ testimony was required. 
The court did consider “spectral evidence”, although that was again mostly claims by victims.
Every time one of the women spoke of their piety, their goodness, or denied the charges, the girls would go into crazed fits, writhing and screaming on the floor. At one point, when Rebbecca Nurse was found innocent by the jury, the girls went into a frenzy. The judge asked the jury to consider this response of evil, and they changed their verdict. Amazingly, order was immediately restored in the court. On July 19th, 1692 she was hanged alongside four other innocent women.
Even though many of the girls admitted they had lied, the executions went on from June until September.
As quickly as it began, it was over. Massachusetts was in shock and the entire region was still dealing with and rationalizing the tragedy almost a decade later. But it was over.
Fast forward now to the 21st century. Man has walked on the Moon, developed and dropped the atomic bomb, peered into the heart of the DNA from which we are made, and sent messages around the globe in mere seconds. Thank goodness we, the enlightened children of our ancestors, are immune to such craziness.
Think again.
Kinshasha, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2007. As many as 18,000 children roam the streets, estranged or abandoned by their families. Poverty rates in the country’s capital have risen so high that families will do almost anything to reduce the number of mouths to feed. Thus the trend has become to accuse a child of sorcery. Test them. Try them. Punish them. Banish them.
Kill them.
The Salem trials never really ended, they just changed venues; adjusted victims. A whole new market has opened up, as religious charlatans accept money to “drive” the evil from the children. The true evil, the evil that can allow these events to happen repeatedly throughout human history is trapped inside of us. It is a part of us. Wherever we go, so goes it. We carry it with our fear and ignorance. We pass it around in our Bible tracts and sermons. We shout it out across the land in Friday prayers.
I encourage you to watch the following video, not because you can do anything to change the world. Watch it and know that you are not enlightened. You are no different from the jury members at the Salem trials. We all deserve a dose of humility as long as this goes on anywhere…
Today’s rant: Wife Beating
