witch hunt

The Salem Witch Trials that occurred under the Puritans have always fascinated me.  I read about them in a novel when I was younger, and whenever I watch The Crucible or the more recent adaptation of the historical events, what strikes me is how excruciating it is to see people under such delusion as the Puritans of that part of the world at that time were.  I always wonder to myself why people didn't get out of town when all hell was breaking loose; why they didn't move west, hide out with the natives, organize a militia- anything, rather than submit to such misguided authority.  The more I watch the stories unfold, the more I see evidence of serious spiritual and emotional abuses- even if there was a drug element (as some have theorized) that affected the village by chance.

The point is, people believed in their leadership until it was too late; until they were faced with the rope for refusing to take responsibility unjustly.  These days we think a lot, read a lot more than just the Bible, and most ordinary people can see through superstition a lot easier because we can access a variety of world-views, and analyse them all.  The truth can be looked at from all angles, and the Bible can be understood in its historical context as well as interpreted into the cultures in which we curently live. 

The problem comes when subcultures spring up and create dogmas around Biblical (or extra-Biblical) texts or forms of worship or behavior, limiting their adherents' freedom to exist within the culture in which they are found.  The Bible itself does not carry the dogmatic weight or controlling authority that seem to come with many Christian subcultures, even especially in the religiously "free" world.  Abuses happen because there are people who believe that they have the absolute truth, yet are too afraid to test it by thinking outside the box.  If something is true, then it can tolerate testing, and part of growth and maturity is the ability to know how little we can truly know for sure.

What angers me most, when considering the events of the Salem Witch Trials is how blind people can be to reality, though they study the Scriptures and back then, probably knew it better than I do, and how superstitious people, who have so much of the truth, can yet be, when they are willing to hold onto fears and prejudices that are lies from a dark form of paganism- the very thing the Puritans were apparently against!   The reason these things anger me so much, is that even today, these same sorts of witch hunts go on in some churches and groups- not just on the fringes of Christianity, but right in the mainstream.  When people can be accused of having "hidden sin" for disagreeing with their leadership, for leaving a certain membership, or for speaking out against lies, we haven't left the Dark Ages just yet; we're still part of them.

What I desire to do is to speak out and question until the day I die, because my God will not strike me down for being honest.  God always prefers honesty to people who draw near with their lips, but not with their hearts.  What I hope for is for healed hearts and truth, with the love that still exists among the people of God.



I can't find a good youtube, due to copyright reasons, but this isn't a bad video at all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Eel02K-WPo&feature=relmfu