Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials are an unfortunate scar and travesty that is part of our Christian history. It is good to acknowlege and learn from it, so as to improve our churches today.

 

I heard Dr. D. James Kennedy say there was not one witch put to death in the United States, and that the hype over the Salem witch trials is grossly misrepresenting.

 

Was that movie "3 soveriegns for Sarah"?

That was a very accurate movie and quite disturbing to think that such a thing could go on and not be questioned.

 

Jim, I watched the movie entitled "The Salem Witch Trials" last night on television. I saw a simular show called the Crucible not that long ago too.

The origins of the religion in question is puritanism.

I found the movie very sad as well. American history in the beginning was very savage wasn't it? I wonder if my ancestors were anywhere near where all of that happened. I have relatives that came over on the Mayflower and some of them settled in Massechusetts. It's a bit desturbing to think about.

Puritanism and the Salem Witch Trials

Laurenda

 

Dr Kennedy is right. None of the nineteen (I think it was nineteen) people executed on charges of witchery were witches. They were all innocent.

I have great respect for Dr Kennedy, but, considering that he was, from the pulpit, proclaiming that Thomas Jefferson never had sexual relations with slaves, I unfortunately feel that Dr Kennedy has offerred as much, if not more, revisionist history than those he accuses of doing the same.

 

Do you have a source, John? I'd really like to see one rather than rely on rumor. Thanks.

 

He did so on his program, "The Coral Ridge Hour", which is seen weekly. I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears. I used to watch his program somewhat regularly.

 

I once saw something very interesting regarding the Salem Witch Trials, which I believe was on the History Channel.

According to some scientific speculation, the cause of the girls' visions of satanic activity and spirits may have been caused by the grain they were eating.

Grain storage at the time was not very good, and over time a chemical would be formed on the wheat (not always, but possible) that was very similar to LSD. So when they partook of the wheat, they may have ended up hallucinating because of drug ingestion.

And interesting take on the matter, isn't it?

From the Southland,
Rebel [><]

 

The Salem witch trials and executions were the sum of a number of causes:

1. Cotton Mather was preaching against witchcraft and warning that the devil was delighted whenever one of the Puritans fell into temptation.

2. Samuel Parris was the only minister the town could get to stay, and even then half the town was against him. So there were antagonisms in the town festering from the start.

3. Tituba, the Parris' slave, was the main winter attraction for the girls in that group. They would go and listen to her tell the Bible stories her way (much more interesting than Parris' stormy three hour sermons!), and then mix them with the occultism she had learned as a child. So the girls' heads became filled with a combination of Bible, witchery, palm-reading, ghosty stories, etc.

4. And yes, the rye grain. Ergot is the same fungus from which LSD is made, and it can wreak havoc when it gets into rye grain. This probably initiated in little Elizabeth Parris and the older girls the seizures and 'visions' which precipitated the accusations and trials and, finally, executions.

So it was a number of things which came together at that time: the climate of the times, Tituba's stories, barely contained problems in the town already, and, finally, the ergot in the rye.

Evidently the ergot was confined to the Parris cellar, for it was only the girls who ate there who had the seizures and visions.

However, when they saw the attention they were getting, it seems quite evident from the history as it has come down that a couple of them played it up to the full to try to get rid of people they did not like.

A strange time...

Here is a little about the ergot
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_salem/clues.html

more can be found using a search engine

 

Helen, the movie above explains what you have posted although it doesn't say anything about the grain. If you are doing a study it is well worth your time to watch this.

 

Thanks, Walls. I spent some time researching it a number of years ago in response to some student questions. There are a number of good books out on this episode in history, but believe it or not, one of the best and most accurately written was written for jr hi students! It is Shirley Jackson's "The Witchcraft of Salem Village". It also did not deal with the subject of the rye grain except as a possibility in the last paragraph of the Afterward, but did an excellent job with everything else, including what happened to the principle players later, the letters of repentance, etc.

Amazing where you can find some of the best material!

 

I think it's great that people can intellengently study things like this...so they can give answer if they are ever asked about it. It's good for the world to see that we aren't the empty-headed "bots" some claim we are!
-Cheryl R.

 

Amen sister! I don't believe I've had the pleasure of responding to you yet.... Welcome to Baptist Board!

 

would it be wrong today to establish laws outlawing witchcraft? how about with the death penalty?

 

I'll tell you, Jim, I would sure like to see Wicca as shoved out of the schools today as Christianity is!