Do these "excommunications" fit the profile of the witch hunts?

[Horse with no Name]

Let's take a look at their playbook and the similarities that exist:

The Puritans (substitute for evangelicals)

The Puritans held five basic beliefs.
Total Depravity: By virtue of the original sin of Adam, when one is born, he has no right to salvation.

Unconditional Election: Some are chosen for salvation, some are not. There is nothing one can do to change his status.

Limited Atonement: The extent to which one can please God with acts is limited.

Irresistable Grace: God showers one with a quality of grace, and one cannot resist it.

Perseverance: Once one has been saved, nothing he does will change that fact.
These central beliefs, along with an extreme emphasis on preaching and the laws contained within the Bible itself formed the strict ideals of American Puritanism.

Early in the seventeenth century, groups of Puritans began leaving Europe to travel to the American colonies. The New England region became the center for Puritans, but the group was spread throughout the area north of Virginia. The main goal of these immigrants was to form a religious community in which their "pure" ideals could be central. The radical beliefs of the Puritans flourished in the New World. By keeping a strong connection between Church and State, the Puritans were able to control most of the colonies' activity until the end of the seventeenth century.

While the specific trials of 1692 are important to America's history, the impact of the Salem Witch Trials is deeper than the simple chronology of events. The hysteria that snowballed in Salem reveals how deep the belief in the supernatural ran in colonial America. David Hall noted that "The religion of the colonists was infused with ancient attitudes and practices, some indeed so old as to antedate the rise of Christianity." In the quest for spiritual perfection and religious purity, there was no place for magic. The Puritans were so focused on the goal of a pure, religious commonwealth, that they reacted harshly against anything that threatened that goal. Richard Godbeer agrees. "Magic had no place in their vision of New England and so they were appalled to discover that colonists were using magical techniques."

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/salem.html#background%20on%20witch%20trials%20in%20salem,%20massachusetts

[mopinko]

1. let's call them the new puritans

and just extort idiot america to read the first f'ing chapter of their american history book.

[HereSince1628]

3. Well, I'd rather call them Christian Dominationists

Calling them puritans puts them in the company of those construed as heroes of the Mayflower and hands them Thanksgiving as a national holiday recognizing them and their agenda.

[bryant69]

4. Plus Dominionist just sounds scarier

And calling them Puritans puts us in a position of confusing our message.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[mopinko]

9. i think it may be easier

to make them read their history, and realize who the puritans really were than to explain to them what a dominionist is. it just sounds like another protestant church. i think the witch trials is a perfect metaphor.

[Jacobin]

8. Radical Fundamentalist Clerics

is what they are

[mopinko]

2. also

i think i will add "witch hunter" to my george is a... button

[Hamlette]

5. whatever you call them, just don't call them evangelicals

not evangelicals are politically conservative. Fundamentalists are closer to the truth. I don't know any fundamentalists who are dems but I do know evangelicals who are dems.

[mcscajun]

6. i just call 'em Religious Extremists and leave it at that.

Keeps the moderate religionists off my back.

:)

[snippy]

7. Jeff Parker cartoon re judges and the republican party.

[Malva Zebrina]

10. It's comforting to see that they did not last very long

isn't it? As things progressed,economically, the believers became more and more distant from the autoritative religion. That religion became irrelevant in the human passionate mind. It did not fit any longer.


What we have now, is the longing to return, because all religion now is threatened by science.

The extremist literalists are fighting tooth and nail to preserve a ridiculous theology and, do not think their kids will at one point, wake up, as did the kids and grandkids of the Puritans. It just does not fit.

The extremist Catholics are doing the same. Their paternalistic dictatorship wobbles darkly on the lives of little children humiliated and raped by their own trusted priests, while they desperately seek to stomp upon women and delegate the lives of women to being subservient to their paternalistic ideation--ie, all you bodies, you filthy women, belong to us and you, you filthy women, have nothing to say or do in our religion but offer up your uterus to Jesus. You were born to be the vessel that carried the sperm of men. At least the bible , which was written long before anyone of them knew that women contributed half the inherited genes says so and thata was written a long time ago, when women were deemed unclean during their menstrul period and after giving birth.

Women, what is the matter with you that you willingly offer up your soul to these men who want to own your body. Women, what is the matter with y ou when you willingly go along to forcing your religious ideation upon the rest of your sisters who do not share it? That is immoral. Navigate your own life according to what the hierophants will teach you you need to do to enter heaven as a woman, but please, refrain from forcing that on the rest of womanhood. That is immoral.

In medieval times, a million women were burned at the stake because they were accused of and found guilty of being "witches"--They kept a cat, had a birthmark that was suspicious or became too powerful in the community of women who consulted them on birth control or abortion.

[donsu]

11. it's different - nobody came to the aid of the witches

we've got each other's back