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Home | News & Society | Social Issues Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live (1) Read More at In 1692, a small girl fell sick. She suffered from a series of "fitts "(2) during which she would convulse and spew forth nonsense words. Soon after the first girl, others began to suffer from the same symptoms. The diagnosis of the girl's illness was attributed to witchcraft and launched a Puritan inquisition that filled prisons with innocent people and ended up taking 25 lives. This was not the first or the last witch hunt to take place but it is one of the most famous. What most people do not like to think about is that even today, in our "enlightened" age, the persecution of society's outcasts still takes place under the ever shifting shroud of religion. Since the turn of the century at least 13 people (3) have lost their lives to the same situations that claimed the souls of Salem some three hundred and eleven years ago. Reuters News Agency reported in October of 2003 that a man in the West African nation of Gambia was killed because he was a sorcerer(4) . The 28 year old man was beaten to death by members of his own tribe after being accused of touching a man, making his penis shrink, and then demanding money to restore it to the proper size. When questioned, the authorities admitted that reports of penis snatching were not uncommon in the area and many men were now afraid to shake hands for fear that they too might fall victim to the dreaded penis snatchers. As opposed to their one penis snatching related murder, Gambian authorities pointed out that in 1997 at least seven alleged penis snatchers were killed in Ghana. It is all too easy to look from the moral high ground that is The United States of America; down on our poor African brothers and shake our heads at their awful pagan ways, but in truth the mad beaters of penis snatchers cannot hold a candle to the religious fundamentalists that are so prevalent on the Great North American Continent. Christian Fundamentalists have taken to the airwaves and the internet to preach their message of intolerance to the youth of America. Pat Robertson, Fred Phelps, Jack Van Impe and Texe Marrs are just a few names in America's renewed fight to destroy religious impurity. All of them go to great length to analyze pop culture and find within it the seeds of the occult. By torturing themselves with hours of watching adult movies, reading popular comic books and watching Saturday morning cartoons, these men bring to light the startling truth behind Satan's Demonic Design for our society. Marrs has personally studied New Age educators and has documented their plans to seduce and corrupt our children's minds(5) . Van Impe takes an even more defeatist position, suggesting that the world will end quite soon, but he still has sources suggesting everything from the burning of Harry Potter books to the destruction of "Pagan" temples (6). The most outspoken of this group of neo-fascist party boys is a local Kansan. The Reverend Fred Phelps has not pulled any punches in his own personal crusade against the most disruptive influence in our society, homosexuality. Not only has his group picketed funerals and care homes but his website(7) is the most comprehensive source for anyone who is interested in getting into the persecution business. With quotations directly from the Good Book, Phelps and his minions prove without any ambiguity that they know which way the matchstick burns. With wonderful F.A.,Q.'s like "What is a Fag?" and "Hope for Fags?" the Reverend shows remarkable logic jumps by stating that not only would it be okay to murder a homosexual, it would actually be Gods will. Unfortunately for our fundamentalist friends, unlike some third world nations it is actually frowned upon to burn someone's home because they are a different religion or to murder someone because they enjoy a little sodomy. Contrasting with the prevalent belief in sorcery, American Christianity is a many faceted thing where most denominations spend a majority of their time trying to win converts from other religions similar to their own but just not quite right enough to get their parishioners into heaven. In fact, several groups have sprung into existence whose sole goal is to poke holes into the fundamentalist's interpretation of the Bible. One group even goes as far as marketing "Uber-Creepy Bible Verse Wear" and WWJD cotton thong panties(8) . Unfortunately, it is too easy to disregard these prejudiced and misguided leaders. We forget that they are in fact influential members of our communities and that they sway the lives of millions of people. Pat Robertson, host of America's number 1 rated religious program, has actively called for the raising of arms against "Anti-Christian" elements in our society, which seems to include homosexuals, Episcopalians, and people who believe in UFO's(9) . (When Pat Robertson says he is raising a Christian Coalition Army that cares, it gives me shivers.) The truth is that as long as there have been three or more humans in the same location, they have always found someone to be the odd man out. Whether it is 25 dead in the Salem Witch Trials or life in prison and death row for "Satanic" Cult members(10) , this behavior has always been waiting on the edge of human civilization. Society is the evolved behavior that has protected man throughout the last 10,000 years. It has grown into a living breathing entity that's solitary duty is to keep the wild things at bay. Sadly, those wild things live in the deepest, darkest parts of our own animal brains. When people give in to the Pat Robertson's of this world and become penis snatcher bashers, they are truly giving in to that screaming animal rage inside of themselves. They are losing the very thing that makes them human and replacing it with the howling, many fanged demon that is afraid of what is different in others and seeks to destroy it. Most people think that they are above such behavior, but every day there is a soccer riot. Every day there is a wife beat. Every day there is a child hurt. Everyday there is a witch burned. 1 King James Bible: Exodus 22:18 2 http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm 3 http://www.illusions.com/burning/burnwit5.htm#20 4 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&e=14&u=/nm/oukoe_odd_penis 5 http://www.texemarrs.com/ 6 http://www.jvim.com/ 7 http://www.godhatesfags.com/ 8 http://www.cafeshops.com/landoverbaptist 9 http://www.politicalamazon.com/quotes.html#PR 10 http://www.wm3.org/ Article Source: http://www.articlewheel.com
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