tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7560032271749992180.post8637466876985163589..comments2024-01-26T09:10:10.248-07:00Comments on Trey Capnerhurst's Blog: Anti-Witch Bigotry: Still as popular & deadly as everAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15626580781769379881noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7560032271749992180.post-304033881741840492012-12-03T20:33:35.790-07:002012-12-03T20:33:35.790-07:00The suppression of women and sexuality, particular...The suppression of women and sexuality, particularily by Christian extremists, has always been a major componant of anti-witch sentiment. Midwives and healers were often the first and easiest targets. Entire books have been written about it, but here is a quick summary, which draws the lines of anti-witch bigotry to the modern War on Women. From the Daily Kos.<br /><br />http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/17/1075308/-Sex-Witchcraft-and-the-War-on-Women?detail=hide<br /><br />"If there is anything that would serve as an analogy to political parties of the day, it would certainly be the church vs. the pagans. And similar to modern day political leanings, where the church was unequivocally opposed to sexuality, the pagans celebrated it as ritual. And the church want nothing more than to convert all of the pagans to Christianity, or kill those who refused."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15626580781769379881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7560032271749992180.post-88848996594716182922012-11-28T21:03:31.332-07:002012-11-28T21:03:31.332-07:00Anti-witch bigotry is just as fear driven, virilen...Anti-witch bigotry is just as fear driven, virilent, and dangerous as homophobia and Islamophobia, and based on much the same mythology.<br /><br />"Of course, those in the throes of this phobia are in denial. They never recognise it as such. Instead, they cling to their "deeply held convictions" that, for example, allowing people of the same sex to marry each other will ruin it for everyone else. They cling to their rosary beads or the backs of their trousers insisting it is a moral objection. But a glance at those objections unfailingly reveals an unwarranted belief that "something bad will happen"<br /><br />http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/27/homophobia-islamophobia-right-words-associated-pressAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15626580781769379881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7560032271749992180.post-19781032201587687292012-11-24T12:56:48.121-07:002012-11-24T12:56:48.121-07:00It surprizes me not a jot that this rare book was ...It surprizes me not a jot that this rare book was discovered in the Bible Belt bastion of anti-witch bigotry that is Alberta, where I've lived for more than 30 years.<br /><br /><br />Entitled "Invectives Against the Sect of Waldensians", it is exceedingly rare — one of only four copies known to exist — and is thought to be one of the founding texts for the Christian horror and propaganda against witchcraft. <br /><br />“The real evil is actually in this book, and it’s human. It’s not magical,” said Gow, a medieval history professor. “It’s a view of one’s fellow human beings as agents of the devil that is truly evil.” <br /><br />Its pages describe cackling wenches sailing across the night sky on broom sticks, frolicking in nocturnal orgies of twisted delight and casting Satanic spells to doom crops with lightning and hail.<br /> <br />“It’s this long, involved, complex litany of imaginary crimes,” said Gow, “which were cooked up in the fevered literary imaginations of these small-time church men.” <br /><br />The purpose of the book, Gow explained, was to instruct witch hunters on how to identify and prosecute supposed servants of the devil. Ominously, it describes how one should “ratchet up the pain” to force suspected witches to confess, said Gow. <br /><br />“It’s a fascinating thing,” he said. “It’s 150 pages of craziness.” <br /><br />http://www.therecord.com/news/canada/article/841220---rare-book-on-witchcraft-discovered-in-alberta-library#.ULEcrYsWAa4.facebookAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15626580781769379881noreply@blogger.com