Saturday, November 26, 2022

Today's Witches

Just started reading the latest monthly edition of Smithsonian. One of the Prologue articles touched on the history of witch trials in the Catalonia area of Spain, and a fairly recent decision by its parliament to officially apologize to the victims of the witch trials which occurred there over the course of 300 years.

While Catalonia was not unique in its participation in torturing and killing witches in the 14th through 17th centuries, it's lack of proximity to the central authority in Madrid, the power of local feudal lords, and widespread illiteracy, combined to create its renown as the center of witchcraft trials in Europe. As a result, over 700 witches were condemned to die beginning in 1424 when Catalonia enacted the first law prohibiting witchcraft.

Today, of course, witches are not tortured and killed. But then again, those (mostly) women who were murdered as witches, were not  witches at all. They were either people who were used as scapegoats to explain bad events of the day, or people who were different from most, which again helped justify their being treated without compassion. Back then, it was easy to convince the uneducated that people like that were expendable, especially when the institutions and powerful of the day were the ones telling them so.

Today, we see similar efforts by those who seek power and influence to marginalize certain segments of our society. Specifically, we are in the middle of another concerted effort by some religious and political groups to rally their believers into thinking that the LGBTQ community is to blame for all of society's ills. 

I wrote a few months ago about this topic, what I called Different VS Special. In it, I discussed how there are two ways to perceive people who are not like ourselves. As different, which creates a negative connotation, or as special, which evokes a softer, perhaps even desirable perception.


I recently spent some time with an acquaintance whom I hadn't seen for at least 20 years. During that time, we broached a number of subjects, sometimes agreeing, sometimes not, but always remaining civil. One particular topic in which we disagreed, was related to the LGBTQ community. 

Now, this person is not one of those evangelicals who demonstrate their Christianity by telling us who God hates. Still, while he understood the necessity of allowing gay people to marry, understood how our marriage laws benefited individuals and society meaning that laws against gay marriage were certainly discriminatory, he also felt that the "gay agenda" was being forced upon him, and that it had gone too far. 

In other words, a very fine man who, in general, follows the spirit of his religion, yet believes that gay people do not deserve the same rights as straight people. When I countered that I believe the vast majority of gay people, especially men, were created that way by the very God he worshiped, he only grudgingly seemed to accept that position. In his mind, acting on their urges, was clearly forbidden by his holy book, and, while they might have been born gay, they were forbidden to have sex with someone of the same gender. 

I didn't pursue this anymore, but later, I regretted not asking him why God would create people with sexual desires that they would be  forbidden to exercise? And, if true, wouldn't that make them special? Special to the point that we, as a society, would do our best to support them, and show them special deference? 

It wasn't that long ago that people born with below average mental capability were hidden away, at best, sterilized and institutionalized, at worst. Even now, there are societal barriers for people with mental challenges to overcome, but at least there are not media pundits telling their followers that granting them the same rights to pursue life and liberty are what is ruining America, or has gone too far.

It is always easy to blame those that are different for the problems of the day, especially when those listening prefer not to look in the mirror. Whether it be witches, or the gay community, or people who worship a different god, power hungry people, those without real solutions to society's ills, can always find a segment to dehumanize and blame. 

I believe that my friend will be welcomed into heaven despite the blindness he displays towards those born with a different sexual orientation. His goodness, his good acts outweigh his bad, and, in the end, isn't that the math we will all face and answer to? Still, if someone as good as he continues to believe that people born with a different sexual preference are condemned by god if they act on their desires, is it any wonder that witches were burned at the stake hundreds of years ago? 

The negative acts perpetuated by good people.

Many people complain today that there are those among us who try to evaluate those from our country's history using morals of today. And, to an extent, I agree, that we should not negatively judge those founding fathers who owned slaves while penning our great documents of freedom. I believe it is possible to carry two thoughts in our heads at once and that despite those original signers being products of their times, despite their biases, they achieved greatness. It seems to me that believing that people can accomplish and/or inspire historic accomplishments, and who do so even though they are flawed, allows all of us to strive towards our own goals, knowing it doesn't require divine intervention or extraordinary genetics or unlimited resources.

Perhaps though, a better retort would be to ask, why do we judge people today based on the standards of 2000 years ago? When someone says their holy book condemns homosexuality, well, that certainly doesn't surprise me since most of those tomes were written by men centuries ago. 

When Jesus was on earth, there were leprosy colonies. At the time, and for centuries afterward, victims were isolated from regular society, not just out of fear of contracting leprosy but because most of society was ignorant of the causes of the disease, many concluded that victims of leprosy were moral degenerates being punished by God. Jesus walked among them to illustrate that his God loved all men, and that all men were worthy of salvation. While I may be musing a bit outside the lines here, I imagine that a Jesus walking among us today would demonstrate the same anti-establishment behavior by supporting those being marginalized due to their own special way of expressing their love, and who they love. 

Perhaps it is time for an even newer Testament, one that recognizes that condemning people in the name of a god, is as out of date as burning witches and calling leprosy a divine punishment. At the least, maybe we should tone down the arrogance that is reflected when we speak, judge, condemn and praise in the name of the creator.

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