From: cramer@optilink.COM (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: misc.legal,soc.history
Subject: Re: The Supreme Court Upholds Freedom of Speech
Keywords: AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power
Date: 20 Jan 93 17:39:10 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <19571@smoke.brl.mil>, matt@smoke.brl.mil (Matthew Rosenblatt) writes:
> In article <1993Jan15.184050.21761@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> 
> lrabe@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Lee A Rabe) writes:
> >So, the next time wiccans are practicing *their* faith, worshipping their
> >God/desses (who, btw, they believe in just as much as Catholics believe in
> >their OneTrueGod...), please don't interrupt their services.  Don't take away
> >and profane their holy items.  [Lee Rabe]
> 
> Have Christians been bursting into Wiccan-owned property, interrupting 
> Wiccan services, carrying off and profaning Wiccan holy items?  If so, 
> those Christians ought to stop doing that -- immediately.  This is
> America.

Considering the context in which Rabe made this comparison, and since
I am unaware of any such interruptions of Wiccan services, I think he
is referring to abortion and abortion clinics.  Now, I've seen pro-lifers
claim that abortion in America is the modern equivalent of child sacfrifice
done by the inhabitants of Palestine that were exterminated by the 
Hebrews -- and I thought, "My, that's a far-fetched idea," but when
Rabe appears to be claiming that abortion is a "Wiccan service," 
suddenly, the pro-lifers don't sound so crazy.

> American history shows that the Puritans came to America to get away
> from persecution by the Church of England, and that it took only
> a few decades before the descendants of these same Puritans were
> hanging witches in the New England.  Hypocrisy?
> 
> 					-- Matt Rosenblatt

While agreeing with much of what Mr. Rosenblatt has to say here,
I must disagree with this last paragraph.  

1. Witchcraft trials took place throughout the 17th century in both
England and America.  The last witchcraft trial in England was in
1712, and the judges essentially decided that while they had it on
good authority that such activities existed, they just found it hard
to believe that anything was accomplished by it.  The first bursts
of Enlightenment skepticism and discomfort because of the Salem
trials had made them skeptics in practice, if not in theory.  However,
witchcraft trials were held in New Jersey as late as 1812.

2. Witchcraft under English law was a crime not because of its 
religious content, but because of its intent to cause injury or 
death to another person or their livestock, and many people tried 
for this crime in England and America, if intent were the only 
issue, were certainly guilty, and many confessed without torture.  
(That their spells, etc., did nothing, they didn't know.)  Note 
that unlike many of the other witchcraft trials of the period, 
NONE of the people tried and convicted at Salem, Mass. confessed.

3. The Satanic worship fantasies of witchcraft (witches riding brooms,
sky-clad conclaves, etc.) are largely Continental and Scottish in 
origin.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
"When freedom destroys order, order will destroy freedom." -- Eric Hoffer
Not a goal, just a statement of reality.
Newsgroups: misc.legal