Witch Hunts

[Moon_Glow]

I grew up in Southwest Florida in the US and I can tell you that the Bible Belt is real and is SPREADING...

I now live in NY and the "born-again", "Evangelical", "Episcopalian", "Charismatic", "Non-Denominational" way has made its way to the north... Not ALL but ALOT of these churches preach against anything that isn't on their agenda.

In our community in NY and also when I lived in Florida, these churches are openly against Halloween. It's evil and its Satan's holiday.
Harry Potter is EVIL and perpetuates Witch craft!
They get the kids to recruit other kids into the church with promises of yearlong passes to Disney World (no joke I got one when I was 13)

I was told that both my parents will be burning in Hell because my mom was born Jewish and my dad, whose family by the way is littered with brilliant Theologians, no longer attended church and didn't believe that Jesus was the literal son of God.

There are safe communities everywhere and there are conservative communities, but I believe that the spread of the Evangelical Christian Church is hindering the spread of Spiritual Enlightenment.

I know this is a bit of a rant and I'm sorry - just have had very BAD experiences with these "Witch Hunters"

I also must add that my spiritual path started in Southwest Florida, I met my first spiritual teacher who led me and taught me for many years as well as introducing me to a community of Pagans/Wiccans and many other like-minded individuals.

The area I live too is quite open-minded- there are many like-minded people here as well BUT there are people everywhere who are ready to persecute what they don't understand.

It is unfortunate that people professing a love for God feel the need to condemn everyone who isn't 100% on board with their beliefs.

[Starpixie]

I remember when I first started reading about Wicca and Witchcraft, just reading about it mind you. I was in an Evangelical youth group, many of my friends were part of the church, I was homeschooled so my friend pool was small, but one of my friends saw the book I was reading and reported back to the youth pastor. Next thing you know I was asked to come to youth group early, I walk in and there is the youth pastor and his wife, the church pastor and his wife, and several parents of other kids in the youth group. I was told that even reading about those things was sinful, I had demons floating around my shoulders clinging to me from reading about those things, the mother that saw the demons wanted to perform and exorcism and on and on, it was like an intervention on my soul, I left devastated. I live in the midwest, there are fanatics about everything and everywhere. I keep my path to myself and rarely discuss it outside of online interactions for that reason.

[ShineLikeStars]

Every woman in some American villages was killed. The witch hunts were an expression of misogyny more than anything. There were women who were killed for crimes such as surfing.
Someone saw a woman riding the waves on a board, and he had never seen such a thing before. He concluded it was devil's work, and she was killed.
And as for other countries, witchcraft still exists in Mexico. But it is not tolerated in many places, and there have been witches who were killed there in recent times.

[Jenny Crow]

Originally Posted by ShineLikeStars

Someone saw a woman riding the waves on a board, and he had never seen such a thing before. He concluded it was devil's work, and she was killed.
.

My goodness, I've not heard that before - but who is "he" - you said "he" concluded it was devil's work?