1. The New Witch Hunt-From Salem 1692 to the Hysteria Over Gay Rights & Marriage Now

Ask anyone what they think happened in Salem Mass. In 1692 and they are likely to say something to the effect that some unsophisticated settlers, given to religious fervor and superstition during a harsh winter and desolate conditions, became obsessed with evil and targeted those who they saw as a threat. Ask those same people if such a thing could happen today, and they are likely to say “of course not!”

However, I submit to you that it is in fact happening again, only this time gays-not witches are the target. Consider:

In Salem witches were viewed as being possessed by evil that must be exorcised. The religious right of today see gays has being sick and in need of a cure.

The members of the Bay Colony saw witches as a threat to their Christian beliefs and even a threat to the continued existence of Christianity. Today, the religious right speaks passionately about their religious freedom being violated by gay rights and the criminalization of Christianity.

The settlers were driven by ignorance and fear of the unknown, and the need for a scapegoat to blame their problems on witches-which included a small pox outbreak and the perception of religious persecution. Today, we can see these same forces at work among the virulently religious right who have blamed gays for everything from natural disasters, and disease to the risen of liberal secularism.

Yes, the colonists were beset by real and present dangers- Native American’s , pirates, economic difficulties and political tensions with England which added to the stress which in turn contributed to the hysteria and the need to blame someone. We see the same dynamic playing out today with the fear of Islam and ISIS, uncertainty about the economy and the fact that there are people in power who do not reflect their values.

The settlers were so threatened by those who they deemed witches that they imprisoned and murdered them. Today, most on the right do not advocate imprisonment, burning at the stake, or drowning. However, there are those who do lament the decriminalization of homosexuality and some who have in fact advocated the imprisonment and execution of gays.

As in 1692, there is an identifiable triggering condition now. Then, it was a difficult winter living in isolation. Now, it is the rapid rise of the acceptance of gay people, and the speed at which they have gained legal rights culminating in marriage equality


If anyone wishes to question the voracity of this analogy, I invite you to first review a brief history of the Salem witch trials:

Now, let’s have a closer look at what is happening today. Enter Mike Huckabee:

Clearly, he is demonizing and scapegoating gays. Here is more from a supporter of another presidential contender who apparently has no problem with her extreme and bizarre views

Now let’s talk about the World Congress of Families which met recently in Salt Lake City….

More Salem style vilification and scapegoating. And the myths born of ignorance and fear, and the lies that speak to the deep seated animosity towards gays continues. Numbers 3, 4, 6, and 9 are especially egregious and represent the type of rhetoric that can lead to physical violence:

And then there is the endless drum beat of fear mongering about how gay rights is antithetical to Christianity and that it will destroy the freedom of religion, and religion itself:

Ted Cruz and the politics of faith and fear: How the GOP mastered the art of exploiting scared Christians Ted Cruz and the politics of faith and fear: How the GOP mastered the art of exploiting scared Christians

The American Family Association is one of the most divisive and virulent organizations that is exploiting Christianity in there anti-gay crusade The American Family Association Publishes Interactive 'Bigotry Map' Featuring LGBT Organizations :

And let’s not forget the American evangelical, including some politicians who have traveled to Africa and Russia to promote those countries antigay agendas, which have included proposals to jail and even execute gays. Even right here in the U. S., in California to be exact, a ballot initiative to allow for the summary execution of gays was proposed.

It all comes down to this…..there are some of us who are not better, not smarter, and no more rational than the inhabitants of the Bay Colony, and if they were to achieve the control of government , Salem could indeed happen again.

 

This post gets an A+.

The research correlating the famous Salem witch hunts in comparison to the Gay Community is striking and so real. There are some homophobic politicians who stir up fear toward the Gay Community as if Gays are monsters. These people should try making friends with some Gays and they will soon discover how wrong they were to be bigoted against these people.

There will always be troublemakers but the Supreme Court decision on June 26, 2015 which made Gay Marriage the law of the land was good Karma.

 

Thank you!!

 

You're welcome!

 

A very well detailed post. All of the facts needed to prove the case to people of reason are included. However, there is no number of facts, no documented evidence, and no amount of anecdotal verification that can change the mind of any member of the extreme Christian right once they've become devoted to a belief.

Just read their posts on these message boards. The extreme Christian conservatives and neoconservatives, though not alone in their complete denial of facts, do fight with every fiber of their being to pass legislation to enable them to force their oppressive agenda down the throats of all Americans.

Yes, if given the opportunity, their primitive superstitions would set society back several centuries. Committing violence and death in the name of their god would viewed as a religious obligation.

.

 

What a bunch of crap. So which behaviors do you think we should legitimize next? Rape? Murder? Robbery? Pedophilia? Bestiality? Hell NAMBLA is already latching onto the lame we were born that way excuse. So come on what's next? Drinking and driving? Assault? Torture?

 

Thank you for that very intelligent and well organized reply on a very important humanitarian issue. Bless you!

 

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LOL. Very appropriate response

 

Yes, once again we see the typical response of the right to well-marshaled facts and tightly reasoned arguments which disagree with their ideology. These people don't want to return us to the nineteenth century but the ninth.

 

so your comparing giving gays equal rights to allowing "Rape? Murder? Robbery? Pedophilia? Bestiality?"

you are proving the point the op was trying to make

 

Here is more of the same hysterical fear mongering and demonization of gays.....

- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/conte...-try-legalize-pedophilia#sthash.VgzBe2om.dpuf

 

At a conference where speakers have compared LGBT rights to terrorism, called LGBT people pedophiles and warned that LGBT rights would lead to cyborgs taking over humanity, a familiar name has been spotted.

Ben Carson’s PAC is formally partnering with the World Congress of Families (WCF) IX conference this week, bringing together thousands of anti-LGBT activists from all over the world to Salt Lake City. http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/spott...anti-lgbt-world-congress-of-families-conferen

 

Yep and I'm demonstrating the stupidity of his point.such as it was. There is no right to behave as you wish. Rights are not inherent ot behavior but to being ahuman being the point is that we limit all sorts of so called rights and always have. The notion that gay behavior deserves some sort of special exemption not given other behaviors is ludicrous on it's face.

 

Really?

You can be adainst gay marriage without wanting to burn someone at the stake. This is the problem with gays, they have to victimize everything. Here is a tip.......use the nazi angle next time, it's much more dramatic with the gas chambers and everything.

 

Homosexuality is inferior to heterosexuality. Human laws, statutes, and judicial rulings cannot alter nature.

But if some guy wants to do another guy, I see no need to stand in the way.

 

Yes you can be against gay marriage without wanting to burn them at the stake....so why then do so many of these people want to-if not in fact then figuratively want to "burn them at the stake. Listen to the rhetoric!! Gays playing victim?? Give me a break ! Try reading my OP again and this time do it with comprehension as your goal.

 

Amazing that you Rightwingers can't tell the difference between the violent violation of another's rights and two people engaging in a consensual relationship.

It certainly says a lot about how you see your own relationships.

 

Ben Carson does not like the Gay Community. He is homophobic but he denies it. He is a phony!

 

It seems to me that you are talking about legitimizing CRIMES, not behaviors.
And the way you can find out when a CRIME is committed, versus an acceptable behavior is this:

1. Gay people are mutually CONSENTING. If this condition is not filled, ( i.e., one is not consenting. . .) it is simple, it becomes a rape and it is then a CRIME, which NO ONE wants to legitimize . . .except maybe a few extreme Right wing politicians who insist that there is a difference between a REAL rape and . . .whatever the "other" kind of rape is!
2. In gay relationships. . .no one gets hurt (at least no more than the heartaches also experienced in heterosexual relationships that fail!). In all other CRIMES that you list as "potential for future legitimization," someone gets either killed or seriously hurt.

Now... can you be serious and move of this no-sense?

 

Odd, how I don't see Christians taking gays to court, because they wouldn't bake them a cake, or forcing to go against their beliefs. Ya, but it's only the bible thumpers that are being shrill over gay marriage

 

Yeah, Christian instead would prefer to put gays in prison or lock them in mental institutions. Way better.

 

Project much?

 

It was Christians who fought the hardest against allowing gay sex to be legalized and that wasn't that long ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas

If Christians had their way, gays would be in prisons.

 

. I have never heard anyone advocating for the burning of gays and I doubt you have either.

 

Yes and the left continues to confound race and behavior. And it speaks volumes about the level of dishonesty on the left in general and in the homosexual rights movement in particularly.

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