The Witchcraze, which peaked around 1600 in Europe, was an attempt, according to some, to consolidate power for Catholics and Protestants by “conquering” the heathenism of the peasants. As fights for religious powers often do, this one was waged on the backs of the part of the culture considered the most threatening: unattached, especially older women. Women were targeted in much greater numbers than were men and most of them were older, widowed women; wise-women, midwives.
Joan of Arc burned as a witch
However the accusation of mischief making was only enough in the early years of the Witchcraze. By about 1560 it was about sex. Accused witches were said to be sexual slaves of Satan, participating in orgies and “perverse” sexual acts. The Witchcraze was not just about consolidating power by terrorizing the poor and women, but by projecting the culture’s fear and loathing of sex onto the least powerful amongst them. The more elaborate and heightened the fears about sex became, the greater the percentage of women amongst the accused, up to 80%. Women were seen as the “weaker link” — that lured Adam in the garden. They became the holders of the projection of the culture around fears of the body, of sexuality, of weakness. (From Servants of Satan: The Age of the Witchhunts by Joseph Klaits)
In Western culture today, the witch hunts go on. They’re now in the form of terrorizing children about the “horrors” of homosexuality. They’re in the form of “exorcising” gay demons from young men and women in often violent ceremonies.
Rev. Irene Monroe writes for The Bay Windows on the use of “Hell Houses” by evangelical Christians:
Hell houses” are today’s contemporary form of witch-hunting. Created in the late 1970’s by fundamentalist pastor Rev. Jerry Falwell, “hell houses” are religious alternatives to traditional haunted houses. They are tours given by evangelical churches across the country design to scare people away from sin. And one of those sins is homosexuality.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force issued a report in 2006 entitled “Homophobia at ‘Hell House‘”. It describes scenes depicting young lesbians committing suicide and burning in hell, a gay man dying of AIDS after getting married with a demon at his side, laughing maniacally. Not only do these scenes do uncountable harm to LGBTQ youth, but they misinform all youth and encourage further harassment toward youth for their real or perceived sexual orientation. There is no question in my mind that witnessing violence and terrorizing images such as these would leave any youth with some residual trauma.
The witchhunts go on: it is still about anxiety about sex and gender, distortions and projections by a culture on it its most vulnerable and about turning people against one another out of terror and fear of “going to hell.” Now, instead of targeting women, the new “witches” are those who do not fit sexual and gender norms. Some things don’t change. Is it not time to stop terrorizing one another, and harming the most oppressed amongst us in a useless effort to export our own fears on to others?
Read more: New York Times article from 2006 on Hell Houses
An episode from NPR’s This American Life on Hell Houses.
