In the 1740s the meek and mild followers of gentle Jesus who resided in the hamlet of Knockdoor in Scotland barbarically killed the last witch. The old lady was dragged from her house given a rigged trial in a kangaroo court and murdered in the most cruel manner they Christians could devise.
There was no turning of the other cheek, no love, peace and understanding, no taking of beams from their own eyes, but instead was a lot of casting of the first stones.
The evidence for this ghastly institutionalised crime was that she had turned her own daughter into a pony and had ridden her around town.
She was publicly tried for the offence and the clincher was that she stumbled over a word when reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Gaelic.
The sentence was death.
This evil witch was then dragged out by the mob and plunged into a barrel of boiling tar and set alight.
I cannot imagine what it would feel like to be thrust into boiling tar. I think I might have preferred crucifixion.
All the good Christian town-folk came to gloat over their neighbour’s agonies, argue over her possessions and rejoice that another evil witch was gone. It was probably the daughter who inherited the house and pony!
It sounds dreadful but our meek and mild followers of the Saviour of love did away with an estimated 2 million witches in Europe.
It has a lot of resonance with what is going on with ISIS burning pilots in metal cages, beheading, burying alive, crucifying, stoning, pressing and delighting in torture and cruelty.
Theocracy is great isn’t it? The wonder is that anybody questions why I’m a confirmed Antitheist!
I think we need to build a more positive zeitgeist than anything religion can provide. Their history does not look good!