I was relaxing, doing genealogical research tonight when I came across an excerpt from "History of Andover", Massachusetts, by a Miss Bailey, written over 100 years ago. It gives details about some women of Andover who were caught up in the witch hysteria which will be forever linked to another town in Essex County--one called Salem.

She was an aged woman, a widow, without friends of influence to give aid in her distress. She was evidently weak in mind and body, and was ready at the trial to confess to almost anything, and believed anything which was suggested against them. Indeed, some of these women had so long used to contemplate their natural and acquired depravity, in its most aggrivated forms, that some of the sensitive and self-accusing were ready, even in ordinary religious meditations, to regard themselves as guilty of almost all sin, believing literally that 'he that offendeth in one point is guilty of all'. The piety of Ann Foster is especially spoken of by her sons, and there can be little doubt that she was led to charge herself with the sin of witchcraft with all sincerity and contrition. A broken down old woman, in her decreptitiude and weakness, torn from her quiet home, brought a long journey to prison and a court room, accused of blaspheming her God and forsaking her Savior--what wonder that she sank and died under such a weight of miseries. She was four times examined--July 15th, 16th, 18th and 21st. It is pitiful to think of this poor, tottering, feeble creature, dragged again and again before her accusers, and finally dismissed to the sheriff to be taken care of as guilty.


The chilling part is that Ann, a "pious" woman, had really been condemned by her own piety--the beliefs about original sinfulness which had been drummed into her since she was a child. She willingly confessed because, to her, she WAS guilty--of everything. And so the ministers used her, and others like her, to try and gain power in Massachusetts Bay Colony.

I see this same thing happening today amongst the fundamentalists of both Christian and Muslim faith. Their preaching is of hatred and fear, and their influence strong. Religion has its place in society--in the temple, church, or mosque. It must never be allowed to enter the assemblies and Congresses where laws are made.