Religion and WItchcraft

 

Religion and witchcraft have had a complicated past. In our world today, many view the two as mutually exclusive, meaning you can’t believe if in one if you believe ion the other. There are even some families who won’t let their children watch movies like Harry Potter or others that involve witches because they fear it influencing the religious views of their kids. However, if we travel back to when witchcraft was much more prevalent, it was viewed almost as an aspect of religion by many. They were two ideas that could live in harmony with each other. In this next section, we will explore both the Puritan and Catholic ties to witchcraft.


Beginning with the Puritan belief in witchcraft, it was not something that they thought was make believe. If it was, like the opinion that most current protestants hold, there would have been no witch trials in Salem. Instead, they ascribed to the belief that the world was an enchanted place and that there were forces that could bring out certain outcomes. There was no such thing as a coincidence where modern protestants might think that a certain negative outcome was due pure chance. Even though they believe in a loving and forgiving God, they ascribed to the idea that he could send the devil to act on his behalf as a warning to repent. The devil could then recruit witches to this job for him. Therefore, if someone got sick, it must be God sending a negative warning through the devil who used their neighbor the witch as a vessel. In this manner, there is an explicit link between religion and witchcraft rather than an abject denial.


Catholicism has a slightly more interesting story. Especially down in the southern U.S., there is a strong history of Voodoo. As a blend of African traditions and forced conversion to Christianity, Voodoo has aspects of both organized religion and witchcraft. As a catholic myself, I was pretty surprised to learn about this connection. I knew that there was French and Catholic influence in New Orleans, but I did not understand the implications that Catholicism had on Voodoo. If you were to compare similar aspects between the two, they both have idols that people often hold onto. Catholics might wear symbols or depictions of various saints while voodoo has their own icons and even dolls to represent individuals. While both of the Catholic and Protestant stories with religion are unique, they both share in the fact that their history with witchcraft is seldom talked about today. 


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