Talking about indignation

[Seri]

Intro to the question: I work in a national photography company's production lab doing work that involves seeing hundreds of images each night. Tonight, I found one of a young man wearing a shirt in which the only things visible were a cartoon hag depiction of a witch, a partially obscured phrase involving the words "witch's" and "coroner", followed closely by "Salem, Massachusetts." I had a bit of anger come over me for that.

So, Burning Times. What about it causes the most offense to you? A couple possibilities:

-Humanitarian: that the sort of "genocide" (not technically the case, but in the general spirit of it) occurred.
-Willful ignorance: that the perpetrators of these murders did so out of ignorance (the particular facet of the total ignorance that is your specific concern should go along with this).
-Scapegoating: that the events occurred as a form of scapegoating against a type of activity or baseless accusation.
-Religious: that at least some perpetrators considered it to be pious or right by their religious teachings.
-Hysteria: that the events occurred as a result of mob mentality and irrationality.

Not a comprehensive list, but a decent start, I suppose. Looking for thoughts and conversation on the topic.

[technomage]

So, Burning Times. What about it causes the most offense to you?

1: The willful exaggeration by many Neo-Pagans.
2: The false claims by many Neo-Pagans that the victims of the so-called "Burning Times" are somehow "proof" that Wicca is an ancient religion.

These two issues cause me far more indignation. The people who died during that time are dead, as are those who killed them. Yet by claiming their victimization as our own, we degrade not only the victims, but ourselves.

[Tasogare]

I have to agree with you, Silent Running. It definitely does seem to be more a Wicca-centric thing compared to many other groups. Probably because I don't know any others off the top of my head that call themselves witches.

[technomage]

It definitely does seem to be more a Wicca-centric thing compared to many other groups.

It's the single biggest mistake Gardner made (IMO)--the "History Myth," making Christianity our "enemy," the whole nine yards. I've written about it some here, but it's something far too many of us Wiccans get entangled in.

As a religion, we Wiccans mean very well, but we do have our occasional issues.