t after washing an unhealthy child because of its rarity (2). Eventually all women were a target for accusations. If someone felt guilty after turning away a person in need then they could accuse that person of witchcraft because of the belief that they caused them to feel guilty (2). It was so easy to get a witch executed that in 1586 every female except two were executed from two different villages (2). The Churches mentally sick and demented ways of viewing witched and women didn’t stop with the end of the witch hunting craze in the 17 hundreds it continues still today. In 1976 Elizabeth Hahn, a poor spinster who lived in a small German village, was accused of witchcraft and was suspected to keep devil’s agents in the form of dogs. Her neighbors threatened to beat her to death with rocks but instead they burnt down her house in which she was badly burnt and her animals were killed. And in 1981 a Mexican mob stoned a women to death after suspecting her of the witchcraft, that they believed caused the attack upon Pope John Paul II. (2). I feel that it is because men ran churches that witch hunting got so out of hand. I love Helen Ellerbe’s following statement: “It is hardly surprising that women who not only possessed medicinal knowledge but who used that knowledge to comfort and care for other women would become prime suspects of witchcraft.” (Helen Ellerbe, The Dark Side of Christian History)(2). In one complete sentence Helen was able to sum up women’s early medical knowledge and their ability to care for one another. What the Church did to women, witches or not, sickens me as it should sicken every conscious living soul. They used their power and also their fear of losing that power to execute millions of innocent women. Not only did they execute them but they tortured them in unthinkable ways. The Church and men alike should be forever sorry for their part in the witch hunting craze. Bibliograph...
