Reddit reviews Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England

> You have John Hagee actually saying that when a woman uses sex to manipulate a man, it's witchcraft. He goes on to say that any time a person tries to manipulate a person, whether it be children, or mothers, it's witchcraft.

> That may be the single dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Possibly, but it isn't all that far removed from the circumstances of historical witch-persecution. John Demos' book Entertaining Satan is illuminating in that regard. It uses the wealth of primary evidence available from the American witch crazes to examine the characters involved, and one of the things that it reveals is that some of these figures had personalities that were, well, vexing. You find in it the expected -- people railroaded into victimization because for unfortunate reasons -- but you also find characters who continually manipulate their neighbors, harass them, revel in their accusations, and generally exhibit a high degree of misanthropy. And in those cases, the accusation of witchcraft ceases to be a simply matter of letting your fantasies run wild; it becomes, rather, a condemnation of the person's entire attitude towards human society, a catch-all for the myriad ways in which they've set themselves against community.

None of which I say to justify any of it. I just wanted to point out the similarities between what Hagee has said on the matter and the sentiments that drove some of the historical witch trials. When one of the central symbols of your experience is the association of misanthropy, anarchism, and deception with the demonic and diabolical, it's a short step towards associating those who exhibit those characteristics with witchcraft.

I cannot disagree more.....

The witch trials was a very important example of the rift that was starting to grown in America between merchant and agrian classes.

I recommend you read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Entertaining-Satan-Witchcraft-Culture-England/dp/0195174836

Now, I admit that at times people get a little too deep into it, but as an event it is very illuminating about early American culture.