Life Changing Mindset

Is the mindset of anti-gay activists any different than those during the salem witch trials?

Are these anti-gay activists experiencing the same fear and hysteria that the witch hunters experienced during the salem witch trials? I mean, these people claim gays are evil, have a horrific agenda, and are going to destroy society. Isn't all of this lunacy basically another witch hunt brought on by fear and hysteria?

Public Comments

1. How many people died at the Salem witch trials? Tens of thousands? Nope! Thousands? No again. Hundreds? Still too high. Over a hundred? Nope. Dozens? Still too high.

More people died yesterday at the hands of hate filled muslims than were killed at the Salem witch trials..

Are the Muslims "lunatics" as well?

Read your history. Muslims and atheists like Hitler have killed far more gays than Christians. Don't worry about the people who build hospitals and give free health care in needy areas. Don't worry about the people who feed the hungry at soup kitchens around the world. Don't worry about the people who've built more schools, orphanages, and dental clinics than any religion out there.

Sound to me like you are on your own "witch hunt".

2. What fear and hysteria are you talking about? New York just passed Gay Marriage rights.

In terms of any similarities I see it another way. Both witchcraft and homosexuality are spoken very ill of in the Bible, you know, God's word. And before you crucify Christianity, check out how islam treats gays.

3. No their not similar at all. For one thing were not imprisoning, stoning, and hanging gays. For another, gays are actually gay, where as the "witches" were usually just older woman who were accused of being witches by their neighbors so they weren't accused of being witches themselves. What "lunacy" are you referring to? Is it that most people just aren't comfortable with a man marrying a man? Very few people are claiming gays have a horrific agenda, or are evil. Many people just think marriage should be between a man and a woman. Even the most conservative anti-gays don't think gays are evil they just think that they make the choice to be gay, and therefore don't deserve the rights of heterosexual couples.

4. No. Witches aren't real. Homosexuality is.

Old man knows what's up.

5. I think you have a point. The reality of the object feared has nothing to do with the fear. The granting of rights is no different from saying that the thing does not exist although there is a reality difference in this case. The one had torture and public execution while the other has gang attacks and private murder.

6. Yes. They're more educated and more knowledgeable about the world.

7. Short answer: no.

There's two big holes in your comparison. First, anti-gay activists are targeting real people, while witch hunters were targeting people that didn't actually exist: gays are real, witches (as the word was understood at the time) are not.

Second, gays are not universally rejected in our culture. Witches were universally rejected in Salem. Not everyone believed those accused were really witches, but they did believe that witches were bad, bad people.

8. Somewhat perhaps, except that whereas as far as we know none of the people who were accused of witchcraft at Salem were actually practising witchcraft, gay people are actually gay. Whether they are going to destroy society though is, I would say, doubtful.