Salem: Martha and Corey Giles

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Thursday, March the twentieth, twenty twenty five. It is currently eleven forty four am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well, how would you like to return to Salem this morning? I hope Well, if you're tuning in, maybe you know what we're getting ready to talk about. Maybe you have no idea, so maybe you're not really ready to go back to Salem. Maybe you don't even care to go back to Salem.

0:44 But we are going to return to Salem and talk once again about the Salem Witch Trials. We've been talking about them a lot again. I believe the Salem Witch Trials has so many lessons for the Church and for Christianity. I think we need to learn learn all of those lessons. I know it's a cliche, but those who do not learn from history are what doomed to repeat it. And so we don't want to repeat what happened in Salem. And yet many times I look at modern day Christianity and I get very concerned that many of the very same things that kind of led to what happened in Salem and the Salem Witch Trials, that those same concepts, that same way of thinking, well, not only is at present today within Christianity, it has been present. They may Christianity may not have the exact same power because of kind of the merging of the church and state at the time of the Salem Witch Trials. Now, if Christianity ever merges back with the state and Christian nationalism gets its way, well, the same thing that happened in Salem will happen here in the United States of America. People will start dying. Because anytime church and state merges, people start dying. So I'm going to continue to have us return back to Salem to learn the lessons. And I always encourage Jenny one, if you ever get an opportunity to go to Salem, Massachusetts, you should go and you should learn everything that occurred there. So are you ready, Let's try to do this all right? We have been looking specifically at the girls who were afflicted and who

2:16 made the accusations. We took some time to hear the story and to tell the story of Betty Paris and Abigail Williams. Those were the girls who participated in the egg ritual and we think something scared them to death that may have led them, possibly to says claiming they were afflicted by witches and make the first accusations. Remember Betty Paris was the pastors or the reverend's daughter, and Abigail Williams was his niece. They were young, they claimed to be afflicted. They showed all the crazy symptoms that we've talked about, and then they made the accusations. Then we had Anne Putnam Junior. Do not forget her because she's going to be very important to this story. And Putnam Junior she accused, I went over sixty people, I believe sixty two, sixty three. But yet she's the woman who ultimately apologized, So her story is very interesting. We have Elizabeth Hubbard, she's the theatrical accuser. She turned it into a spectacle. She was dramatic, all right. Then we talked about Mary Warren. She's the accuser who became the accused, and she was the accuser who then recanted of her accusations that she's accused, and then she brings back her accusations.

3:32 Her story. I mean, all of these stories are just crazy to hear. Well, today we are going to go back to March the twelfth, sixteen ninety two, and we're going to go back to Ann Putnam Junior. I was kind of trying to follow kind of a chronological order. We were kind of going through the girls who were afflicted and who made the accusation. But we're going to kind of do kind of a U turn, kind of go back. We're going to go back to Ann Putnam Junior and well, a very specific situation involving her affliction and accusations and how it impacts to important well two people.

4:15 All everyone involved in this was important because of what happened to them. But this story is pretty tragic, and so once again, I'm going to do this as a narrative. I'm going to do it as a narrative, and hopefully, I think a lot of people have liked me doing this as a narrative. It's still very hard for me to just present it in a true narrative form because I like to kind of go into the narrative, then come back out, offer commentary, explanation, ask questions, and then go back into the narrative. Hopefully this has been well. Hopefully you are okay with this approach. So are you ready? Here we go. Let's go back to Salem, March the twelfth, sixteen. Now, the Salem witch trials began with accusations against outsiders. That's very key to today's story, all right. The Salem witch trials began with accusations against outsiders. Please do not forget that, all right. The Salem witch trial began with accusations against outsiders, beggars, enslaved women, and outcasts. That's who the original accusations were against. Again, they were against the outsiders, against beggars, against enslaved women, against the outcast. But everything changed when the hysteria reached into the heart of the Puritan community. Because when Martha Corey,

5:50 our respected church member, was accused, it sent one clear message to the people of Salem. No one was safe, no one. See before, if you were an outsider, if you were a beggar, if you were you know, if that was kind of if you were an enslaved woman, if you were kind of in a sense an outsider and powerless, then you were not safe. But everyone else probably felt that they were somewhat safe. But everything changes. Everything changes when Martha Corey is accused because she is a respected church member, and when she is accused, it sends a very important message to every single person in Salem.

6:38 You aren't safe. You can be accused just like that. You don't even need to be present. Because of the spectral evidence, which we've talked about over and over and over, anyone can accuse you. Who was her accuser none other than Putnam Junior, the most prolific accuser in Salem. But why did she target Martha Corey And was there something deeper, something more personal behind the accusation. Today, hopefully I'm going to unravel the story of Anne Putnam Junior, Martha Corey and her husband, Giles Corey. So I'm going to tell you the story of Anne Putnam Junior and how she relates to this entire situation. Martha Corey and her husband Giles Corey where because this is I think this is very important. They're horrific fate. What happens to Martha and Giles remains one of the most infamous tragedies of the Salem Witch Trials. And if you go to Salem, if you go to the Salem, the Salem Witch museum. I think that's the first one I ever went to. You hear the story of Corey Giles, hear his story. In fact, I think if you go, I mean, I've been almost to any I haven't been to every single place you can visit yet in Salem, I'm still trying to get

8:09 through everything. But when I go back again, I'm gonna do my best to try to. I mean, I could go to Salem for the rest of my life and never get tired of going to these places. Learning about the Salem Witch draws. But I think almost every place you go, you hear about Corey Giles. I think you hear about him, maybe more than you do Martha. I think Corey gets more of the attention. And you're going to see why he's always mentioned, all right, and yeah, it's pretty horrific why he's mentioned. Okay, So we're gonna try to unravel the story of Ann Putnam Junior. She's the afflicted, she's the accuser, she accuses Martha Corey, and while her husband, Giles Corey, ends up in the middle of all of this. Before she was branded a witch, Martha Corey was an upstanding member of the Salem community.

9:01 She was a full member of the church, well respected, and she was seen as a good Christian woman. But Martha had a past in one that some in Salem never forgot years before. Now this is very important. She's a good Christian woman, she's a church member, she's respected, but there's something in her past, something in her past that well, maybe just possibly no one forgot. You see, years before all of this craziness begins in Salem, Martha had given birth to an illegitimate mixed raced son, a fact that made some Puritans question for her moral character.

9:51 I want you to hear that again. Years before all of the hysteria begins in Salem, sixteenth January sixth ninety two, before all of this craziness happens, Martha had given birth to an illegitimate mixed race son, a fact that some that made some within the Puritan world question her moral character. Still, she had repented, married Giles Corey, and lived a quiet religious life, but in sixteen ninety two, her outspoken nature would make her a target. Unlike many in Salem, Martha Corey did not believe in this witchcraft hysteria. She openly mocked the trials and question the legitimacy of the afflicted girls.

10:45 And we're going to start seeing a pattern here, right, And this is the reason I wanted to tell this story at this point because of the last episode that we did. Look, if you questioned the trials, if you question the legitimacy of these girls, you almost immediately got accused of being a witch yourself. It didn't matter who you were, It didn't matter what your standing was, didn't matter if you were a good church member. They were coming after you. You could not. You had to either go along with the hysteria or you were going to become the victim of it. And that's oh. I mean that the history has shown this so many times. So unlike many in Salem, Martha Corey did not believe in the witchcraft hysteria. She openly mocked the trials and questioned the legitimacy of the afflicted girls. And this was dangerous in Salem, because in Salem, to doubt was to be suspicious.

11:41 To question the afflicted was to side with the devil. You can't question, you can't challenge. You go along with the narrative, or you're you're with the devil. You're in league with the devil and Christianity has played this game for a very, very long time. It really has this Really when you go back to Salem and you see this, I think it helps you really understand a lot of the thinking that's happened throughout Church history, even in the modern times. If the Church says this is wrong or this is wrong, you go along with everyone, because the minute you question, the minute you challenge, oh, now you are satanic, you are a heretic. You've always got to go along with everyone, or they're gonna turn on you.

12:25 They're gonna turn on you quickly. Martha went so far as to tell people that the girls were lying and that the court was a joke. Now that that's gonna get her in trouble, but I want you to know that that. See, there were those who kept saying, these girls are lying, these girls are lying. How come no one can see this. You're all being played. But no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no no, no, no, no no no. You had to go along with it because Satan was everywhere. Satan was everywhere, Witches were everywhere. She even laughed at the idea that the people in Salem were being tormented by witches. And someone was listening to all of this.

13:11 Some say that someone was Anne Putnam Junior. Now my speculation is, or at least I'm gonna ask the question, was it Anne Putnam Junior that was listening? Or was it her father that was listening? You know, well, I still believe Anne Putnam was more manipulated more than anything else. But we've already told that story. We won't go into that again. On March the twelfth, sixteen ninety two, March the twelfth, sixteen ninety two, I told you we're going to go back to that particular date, March the twelfth, sixteen ninety two. Remember that date. On March the twelfth, sixteen ninety two, Anne Putnam Junior claimed that Martha Corey Specter attacked her. She screamed, convulsed, and described how Martha tormented her from across the room. Was this because Martha doubted the trials? Martha had publicly ridiculed the afflicted girls.

14:16 Did Anne see her as a threat to the trials? Was it personal? Anne knew Martha Corey and may have held resentment towards her. Some historians believe Anne was coached by her father, Thomas Putnam, who played a major role in the trials. Was it a test to see how far the court would go? Before this, most of the accused were outsiders, poor, marginalized, or already suspected of sin. Accusing Martha Corey, a church member, proved that anyone could be a witch. Now that means there's a lot of speculation in history. Why what happened here? Now? I think I still think it's Anne's father. I still think he I mean, come on, I really do believe. Now, maybe Anne had some issue with Martha. Maybe maybe people and this one is not brought up a lot in history.

15:19 And again, most of this, the speculation that I'm offering is not really offered if you go visit the places in Salem. But man her past, her past, I know she doesn't fit the typical description of the outsiders that were accused, But I mean, come on, her past I think was pretty scandalous. So I don't did they I don't know. There's a lot going on here that I cannot be dogmatic about. And here's the most terrifying part about all. We have all of the questions, but the most terrifying part is ultimately this works. When Martha Corey was brought in for examination. She made one fatal mistake.

16:14 She laughed. They bring her in for a examination, she just starts laughing. She starts laughing, and why is she laughing? Because she couldn't believe what was happening. She couldn't fathom that the town actually thought she was a witch. She was like, this has to be a joke. This is ridiculous. Like she did, I don't think she quite grasped the seriousness of her situation. I think she was like, oh, come on, guys, this is ridiculous. But the moment she denied the charges, the afflicted girls begin to writhe in pain, and Putnam Junior screamed that Martha Spirit was attacking her.

16:58 Others clutched their throats, gasping for air. Immediately when they brought her into examiner, she starts laughing. The laughing. The girls are like, okay, here's your you know. Basically, it's almost as if someone was like, all right, are you ready? Set action? Right? I mean, I mean it was like they knew exactly what to do. She starts laughing at everything, going this is a ridiculous. This is ridiculous. And the girls like this, Oh no, we're being attacked. Her spirit is after us, Her spirit is after us. And they start yelling, screaming, gasping for air, and everybody's like, it's happening. She's a witch. Now the judges see this as proof that Martha was guilty. They're like, that's proof right there, that's proof. It's happening. She insisted she was innocent. She begged them to use reason, re think this through, be reasonable, but the court they'd already made up for their mind.

18:04 You're guilty. You're a witch. That's all it took. Get accused. You laugh at it. The girls fall start falling around, yelling, screaming, gasping for airon I said that does it? Stop it? Stop it, stop it. She's a witch. Martha Corey was then arrested, but her husband, Giles Corey, now he makes a crucial mistake. He speaks out against the trials. He's like, come on, this is ridiculous. Giles doubted the accusers and this and his public opposition makes him a target. Within days to see how this works, He's like, come on, guy, this is ridiculous. Stop this. Within days, can you guess what's going to happen? The afflicted girls claim that his spirit is tormenting them too. Hey, he starts coming out again.

19:07 Oh oh well, you're you're gonna say that we're faking it, you're a witch. It's ridiculous, Like it's so insane. But once you create fear, once you create paranoia, then you just attack anyone and everyone. You either are with us or you are attacked. Now what's crazy is that Giles Corey was a man who believed in the Puritan system of justice. He would have been all for the Puritan way of thinking, but now he finds him self trapped by it. Now, this is the same thing that happens. There's no way for me not to at least acknowledge this.

19:50 Look what happens if you are a Trump supporter MAGA and then all of a sudden you start questioning, you question what happens on January the sixth, and you're like, you know what, I think this was wrong. I think this was this was this was an you can't do this, this is wrong. If you if you are a MAGA or a Trump supporter, and you're like, no, Trump, you actually lost the last election in twenty twenty. It wasn't rigged, it wasn't stolen. No, you lost immediately. If you say that what happened on January sixth was wrong and you put any blame on Trump, all those claims of the election being stolen, you call Trump a liar, MAGA and Trump's supporters will turn on you, and five point two seconds you stay in line. Everything Trump does is right, Everything Maga does is right. You cannot question it, you cannot challenge it. You cannot use logic, you cannot use reason, you cannot use facts. You either go with them or they will run you over. It's the same concept. This is the way to think, and you must agree with us.

20:52 There's no questioning, there's no challenging, and the same thing happens in the Church. Logic, reason, facts, No, everything is based off paranoia, fear, in many cases conspiratorial thinking. So he would have been all for the Puritan system. Now he's one, he's getting ready to be well. For now, we'll just say he's trapped by it. Some of you may know what happens to Corey, but it's it's crazy, all right. When Giles Corey was put on trial, he refused to Interruptlee. He's like, no, not going to do it.

21:32 He knew that if he platt it guilty. If he pleaded guilty, he would die anyway. And if he pleaded not guilty, he would face a corrupt court. So no matter what he did, he knew. He was like, it doesn't matter what I say, I'm gonna be in trouble no matter why. So he's like, basically, he's like, I'm not gonna play your games. I'm not gonna play the Puritan reindeer games. I'm not playing I You can do whatever you want. I'm not participating. Well, that's not gonna go well for him. It's not gonna go well for him, not at all. So he stayed silent. He's just like, I'm not I'm not gonna speak. And for that he was sentenced. He was sentenced to pressing. He was sentenced to pressing. Do you know what pressing is? It was a horrific form of execution where stones are piled on the body until either you speak up, you say I'm guilty or I'm not guilty. Right, so you just keep putting more more of these giant rocks on you, these stones on you, or you die. You're gonna We're gonna keep putting more weight on you. You're either gonna confess or you're going to die. Yeah, yeah, this is the wonderful Christian world of Puritanism, all right. For two days,

23:10 not an hour, not two hours, two days, Cory endured the weight of the stones, and he would not confess. He would not speak his final words. Now, I cannot one hundred percent prove this, but it seems to be universally accepted. His final words were said, he wouldn't confess, He wouldn't say anything else. But his final words were more weight, more weight. Just come on, put on more weight, come on, put on some more rocks. On September the nineteenth, sixteen ninety two, Gles Corey was crushed to death, making him the only person in Salem to die by pressing.

24:14 They used torture, They used torture. I have no words for this. The man was innocent. On September the twenty second, sixteen ninety two, just three days after her husband's brutal execution, Martha Corey was hanged on Gallows Hill. Martha Corey had committed no crime except doubting the trials, and in Salem, doubt was as dangerous as which craft itself. She had been a loyal church member. She had been a faithful wife.

25:08 She was an innocent woman, but in the eyes of Salem, she was a witch, and for that she had to die. The deaths of Giles and Martha Corey became one of the most infamous tragedies of the Salem Witch Trials. Giles's brutal execution horrified many and helped turn public opinion against the trials. Now years later, seventeen oh six, and Putnam Junior publicly apologizes. She does make her apology. Now, we've looked at her apology, We've read her apology, We've debated all the different kind of interpretations of her apology, and she kind of struggles and how to exactly present her apology.

26:04 I still feel her father is very much involved in all of this. Martha Corey doubted the trials, Giles Corey resisted the court, and for that they both paid with their lives. Their story is a warning, a reminder of what happens when fear overpowers reason and justice becomes a tool of oppression. When fear overcomes reason, when fear overcomes reason, when people get so worked up and again it plays this plays out throughout church history. Right, you just got to tell everyone this. You need to be scared of this.

26:47 You need to be scared of this. This is this is coming after us, this is going to destroy us, whatever the case mean. You just give people the fear, and then you dehumanize the people. You gotta you gotta have a you got you gotta create the fear. And then you've got to have an enemy. They are the enemy, and you dehumanize them. And then you can say, you can bear false witness. You can lie, and Christians have been doing this forever. They're they're coming to get you. And then and then and sermons, you can say whatever you want about them. You can act in a completely ungodly way. Lie, misrepresented, misrepresentations, false witness. Nobody cares in the church. I don't care, because as long as you go after the enemy, they agreed upon enemy. And if anyone goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. Wait a minute, wait a minute, that's not true. That's not accurate. That's not true. That's not accurate. That's not true. Well what about this, No, no, no, they're coming after you. Because you cannot do that. So you got to create fear, give everyone the enemy. You gotta get You got to provide them an enemy, and then you basically dehumanize them, and then you can say whatever I want you want about them. You hear it in Christian radio sometimes when they talk about you, even hear it from the pulpit.

27:59 If they talk talk about Democrats, they call them names, mock them, because the Democrats are the enemy. They're out to destroy us. And so then you and then they will say things sometimes completely not true, not accurate, fraudulent, false information because paranoia, fear, conspiracy. The churches. The church is filled with that nonsense. And sometimes it doesn't even make sense, yell and scream and so upset about certain aspects of the LGBTQ community just lose their minds. And it's like, but I mean, go to the Roy's report today, report after report of this sexual crime inside the church, This child molested, this happened, this over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Look at all the statistics about sexual molestation and sexual crimes inside the church. Go but no, no, no, no, are we got to be fearful of this. We've got to be scared of them. We need to me want to look inside our own house, and that's you. And I bring that example up constantly because I constantly see the stories.

29:11 It's like in the side of the church, this and then you know, you hear about you know, whether it's in the Southern Baptist, Independent Baptists, well, you know what, it doesn't matter which denomination. There's always these you hear all of these stories. We've got our own sin. But no, we we just got to feel put the You never worry about what's going on within Christianity, or you're always supposed to look at what's going on outside of Christianity. That's what you're supposed to fear, because it's coming to get us. And then you've got to get lists the enemies. And then you can just say whatever you want. And Putnam she does apologize, but her apology does not bring back what happened to Martha and Giles Corey does not bring them back. Martha and Giles Corey, Martha Giles is pressed to death, and Martha dies by being you know, dies by hanging on Gallows Hill. What a messed up, a messed up thing. And in there are a number of places of memorials for those who were killed. There's one it's in Salem itself. It's not outside of town.

30:43 It's in town, not not in what was Salem Village, which is Danverse, but in actual Salem. And it's right there next to the graveyard. And you kind of walk up and there's these these stones of all the people, all the people who were killed, and it has the name and the date that they were killed. And I remember just walking up to each one, just looking down at their names and just saying, man, I'm so sorry. Like and I remember seeing Martha, Giles Corey's names and I just reached down touch It's like, it's beautiful the way they have it right, And I just reached down and touched the stone and just like, man, I'm so sorry.

31:28 What happened to you? In the name of Christ, in the name of Christianity, in the name of God. You were false you were people bore false witness, You're falsely accused, you were murdered. What a messed up situation. There's the story of Martha and Giles Corey. We've got to learn the lessons, ladies and gentlemen. We need logic, we need reason, We need to remove paranoia and fear. We need to get rid of conspiratorial thinking. We need to get rid of groupthink. We need to be skeptical, we need to question, we need to challenge things, and for the love of all that is holy, we've got to stand opposed to Christian nationalism. Thanks for listening, God bless