Salem: The Man Who Fought Back

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon, everyone. Let me ask you a question. Are you a Sunday afternoon drive type of person? Do you like a it's Sunday afternoon, you just go get in your car and you just drive around? Do Do you find that entertaining, relaxing, fun? Or you're like, what just get around? Just get in a car and drive around for no particular reason with no destination. Nope, not not my thing. Or maybe you love to do it. Maybe you did it when you were a kid because you didn't really have a choice that the parents said, hey guys, it's Sunday afternoon, get in the car, and they just drove wherever. And you're like, and you're sitting in the backseat thinking, what are we doing?

0:54 We're driving it's a Sunday afternoon drive. Learn to love it and maybe you loved it, Maybe you who loved it then maybe you don't love it so much now. Well, I don't know if you love Sunday afternoon drives. I don't know if you're a Sunday afternoon drive type of person. But well, today we're going to take a Sunday afternoon drive back to Salem, and we're going to continue our exploration of the Salem Witch Trials and see if we can learn a little bit more and see if we can well continue the story. We're nowhere close to finishing the story, but if we can continue the story and hopefully learn a little bit more about what happened in Salem.

1:35 But first I need to say good afternoon everyone. It is Sunday, March sixteenth, twenty twenty five. It is currently three thirty six pm Central time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Albilene, Texas. And three thirty six pm Central time. That's a pretty good I think that's a good time for a Sunday afternoon drive, don't you think, right? I mean you've had lunch. I mean this is a good time for a Sunday afternoon drive. So everyone get in the car. We're going to Salem. And well, it always sounds more fun than it is, because I mean, when we drive to Salem, even though I love the city man the Salem Witch Trials, that's not really fun or entertaining.

2:20 But it is very important that we understand them now. As we've been looking at the Salem witch trials, we've looked at a lot of things, but we've been looking specifically recently at the afflicted and the accusers, which typically are the same those who were claimed to be afflicted by a witch, being tormented by a witch's spirit. They turn out to them to be the accuser of whoever, the witch, from whomever they're going to point their fingers at, saying that's the witch. And first we started with Betty Paris, Betty Paris and Abigail Williams. Betty Paris and Abigail Williams, if you remember them. Betty Paris, she's the pastor's kid, the pastor's daughter, the reverend's daughter. Abigail Williams is the reverend's niece. And remember we'll refer to them as not only they are the first afflicted and the first accusers, they're the two girls well who had a glass of water and an egg and did the egg ritual, and well, we talked about that story. Then we had Anne Putnam Junior.

3:21 She's the girl who ultimately apologizes and her story is somewhat tragic, and definitely she feels very much like the victim in some ways. I mean, she accused a lot of people, but it really feels like she was being kind of manipulated and pushed by her father. Then we have Elizabeth Hubbard. She's the drama kid, She's the dramatic one, the theatrical accuser. Then we turned to our attention to Mary Warren. She's the accuser. Well who becomes the accused And well, she's the accuser who recants of her accusations to then turn around and make the accusation again. Well, her story is all complicated. But when we talk about Mary Warren, Now what I wanted to do is I wanted to just kind of follow the story of the afflicted and the accusers. Right, here are the girls who are afflicted, and here's their accusations, and here's who they accuse, and just kind of go through them chronologically and then talked about the accused, maybe somewhat in chronological order, and then what happened. Kind of do it that way. But well, we're going to take a detour because we can't talk we can't finish the story of Mary Warren until we talk about, well, the one person she accused, which just happened to be. I guess we will refer to him as her employer, and she kind of picks the wrong person to accuse. She really does pick the wrong person to accuse, because the person she accuses, well, he tries to fight back. And so we're going to tell you

4:52 the story of John Proctor, the man who fought back. John Proctor, the man in a sense, who stood against Salem, the man who fought back, the man who stood against the insanity that's going on, and we're going to find out what happened to him. Now, as we have been doing, I will try to do this more in a narrative way. I think it works better than just trying to do it in a very kind of an academic lecture where I'm giving just dates and bullet points. The dates are there, and there are specific points I'm making, but I'm still going to try to tell the story as a narrative. So are you ready, Let's take our Sunday drive to Salem, and let's consider the story of the man who fought back. Now, in the chaos of the Salem witch trials, there were many who accused, many who stood by in silence, and a few who dared to resist. One man saw through the hysteria, he saw the lies, and he's woke out when no one else would. His name was John Proctor, and for his defiance he would ultimately pay the ultimate price.

6:12 His story, I believe, I believe this is fair, is one of courage and definitely one of tragedy. The courage, I believe that's absolutely true, and there's no question about the tragedy of his story. A man who refused to bow to fear, a man who stood up for the truth, reason and justice, and a town consumed by absolute madness. Today, this afternoon, I hope that we can learn about the story of John Proctor, his rise, his fall, and his final stand. Before John Proctor became a symbol of resistance.

6:55 John Proctor was a successful farmer and tavern owner in Salem Village. Born in sixteen thirty two, He was a man of means, a husband and a father, but Proctor was also a man with enemies. He had a reputation for speaking his mind, something that in Puritan society could be dangerous. He was very outspoken, skeptical, and not easily swayed by religious fervor, and a town where faith and fear ruled that made him a target. And when the first accusations of witchcraft spread through Salem, well he saw through the lies immediately. He believed the whole thing was a lie, and that the whole thing was fraudulent, and he speaks out against it. Well, you don't speak out against I mean, if you've been a Christian. You know, if you are a Christian and you are in kind of a church community, you go along with the church community, because if you don't, you're gonna be ostracized and kicked out, or who knows what that's going to happen. There is a sense of pressure. When the witch trials began in early sixteen ninety two, Procter watched as young girls, some no older than the age of nine or ten, began accusing women of witchcraft. But unlike most of Salem, he did not believe them. While others saw signs of the devil, John Procter saw children putting on an act. He called them out, He accused them of lying. He would even

8:26 mock their afflictions, even saying that if they were truly possessed, they should be they should be beaten out of it. I mean, you may not agree with that, but the point is he didn't believe any of this. He mocked their afflictions. He said, hey, even if they're truly possessed, just beat it out of them, just beat it out of the Like he wasn't for this panic, this paranoia, this fear. He was like, let's just face this. And again he believed it was all fraudulent and lies. But then see it's one thing to be, you know, talking about everything that's going on, speaking out against it. But it did not take long that his own servant, Mary Warren, accused him and his wife. So he's skeptical, he's calling it all into question, and then his own servant accuses him and his wife of being a witch. That's not good. Now, this is where we could have lots of speculation, like why would Mary accuse them? No? Is she upset with them.

9:38 She's a servant in this house, she doesn't like the way they treat her. Does she have an asta grime? Because it doesn't make sense that like, hey, I'm just wanting I want to participate in this. Well, why are you going to accuse someone who's so skeptical of it? That just seems like I don't know, who knows? Maybe she thought that it would play into her own hands. I mean, again, the motivations in all of this is very differentficult sometimes to unravel, and sometimes all we can do is is speculate to some level. I'm trying to be very careful when I do speculate, and let you know that I just wow. But she turns around and she accuses both of them. Now, John Proctor employed Mary Warren as a servant. At first, she played along with the accusations. But Proctor, now this is where it's somewhat disputed.

10:22 Did he pressure her to tell the truth. You know, he would have had some confrontation probably with her, since he thought the whole thing was a lie. And you know, all of a sudden, she starts playing, playing along with the accusations. Maybe she gets mad. Maybe he calls her aside and he's like, hey, stop this, what are you doing? This is ridiculous. Don't fall for it. Maybe she gets mad. I don't know, and at first she does, she does stop it. In fact, she were cants saying that everything was a lie, there were no witches in Salem, and that it all was hysteria. So she's like, you know what, you're You're right, guys, this is this, this is all this is all foolish. Now does she is she doing this because she's a servant, she's being told to? Does she really believe it? I mean, there's it's really hard to unravel because of her position, right, So so what happens, Well, the fact that now she comes out telling it's all a lie, this could have possibly ended the trials, but instead, in kind of a weird twist of fate kind of thing, it actually seals John Proctor's fate because the moment Mary Warren recanted, she was then accused herself. The court turned on her. She panicked, and in order to save herself, she did the only thing she could do. She accused

11:52 John Proctor and his wife of witchcraft. Now that may explain why she accused John Proctor because on one and you can look at it like why would you accuse the man who's so skeptical, But now she makes accusations. Then she's like no, no, no, no, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't do this. Clearly, I think it's pretty fair that John Proctor confronted her, then she she recants, then they turn around they accused her of being a witch and she's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, I recan't of my recanting, No, no, no, there are witches here and oh oh right here John Proctor, he's the witch and his wife because now she's being accused, so now her own life is in danger, so she tries to then accuse John Proctor to save her own life. So now I think, now, I think that's a more clear motivation, right, I mean, when you're looking at the story, you could be like, well, why would she accuse John Proctor? Well, I think there's the reason she gets accused. Right, She makes accusations, she recants, then she goes back to me make I guess the actual chronologie order she's afflicted, make her accusations, then gets pressured were cans of her accusations.

13:06 Then she gets accused, and then she comes back with, well, a new accusation. I think that's the correct way of understanding this as to the best of our ability. So now John Proctor, the man who had fought against all of this nonsense, well now he's going to be on trial himself. John Proctor was dragged before the court on August fifth, sixteen ninety two. His wife, Elizabeth Proctor, was also accused and arrested, despite petitions from fifty one people, not just in Salem and neighboring towns. They attested Procter's upstanding character. Both John and Elizabeth, though, are found guilty of witchcraft. They have fifty one people saying no, no, no.

14:02 They petitioned the court, well, what are you doing. John's not a whitch. This is wrong. They're like, no, no, he's guilty of witchcraft. And guess what. The court relied on spectral evidence, a controversial and intangible form of testimony, played a pivotal role in their convictions. This spectral evidence nonsense. You can blame Cotton Mather for a lot of this, even though Christians want to defend him. There's no defending Cotton Mather. But he gets I mean, this is crazy. Mary is afflicted, makes accusations, recance of her accusations, then makes new accusations, and she blames John Proctor and his wife.

14:48 They're taking the court and found guilty. There was no physical evidence. There was nothing but praise for his being an upstanding person in the community. Proctor was found guilty. Now what does he do? What can he do here? How can he save himself? Well? His only hope is to confess. If he will confess, he may be able to spare himself. His only if he has to confess. I mean, it's kind of weird. If you confess, maybe you will save yourself. If you don't confess, well you're going to die. What is he going to do? You see, if he admitted to being a witch, he would most likely live. But if he refused, if he would not lie to save himself well, On August nineteenth, sixteen ninety two, John Proctor was hanged on Gallows Hill along with four others.

15:57 He doesn't confess. He refused to admit that he is a witch. Now I cannot verify the following statement. I cannot verify the following statement according to some and I only specify some. I can't even tell you for sure how many. In some ways, some may this may seem to be a legend. Some may say it's accurate. I don't think we ever know. But according to some reports has basically his final words were and I quote and again I can't say that this is what is quoted, but there's no I don't think there's any document documented proof that this is his final words. But it is said that His final words were, God knows I am innocent.

16:46 God knows I am innocent. Now, Elizabeth Procter's story doesn't end there. John's proc ins and Gallows Hill, he gets a news tied around his neck. He dies. It's over. The man who tries to stand against this, the man who tries to fight against it is he's accused by his own servant girl, and he's dead. He's dead. But what about Elizabeth Proctor? Her story doesn't end with her husband being hung and killed. Now she is sentenced to die, but she was pregnant at the time of her trial, So this is going to add a little something to her story. Right, So she's sentenced to die, but she is pregnant at the time of her trial. The court ruled, you're gonna give birth, then we're going to kill you.

17:52 We're gonna let you give birth, and then we're going to put a noose around your neck and kill you. I mean, what a good Christian society, this is, right? I mean, hey, don't we all want Christian nationalism? Okay, all right, but hey, this is what happens when church and state merges. Okay, I say this all the time. So they're like hey, we're gonna let you. We're gonna let you give birth, and then we're going to kill you. But by the time she has her child, the trials are over, the hysteria had ended, and Elizabeth was spared. But wait, does the story have a happy ending. She's gonna ride off into the sunset. Well, obviously she's not gonna do that with her husband because her husband is dead.

18:40 But her suffering does not end there. The government, remember John Proctor was well pretty well to do. They seize all of his property, and they leave her destitute with children. They sees all of his property. She had to fight to reclaim her home, living in poverty for years. Eventually she remarried in sixteen ninety nine, rebuilding her life as best as she could. But the scars of Salem they never truly faded. I mean, what and just this seizing of property, this was I think there's a lot more to the seizing of property to the story of Salem, because remember Anne Putnam Junior. When she was making all of her accusations, her father was in a lot of land disputes, and some of the people she accused, I mean, it felt like she was accusing all of her father's enemies. Well, once you were accused of witchcraft, it seems, and I cannot one thousand percent verify this at this very moment, at this very time, in this very broadcast, but I do remember hearing discussions about this in one of my visits to Salem, that if you were accused, basically they took your property, they took your land. Well, if you were in a position, hey accuse that person and then you were able to be based off your political state or who you knew, you could possibly obtain said property. Yeah, you can see that there could be some really very ungodly motives going on here, very ungodly motives. Now, John

20:14 Proctor obviously was not a perfect man, because well nobody is. He definitely had flaws, because we all do. He definitely had enemies, and he had a reputation for speaking his mind. But when this town, when his town, when Salem, when Salem Village fell into madness, when his neighbors turned on each other, he stood for the truth and he paid for it with his life more than three hundred years later, three hundred and thirty three, to be pretty close to exact, three hundred and thirty three. His story reminds us of the dangers of hysteria, the power of fear, and the importance of standing for what's right even when the cause is high. John Proctor didn't just die in sixteen ninety two.

21:05 Became a symbol, a symbol of reason in the face of madness, a symbol of truth and a world of lies. But I think it's very important to remember this. It's very romantic to say, Hey, I'm going to stand up in the face of the lies. I'm gonna stand up in the face of this madness. It's very romantic. But just remember it didn't really work out so good for him because he didn't stop the Salem It would have been one thing if his death stopped the Salem witch trials. His death did not stop the Salem witch trials did not. Ultimately, what stops the Salem witch trials is when someone in governmental authority, they're a loved one, gets accused and they're like, okay, the end stop it. That's is done. John Proctor didn't stop it. John Proctor was just another person hung and killed.

21:56 As far as what how things played out history, we may look back at John Procter and go man that man stood for truth. So sometimes what it means is you can stand for truth, you can stand against fear, you can stand against paranoia, you can stand against conspiracy, and you just get run over by the mob. They don't care. They silence you, they remove you, and they move right off. And most of the time, I think a lot of times that's the way it works. We always like that idea that one man stands against the mob, stands against the masses, and can put an end to it. In many cases, you're just a note in a history book somewhere. Nobody cares. Someone trying to say, wait a minute, guys, I think this is all nonsense. Nope, no, no, fear paranoia, and the same kind of thing happens time and time again in Christianity. You have the fear paranoia of the great Satanic scare. And then the next thing, you know, we have this fear and this fear and this fear.

22:54 I mean, dare I say, everyone will yell and scream about the LGBTQ community, the LGBTQ community, Oh my goodness, they're taking over everything. What are we going to do? We got to stop it, We got to stop it. Where are all the programs about children being molested inside churches. Just look at the Roys report, one restory after another of another of sexual assault, a child, child pornography, crazy stuff going on in churches. Where's the fear and panic about that? Oh if there's a you know, a drag show in the town somewhere. Oh no, it's the end of the world. Oh we're being overrun by you know, transgender It's the end of the world. Oh what are we going to do? Nobody worries about how many kids have been molested in the church in the last twelve months. See, all you gotta do is whoever control? All you got to do is it's not it's I guess the best way to explain it is, once a narrative is established, this is what you need to be afraid of, and here's your enemy, rationality, thought, thinking facts. Nobody cares about. You.

24:10 Just say here's what you need to be afraid of. And then it's just insane. I remember, I don't have the book here in front of me. It's downstairs in my closet. I need to find it. It's called The Last Pope. And I remember, and this was all over Sermonadio at the time. People making these predictions that I wasn't Pope. I don't know if it was Pope Francis. It may have been Pope Benedict. I don't remember which one. But this entire book is a big book, like four hundred pages, that there's an ancient prophecy and that the Pope at this particular time and then he's going to basically be like the Antichrist, and all this stuff was going to happen. And I kept telling people, this is nonsense, this is nonsense, This is nonsense, This is nonsense. Oh, you don't know what you're talking about. You're blinded by Satan.

24:52 Well here we are now. Pope Francis is close to dying, and there'll be another pope after that. And none of the stuff that was supposed to happen happened. It was all lie. It was. But to all the people who fought with me, do they come back and apologize. Of course not. They're onto their next conspiracy, all the people with the QAnon conspiracy theories, all the people even there was even some of it going around, just maybe a little bit on Sermonadio about Sandy Hook being all all a lie and that that no kids really died and crisis actors, and then I just I mean, there was there was, There was a time there were a lot of people on sermonadio who sounded like that they were Alex Jones. And then, uh, some of those people finally left or got removed. But the point is is it was alive and well within Christianity that the flu vaccine was actually a way to get the mark of the beast.

25:40 I can go on. Obamacare was going to uh put us all in THEEMA camps and we were all going to die. I can just go on and on and on and on, and this is going to happen, and this is going to happen, and this and then fear fear, fear, fear, paranoia, fear fear, fear, paranoia, fear, fear, fear, paranoia. And if you say stop it, what do you Well, you don't see the danger? What is wrong with your satan is? And it's always you're blinded by Satan, You're you're you're well, now it's forget being blinded by Satan. That's no longer an insult anymore. Now you're woke. You're a liberal. That's worse than being a Satanist. Okay, But I mean, it's always the same concept. Here, here's what you need to be afraid of, here's the enemy, and then you just go along with the crowd. If you stand against the crowd, then you just get ran over and the crowd never comes back going. You know what, I got caught up in all of that fear and that paranoia, and that conspiracy theory, and that conspiracy theory, and that can no, they just keep going on to the next one, and then they go on to the next one, and then they go on to the next one, and they can't get out of it. The Celing witch trials is exactly what happened. It was paranoia fear. Now I wish, you know, in some ways you kind of wish John Proctor could have stopped it, but he didn't. On one hand, I mean, if you look at it from a very pragmatic standpoint,

27:11 I don't Once he got accused, there was no real going back. I guess he could have confessed. I don't know how it would have played out for him. Maybe if he would have confessed. I mean, what basically the way if the only way you were going to survive is basically you had to play the game. This way, I'm a witch. But but but and I will confess, but I know who the other witches are. Really, the way it was set up, your your confession would keep you alive. But with that confession, you better have some secret knowledge of You saw the Devil's Book, remember when we still need to talk about the Devil's Book, And you saw the names in it, and if you could point out so basically, the only way he could have survived he would have had to confess, and then he would have had to accuse, just like Mary Warren. She accused, then she recanted, Then she's accused. Then what she what does she do? Then she has to immediately start blaming someone else. That that's the the game was. So the game was rigged. If you were accused, you you better confess and you better accuse others. You better look like a good informant. You've got good information as long as you can keep perfect. And that was just just adds more people to the list, adds more people to the list, and the more people you add to the list, then you're safer and safer, and then while other people then die, they lose all everything he worked for, gone, everything gone.

28:40 Now Elizabeth is able to finally, I think get their home back. I think she does get that back. But most of their property is gone, most of their assets are gone, just taken because someone accuses you of no physical accuses you of being a witch, no physical proof, don't need any spectral evidence used all day. He dies. So Betty Paris and Abigail Williams, they make their accusations, and Putnam Junior makes what sixty over sixty accusations, Elizabeth over forty? I don't can't remember the total number of Mary's accusations. And one man stands against the dog. He calls all of those girls liars, and he's dead. He dies.

29:44 Christianity needs reasonable, rational, logical, factual individuals who care more about re in logic, facts, thinking, not bearing false witness, not fear paranoia. We need those kinds of people. Now that the thing is, you're and you know what you have to care more about. You need to care more about facts, more about reason, logic and truth than you do about your philological team or your church's team, whatever philological team you're placed on. You don't care about that.

30:27 You don't care. And if you get run over by the mob, you get run over by the mob. Now it's easy to say, it's easy to say. It's easy to say that, but it doesn't always work in your favor. It doesn't always work in your favor because Christians will get furious at you. You've gotta go, You gotta go along with the mob, because the minute you stand against the mob, they run you over and then there's no place for you in Christianity. Christianity does not like dissenting voices. Christianity does not like to be challenged. Christianity does not like to be critiqued. Christianity does not like to be reviewed.

31:09 You sign up, you pick a team, you wear the jersey, and you go along with everything they do, or you will be silenced. That's the story of John Proctor. He stood against it all and didn't really matter. I mean, I hate to be seeing it from a pragmatic standpoint. I mean, I guess his I mean, most people don't even talk about John Proctor. I think if you go to Salem, I mean, I think John Procter gets talked about some, but I think for the most part, he's not like a big part of the story. A lot of people don't even know the story of John Proctor.

31:52 Because he stands against it, but he just gets swallowed up by it and forgotten they And it would have been so great if you could have stood against it, and people start going, wait, what are we doing? Wake up? But you can't when it's just like with conspiratorial thinking. You can't get people to wake up out of their conspiracy right because you bring the evidence that disproves their conspiracy, but they'll just tell you that your evidence comes from the people within the conspiracy, so therefore it's they'll just say it's fake news, fraudulent, and so then what you can't any evidence you present is a part of the conspiracy. So you can never get them to stop thinking in their conspiratorial way, because that's the way. It's a psychological disease.

32:34 They believe a conspiracy and nothing can convince them the conspiracy is not true because any evidence that contradicts the conspiracy is a part of the conspiracy. So then it's over, doesn't matter. And when fear and panic man people lose all sense of right and wrong. Fear and panic can get people to just forget right wrong and Mara and God and anything. And it also just demonstrates people can use God as a way to literally put a rope around someone's neck and kill them. Don't ever think the Bible and God cannot be used as a weapon by people, because it's been used as a weapon over and over.

33:18 As long as you've got a couple of Bible verses, the concept of God and God is supposedly on your side, you can justify pretty much anything, even putting a rope around someone's neck and killing them. All right, thanks for listening. That concludes our Sunday drive. I know we came to Salem and kind of a very depressing story that not a lot of happy stories in the Salem witch trials. But these are lessons we all need to hear, especially those of us within Christianity. It's a part of Church history. It's a part of Christian history. You can't you can try to escape it, you can try to ignore it, but it's there. You can try to talk about how wonderful the Puritans were all day, but you can't forget this part of history because it's horrible and it serves as a warning. Thanks for listening. God bless