Does religion help to persecute the innocent?

Land-lust, which had been expressed before by constant bickering over boundaries and deeds, could now be elevated to the arena of morality; one could cry witch against one’s neighbor and feel perfectly justified in the bargain. In Act I, we come to learn that Abigail, niece to Parris, the minister of Salem, and his slave Tituba confess to signing the book of the Devil.

All these women were here for the same reason. Putnam follows through with the conviction, “I knew it! Goody Osburn were midwife to me three times. I will not go into much detail on what these causes were for the simple fact that Arthur Miller has already done so. But how does one who is accused help to clear themselves of the burdens that others have implied on them? Do they, like Rebecca Nurse, tell the truth and not confess to being a witch, and hang for telling the truth? Or do they confess to being a witch and by doing so damn themselves for lying? It’s quite a predicament that these poor people are in. A perfect example of this is when Tituba says she saw Goody Osburn with the Devil and then Mrs. The court saw these girls as instruments to help filter out the evil in Salem rather then seeing that it were all sport or for lack of better words, just for the hell of it, no pun intended. They were said to have been seen at night rising from the ground like birds on fire. This being that by not being a model of the Bible you are headed for damnation.

Long-held hatreds of neighbors could now be openly expressed, and vengeance taken, despite the Bible’s charitable injunctions. 39) Manman was immediately beaten by the crowd waiting outside for her and then jailed. From these examples one can clearly see that religion plays a large part in persecuting the innocent. Miller also mentions that people would settle old scores “on a plane of heavenly combat between Lucifer and the Lord,” (Pg.