Modern Christianity has not backed down from a stance against witchcraft it has maintained for hundreds of years. Aside from the Crusades, more people have died at Christianity’s hands from accusations of witchcraft than anything else. Between 200,000 and 500,000 people were killed in various excruciating ways after being convicted of witchcraft during the height of what is known as the “Burning Times”. This period extended from 1550 to 1675 and touched countries throughout Europe, even reaching across the Atlantic to the New World.
In 1486, Christianity even had its own witch burning manual, the Malleus Maleficarum, which gave instructions on how to determine the guilt of a witch, and what type of woman would most likely become one. The description of the tortures and executions devised for these women is beyond the scope of this document. Historian R.H. Robbins’ own words sum up this period best:
...the shocking nightmare, the foulest crime and deepest shame of western civilization…
The Christian fascination with witchcraft exists even today. In 2003, then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) wrote a letter responding to a concern over a popular book series for children:
It is good that you shed light and inform us on the Harry Potter matter, for these are subtle seductions that are barely noticeable and precisely because of that deeply affect (children) and corrupt the Christian faith in souls even before it (the Faith) could properly grow and mature
Indeed, the whole of the Harry Potter book series has been under fire since the publication of its first volume. The chief complaint from Christians is the presence of witchcraft portrayed in a positive manner. Children were supposedly being lured into practicing witchcraft by reading a book.
Witchcraft has even remained a curse among Christian leaders. To accuse someone of witchcraft, though not taken as seriously by the secular world, still counts as a heavy insult among Christians. The ancient excuses for calling a woman a witch are still employed, namely, any woman of independence from the power of men. Pat Robertson, of the Christian talk show The 700 Club, had this to say about feminist women:
Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.
In one sentence, Robertson invokes nearly every tried-and-true stereotype which mark the ways of religious intolerance.
Yet, with all the Christian bitterness toward witchcraft and its practitioners, the very founding of the religion is marked by the presence, blessing, and financial support of the craft, in the form of three wizards from the East who visit an infant Jesus.
(Matthew 2:1)
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
(Matthew 2:9-11)
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
The Greek word used for the Latin Magi is magoi. It is translated as “sorcerer, wizard, or astrologer”, and is the root for “magician”. The three men mentioned in the above passages are, quite literally, male witches from the pagan countries to the east of Israel. The birth of Jesus was portended to them by the appearance of a certain star and, following that star, they reached the newborn Jesus.
This story is portrayed every year in churches around the world, celebrated as confirmation that Jesus was recognized by “kings” just after he had been born. To his later followers, this meant he was destined for great things, above and beyond other humans.
However, there is still the matter of witchcraft in play at these earliest days of Jesus’ existence. Not only was his birth sanctioned by practitioners of magic, their expensive gifts undoubtedly financed Jesus’ family for years after. Further still, following their sanctioning of his birth, the wizards’ magic apparently worked in conjunction with the Jewish god’s own later warnings to Joseph concerning King Herod and the massacre of babies which followed in Bethlehem.
(Matthew 2:12)
And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Apologists will most likely downplay the significance of the wizards, as with the more colloquial title of “wise men”, though ignoring “wizard” is the very root for the term “wise man”. However, considering these events in the context of the time in which Jesus lived, is it any wonder why the Jewish authorities found reason to be suspicious of him?
(Jeremiah 10:2-10)
This is what the LORD says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.” No one is like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power. Who should not revere you, O King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you. They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols. Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple— all made by skilled workers. But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.
Interestingly enough, this passage also addresses the pagan practice of “holiday trees”, more commonly known today as Christmas Trees. It would seem that no matter how hard Christianity has tried to excise witchcraft from its ranks, it cannot escape the pervasive influence of pagan ways starting with Jesus Christ, their Savior.
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