Kerby Anderson

Nearly two-dozen horror films are coming out this year, and many of them involve witches. Although these films are fiction, there is unfortunately lots of information in our kid’s textbooks that are presented as fact even though they are fiction.

Rodney Stark in his book, The Triumph of Christianity, says: “no historical statistics have been so outrageously inflated as the numbers of those executed as witches during the craze that took place in Europe from about 1450 to 1700.” He points out that some writers have placed the final death toll at nine million, drawing comparisons with the Holocaust in the 20th century. Others have claimed that the witch-hunts only ended when the so-called “Dark Ages” of religious extremism were replaced by the Enlightenment.

The cover picture of Rodney Stark’s earlier book, For the Glory of God, is a painting of a woman being burned to death for practicing witchcraft. This has been an iconic image and potent symbol of Christian intolerance and medieval irrationality.

What are the true facts? First the number of killed was probably closer to 60,000, which is less than one percent of the oft-cited figure. And we should add that perhaps a third of those executed were men, not women.

Second, the accusers weren’t religious fanatics trying to suppress heresy or rid the world of people they believed were witches. Rodney Stark explains that often it was church officials who intervened in witchcraft trials in order to protect the innocent. Third, the period of “frantic” witch-hunting actually took place during the late Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

This is but one more example of where the historical record has been distorted in order to smear Christianity. It’s worth remembering when you see all the publicity this year for movies about witches.