Now there’s a pastor who does not know history. Those people, my 9th great-grandmother included, were victims of fear and ignorance. Nothing Satanic to see here.
A pastor ignorant of history isn't surprising and is only a little bit troubling A pastor ignorant of history in charge of overseeing the history education of the children in his community is what makes the whole thing problematic. If he were speaking as a member of the public at the meeting where the trip was discussed, he would have been rightly dismissed as a crank not worth paying attention to. This guy is on the school board and voted against authorizing the trip because he is scared of witches.
I doubt he’s ignorant at all. He’s just afraid kids will start making connections to the modern day witch hunt happening right now within the current regime. He’s using ignorance as an excuse for the cruelty and to escape responsibility/accountability.
Also, while Elizabeth Holmes is an awful human being and deserves to be held accountable for her crimes, what is all this propaganda documentary BS hype about her coming out now? There are at least 500 other CEO men doing the same thing or worse and no one’s says a word about them.
This museum is about American history, not satanism. Although, if you've read the stories about those trials and others like them, you could reasonably conclude that if there was such a thing as 'satanic', it was the christians perpetrating these trials and murders - on other christians, it should be noted.
How does a pastor not know the history of the Salem Witch Trials, literally THE most well known example of hysteria on the planet? Everybody knows the history because it's literally part of the fabric of this nation.
So yeah, I call bullshit. Nobody is THAT insulated from reality. It's simply not plausible.
How is it possible to so completely ignorant of the history of the Salem witch murders? How is it possible for someone so ignorant to be on a school board?
I don't believe him at all. You would have to be a complete hermit with no access to any media, books, education, information, or knowledge other than the Bible to not know anything about the Salem Witch Trials. No, the reality is that he knows full well what happened back then but he doesn't want to admit that it's the same kind of ignorance that drives him to oppose this trip.
Jeezus Criste. My wife and I tell everyone who asks why we CHOSE not to have kids that we used to think our generation (Gen X) had its shit together. Instead, we'll be the first generation in American, if not world, history to not only want our kids to be poorer and less educated than we are, but to DEMAND IT. Plus, we're guaranteed not to add another child-rape victim at the hands of a churchy Republican, another school-shooting victim, or a school shooter to the mix.
Satan, like the Jewish God, was a mythical character. That said, based on their relative body-counts in the Old Testament I don't know how Satan ever got labeled as the bad guy. The Jewish God of the Old Testament is the nastiest character in all of fiction.
Except Jesus never said anything like that and I very much doubt he ever said he was the son of God either. That stuff was written over a hundred years after his death. Assuming he existed at all and wasn't just an amalgamation of several other characters from that time.
Men, striving to keep themselves in power over women and children, like to create fantasy enemies to defeat so they can puff themselves up and claim to be heroes. All while stealing free labor from women and people of color and twisting the minds of children to believe their fantasies. "Look at how I'm protecting you from the evil in the world darling. I'll go out into the wild dangerous world and earn us a living while you stay home and be safe, clean house, do my laundry, organize all our social events, cook all the meals, and take care of the kids. (And oh, wink, wink, godly sex too; not the kind you might actually enjoy.)"
Gotta love that Satan. Why he's just as powerful as God unless a godly man is there to defeat him.
Further Thought: People like Dan Schmidt apparently are either unable or unwilling to face up to their own history. Worse, they may be equally incapable of confronting their religion's place in the atrocities which were perpetrated on women in Salem in the late 1600s, never mind other perfidies. "We didn't do that," he might say to himself.
Maybe not, Dan ... but what are some of your fellows doing right now, particularly with efforts to repeal the 19th Amendment and disenfranchise women? Are you THAT FRIGHTENED of them?
It's too many places in the US these days, encouraged by the Religious Reich and their savior, Donald John Trump. And a good part of the problem is that too many people either don't take the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment seriously, or they want to see it abolished altogether.
And I'll say it AGAIN: there needs (and I mean NEEDS) to be a reckoning.
Christians like Dan Schmidt love to rail against Muslims in this country, pointing to all the atrocities committed by Muslims without acknowledging any of the MULTITUDES of atrocities committed by Christians.
What a wonderful gesture on the part of the Salem Witch Museum. As for Dan Schmidt, I can't see that these is any help for him. He is determined to be ignorant and worse: he apparently wanted the students of Batavia to be as ignorant.
If they were able to separate their pastoral obligations from their obligation to the defend the rights of the students, maybe they could have a place. But they just can't help but try to impose their beliefs on everyone, the rights they are supposed to protect be damned.
I just want to highlight, again and over and over, that he said he was ignorant of the museum’s history and purpose. Now, I didn’t have to look the museum up and read their website, or do much research at all to understand the SALEM WITCH MUSEUM was a chronicle of what happened during a certain time in the country’s history where men in power capitalized on the ignorance of uneducated, religious people and decided to murder women as witches. I’m not well versed in all the history, but even just with the ambient pop culture references to Salem witch trials across the country - and they’re close enough to Salem to be at least familiar - he should know a tiny bit about what the museum is about. The fact that a school board member is so proud of his ignorance and obstinate lack of curiosity in any subject just proves that he’s unqualified for his position and should be removed from the board. His religion might be the reason he is that way, but religion is not the reason for dumping him.
I wish whoever had asked him whatever question to get his admission that he was ignorant would have followed up asking him if he thought his lack of knowledge coupled with his unwillingness to correct it was disqualifying for his position. Just to put it out there for the public to see the problem. Because right now, the conversation is just about how he’s standing up for Christians but not that he’s an ignorant douchecanoe who revels in his stupidity, oops I mean he’s not actually qualified to make decisions about education. (I mean, both are true)
Here's the thing: religion in general and Christianity in particular wants scared people. People scared of their god, of hell, and sometimes most of all, scared of their fellow congregants.
And the reason is simple: scared people CAN BE CONTROLLED.
“Dan Schmidt did not respond to my request for comment.”
Good for him, he’s ashamed of himself. At least, he got a face to face with Barbara Streisand and walked away silenced.
What a great outcome for the students. I hope they’ll be able to bring more students along with that donation money. A little bright spot in an otherwise dark timeline.
He admits his ignorance of history and underscores the fact that his sole objection was the word "witch" in the name of the museum. These fundamentalists are proud of their ignorance. They are afraid of anything that they interpret as "against God". And this guy is on the school board. When is his term up? Time for him to go.
Kudos to the witch museum for inviting the students free of charge. Their next step should be to reach out to Pastor Stick-up-the-ass with a brief explanation of what the museum is about, accompanied by an ticket for a guided tour inviting him to learn more about that period in our history.
We run onto this again and Again and AGAIN: people who might otherwise be at least reasonably intelligent, reduced to the thought processes of CHILDREN because of their irrational belief in religious dogma. I don't know how we cure that, though I'm fairly certain there's no easy solution.
I suspect that at least part of the reason some people put their trust into religions is because the idea of a god fuses with the parental images in their heads. So the religion makes them feel safe like when they were little kids and thought their parents could do no wrong.
Education will hopefully kill superstition one day and I hope those kids carry the memory of this story and see the damage of what one man's willful ignorance can do.
Healthy choice, Pastor Schitt? Kids make unhealthy choices when they attend church services every Sunday. And those churches contain REAL menaces to kids. They're called youth pastors.
Interesting to hear the pastor sputtering about 'what about the kids whose beliefs conflict with this museum visit?' How's that shoe feel on the other foot, preacher? Funny how you people go deaf to concerns like that when it's christians foisting their agenda on everyone else. Also, you should educate yourself about an organization and its museum before publicly declaring it 'satanic.' Amazing that we have to say that a member of a board of EDUCATION.
Now there’s a pastor who does not know history. Those people, my 9th great-grandmother included, were victims of fear and ignorance. Nothing Satanic to see here.
I wrote this before I read the whole article. Glad he admitted he is ignorant of history.
A pastor ignorant of history isn't surprising and is only a little bit troubling A pastor ignorant of history in charge of overseeing the history education of the children in his community is what makes the whole thing problematic. If he were speaking as a member of the public at the meeting where the trip was discussed, he would have been rightly dismissed as a crank not worth paying attention to. This guy is on the school board and voted against authorizing the trip because he is scared of witches.
That was self-evident.
I doubt he’s ignorant at all. He’s just afraid kids will start making connections to the modern day witch hunt happening right now within the current regime. He’s using ignorance as an excuse for the cruelty and to escape responsibility/accountability.
Some areas under attack:
Reproductive Healthcare
Title X & Family Planning
Global Gag Rule
Health Coverage & Subsidies
Civil Rights & Workplace Protections
DEI and Gender Policy
Voter Registration Barriers (SAVE ACT)
Gender Identity and Non-Discrimination
Oh, and calls to repeal the 19th Amendment.
What is the 19th amendment again?
Makes it illegal to prohibit voting based on sex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Also, while Elizabeth Holmes is an awful human being and deserves to be held accountable for her crimes, what is all this propaganda documentary BS hype about her coming out now? There are at least 500 other CEO men doing the same thing or worse and no one’s says a word about them.
This museum is about American history, not satanism. Although, if you've read the stories about those trials and others like them, you could reasonably conclude that if there was such a thing as 'satanic', it was the christians perpetrating these trials and murders - on other christians, it should be noted.
I have been informed that I am related to one of the first women who were murdered in this historical hysteria as well.
Wow! Incredible
How does a pastor not know the history of the Salem Witch Trials, literally THE most well known example of hysteria on the planet? Everybody knows the history because it's literally part of the fabric of this nation.
So yeah, I call bullshit. Nobody is THAT insulated from reality. It's simply not plausible.
How is it possible to so completely ignorant of the history of the Salem witch murders? How is it possible for someone so ignorant to be on a school board?
Has South Park been alerted?
To say nothing of the fact there were no actual witches involved in the horrors of Salem.
Like what Mr. Rogers said on his classic TV show, "Witches aren't real."
I don't believe him at all. You would have to be a complete hermit with no access to any media, books, education, information, or knowledge other than the Bible to not know anything about the Salem Witch Trials. No, the reality is that he knows full well what happened back then but he doesn't want to admit that it's the same kind of ignorance that drives him to oppose this trip.
Jeezus Criste. My wife and I tell everyone who asks why we CHOSE not to have kids that we used to think our generation (Gen X) had its shit together. Instead, we'll be the first generation in American, if not world, history to not only want our kids to be poorer and less educated than we are, but to DEMAND IT. Plus, we're guaranteed not to add another child-rape victim at the hands of a churchy Republican, another school-shooting victim, or a school shooter to the mix.
You meant murdering people they falsely believed was witches or just disliked, right?
Satan, like the Jewish God, was a mythical character. That said, based on their relative body-counts in the Old Testament I don't know how Satan ever got labeled as the bad guy. The Jewish God of the Old Testament is the nastiest character in all of fiction.
Sweet peaceful Jesus wasn't much better. He's going to burn you for eternity for not worshipping him.
Except Jesus never said anything like that and I very much doubt he ever said he was the son of God either. That stuff was written over a hundred years after his death. Assuming he existed at all and wasn't just an amalgamation of several other characters from that time.
Men, striving to keep themselves in power over women and children, like to create fantasy enemies to defeat so they can puff themselves up and claim to be heroes. All while stealing free labor from women and people of color and twisting the minds of children to believe their fantasies. "Look at how I'm protecting you from the evil in the world darling. I'll go out into the wild dangerous world and earn us a living while you stay home and be safe, clean house, do my laundry, organize all our social events, cook all the meals, and take care of the kids. (And oh, wink, wink, godly sex too; not the kind you might actually enjoy.)"
Gotta love that Satan. Why he's just as powerful as God unless a godly man is there to defeat him.
🤣
Further Thought: People like Dan Schmidt apparently are either unable or unwilling to face up to their own history. Worse, they may be equally incapable of confronting their religion's place in the atrocities which were perpetrated on women in Salem in the late 1600s, never mind other perfidies. "We didn't do that," he might say to himself.
Maybe not, Dan ... but what are some of your fellows doing right now, particularly with efforts to repeal the 19th Amendment and disenfranchise women? Are you THAT FRIGHTENED of them?
He might say to himself "we didn't do that", but will he admit to himself that he would have if he were there?
Ahhhh, THERE's the rub!
Ty Masterson, running for governor of Kansas, called his opponent, Cindy Holscher, a witch yesterday.
What is the matter with these people?
Holy Guacamole! That deserves a focused and SEARING response, calling out Ty's ignorance and his misogyny, at minimum!
If Masterson wants to say stupid stuff, he deserves to be called on his stupid stuff!
"What is the matter with these people?"
Forget it, Jake, I mean, Sko. It's Chinatown, I mean, Kansas.
It's too many places in the US these days, encouraged by the Religious Reich and their savior, Donald John Trump. And a good part of the problem is that too many people either don't take the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment seriously, or they want to see it abolished altogether.
And I'll say it AGAIN: there needs (and I mean NEEDS) to be a reckoning.
Donald John Trump? Donald Judas Trump.
The sleaze probably really wanted to call her something that rhymes with witch.
Yes, yes they are.
Christians like Dan Schmidt love to rail against Muslims in this country, pointing to all the atrocities committed by Muslims without acknowledging any of the MULTITUDES of atrocities committed by Christians.
What a wonderful gesture on the part of the Salem Witch Museum. As for Dan Schmidt, I can't see that these is any help for him. He is determined to be ignorant and worse: he apparently wanted the students of Batavia to be as ignorant.
Thankfully, he isn't getting his wish.
Pastors have no place on public school boards, period. One would think that this was perfectly clear.
If they were able to separate their pastoral obligations from their obligation to the defend the rights of the students, maybe they could have a place. But they just can't help but try to impose their beliefs on everyone, the rights they are supposed to protect be damned.
What about rabbis? Think about all the wonderful school trips to see stage productions of Fiddler On the Roof as a result!
I just want to highlight, again and over and over, that he said he was ignorant of the museum’s history and purpose. Now, I didn’t have to look the museum up and read their website, or do much research at all to understand the SALEM WITCH MUSEUM was a chronicle of what happened during a certain time in the country’s history where men in power capitalized on the ignorance of uneducated, religious people and decided to murder women as witches. I’m not well versed in all the history, but even just with the ambient pop culture references to Salem witch trials across the country - and they’re close enough to Salem to be at least familiar - he should know a tiny bit about what the museum is about. The fact that a school board member is so proud of his ignorance and obstinate lack of curiosity in any subject just proves that he’s unqualified for his position and should be removed from the board. His religion might be the reason he is that way, but religion is not the reason for dumping him.
The Venn diagram of self-important conservative and completely ignorant of history is almost a perfect circle.
I'm of the opinion that he doesn't fully comprehend what his bible says. If he did, he might not be a pastor. Or a believer, period.
I wish whoever had asked him whatever question to get his admission that he was ignorant would have followed up asking him if he thought his lack of knowledge coupled with his unwillingness to correct it was disqualifying for his position. Just to put it out there for the public to see the problem. Because right now, the conversation is just about how he’s standing up for Christians but not that he’s an ignorant douchecanoe who revels in his stupidity, oops I mean he’s not actually qualified to make decisions about education. (I mean, both are true)
Ignorant or just an asshole? I’m going with the latter.
Given his ignorance, I think a trip to this museum might be in order for him.
Or is he afraid of what he might see?
"Or is he afraid of what he might see?"
War-and-Peace-length response to your question (so set aside some time in your schedule if you want to read all of what I'm about to write): yes.
Here's the thing: religion in general and Christianity in particular wants scared people. People scared of their god, of hell, and sometimes most of all, scared of their fellow congregants.
And the reason is simple: scared people CAN BE CONTROLLED.
See my Further Thought.
Just saw it. GMTA (but you said it better).
Many thanks! Every now and then, I have my moments.
He is afraid of his shadow.
🎵Just me and my shadow
Strolling down the avenue 🎵
Finally a bit of good news! Happy Friday!
Thank you. My flue seems to leave me now. Juhuuuu.
“Dan Schmidt did not respond to my request for comment.”
Good for him, he’s ashamed of himself. At least, he got a face to face with Barbara Streisand and walked away silenced.
What a great outcome for the students. I hope they’ll be able to bring more students along with that donation money. A little bright spot in an otherwise dark timeline.
"he’s ashamed of himself"
Their kind knows no shame.
“𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑡.” 𝑁𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠, ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑑, “𝐼 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝐽𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠” 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑢𝑚 𝑤𝑎𝑠 “𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠.”
He admits his ignorance of history and underscores the fact that his sole objection was the word "witch" in the name of the museum. These fundamentalists are proud of their ignorance. They are afraid of anything that they interpret as "against God". And this guy is on the school board. When is his term up? Time for him to go.
Kudos to the witch museum for inviting the students free of charge. Their next step should be to reach out to Pastor Stick-up-the-ass with a brief explanation of what the museum is about, accompanied by an ticket for a guided tour inviting him to learn more about that period in our history.
But it might give him the sads, like learning about slavery. MAGA doesn't want white men to get the sads.
Seems as though I have to cite this again:
𝐼𝑓 𝑤𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤 𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑤𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑢𝑠.
-- TheraminTrees
We run onto this again and Again and AGAIN: people who might otherwise be at least reasonably intelligent, reduced to the thought processes of CHILDREN because of their irrational belief in religious dogma. I don't know how we cure that, though I'm fairly certain there's no easy solution.
I just know it needs to be done.
I suspect that at least part of the reason some people put their trust into religions is because the idea of a god fuses with the parental images in their heads. So the religion makes them feel safe like when they were little kids and thought their parents could do no wrong.
Thus, infantilization. Plain and simple.
Aww. Good news.
Education will hopefully kill superstition one day and I hope those kids carry the memory of this story and see the damage of what one man's willful ignorance can do.
Could it be that learning from history that their “ Jack legged “ savior could not protect these so called Christians from a witch? How pathetic.
Healthy choice, Pastor Schitt? Kids make unhealthy choices when they attend church services every Sunday. And those churches contain REAL menaces to kids. They're called youth pastors.
Interesting to hear the pastor sputtering about 'what about the kids whose beliefs conflict with this museum visit?' How's that shoe feel on the other foot, preacher? Funny how you people go deaf to concerns like that when it's christians foisting their agenda on everyone else. Also, you should educate yourself about an organization and its museum before publicly declaring it 'satanic.' Amazing that we have to say that a member of a board of EDUCATION.