The Role Of Religion And Government During The Salem Trials

Throughout history, religion has been used for persecution against society within the government. Before America existed, religion and government were considered a pair that would never be split; this revolutionary idea that a government could exist without religious involvement was one that the Founding Fathers made sure was included within the foundations of a new country. One example of how religion has been twisted within government is when the Puritan leaders within Salem Village, Massachusetts used their religion as a way to accuse members of the community of practicing witchcraft. This proved that religious involvement was a problem because, during the entire span of the trials, they remained a society built upon the religious government …show more content…
According to Frances Hill, “In the Massachusetts theocracy there was no conceptual distinction between crime, sin, and sheer deviance from the norm…including challenges to the authority, such as criticizing ministers, and sin or misbehavior such as fornication or drunkenness.” This society lived by the rule of a theocracy that thrived on bringing religious law into the government. They treated each law as a sin. One of the most important, and influential, laws within the Salem Trials was one that affected those looking to make a new living, “Many of the culprits brought before the magistrates were not Puritans who had come from England to practice their religion, but indentured servants and others who had come to just earn a living. These people were forced by law to worship in the Puritan meetinghouses, whatever their private convictions.” This led to accusations against those that refused to worship a god that they didn’t believe in. A connection between church and state ultimately caused laws to be put into place that were from biblical context, rather than a protection to society. As a result, the community of Salem Village was forced to live in fear that they would be wrongfully accused of practicing …show more content…
Within the Witch Trials, the use of religion showed the social traditions within the time, how laws are twisted with a backing of biblical justification, and ministry role in trials. These examples show how, before America’s existence, any transgression of the law is a sin because the law of the land was religious law. The entire Salem Witch Trials are a direct representation of the political use of religion within society-something that our Founding Fathers learned from and changed when creating a foundation for