To me, one of the most haunting images of the Bible comes from Micah 2:1; What sorrow awaits you who lie awake at night, thinking up evil plans. You rise at dawn and hurry to carry them out, simply because you have the power to do so.

 According to J. Stephen Land, one of Christianity’s darkest moments began in 1692, when several adolescent girls in Salem, Massachusetts, began to accuse individuals of being witches.  The girls included the daughter and niece of the town’s minister.  They started by accusing the minister’s black housekeeper.  Then they accused two of the older women in town.  By the summer of 1692, the jails were filled with people the girls had accused of witchcraft.  The evidence?  The girls supposedly went into convulsions in their presence, or they said they had seen an apparition of the accused person.  If the accused admitted to being a…