Witches and Virgins

                   THE HAMMER OF THE WITCHES

Witchcraft caught the inquisitions attention in the fifteenth century, in 1484 the church issued a bull concerning Witchcraft and Demonology that suggested people face reality! 

 The same bull authorized the inquisition to interrogate, arrest and punish any witches it may find. In over one hundred and fifty years the church burnt over thirty thousand witches at the stake. 

 All innocent victims of a church sanctioned pathological fantasy.  The Dominicans published a book on how to deal with witches.  One of the most infamous books in history!  Called the "Hammer of the Witches!"  

There is no question that the church feared all things feminine.  For the church women were the source of all that was demonic in the world. 

 To the church women were not perfect and always sought to deceive.  They were weaker than men and thus more likely to be corrupted and to corrupt others! 

 They lacked discipline,were beautiful to look upon, contaminating to the association, and deadly to the touch. All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is insatiable in women. 

 But why was the church terrified of women?  It has to do with SEX “ Sexual pleasure can never be without SIN.”  According to Pope Gregory I in Responsum Gregorii.

 In the fifth century Father John Chaysostom stated” there are in the world a great many situations that weaken the consciousness of the soul and not only the eye of the unbridled woman but that of the decent one as well.”

                   THE CULT OF THE VIRGINS

 The whole of church history adds up to one long arbitrary, narrow minded masculine desposition over the female sex!  And this continues today uninterrupted.  The fury that happens when it is suggested that women might be ordained as priests!

This comes from the churches obsession with perpetual virginity and celibacy.  So long as she never “knew a man the church has loved the Virgin Mary.  Personally I have a little problem referring to a Jewish women with eight kids as a virgin, so I’ll just refer to her by her name of “Maria.”  She gave birth to Jesus through the unlimited power of God!  The implication is “ that God is kind of a Man.”

Pope John Paul II, in 1987 in redemption matter ruled that her hymen remained in tact.  “ It was a miracle.”   The notion of a Virgin birth arose when the old testament was translated into Greek in the third century.   Isaiah ‘7:4’ has prophesied that a “young women” would bear a son and this son would be called Emanuel.   The Greek version of young women was “alma” which was translated into the Greek Bible as “Virgin”(Partheno’s)

 There isn’t any mention in any of the gospels of a virgin birth.  There is very little mentioned about a virgin birth in the bible.  Luke presents the story (2:48)  he describes the story of Mary and Joseph as Jesus’s parents, mentioned in John (1:45-6:42)

  Jesus as the son of Joseph (Mathew:13:55) There isn't any mention of the Virgin Birth in Paul’s letters.  Paul is very direct about it and denies it in his letter to the Romans ( 1:3) which states that“Jesus was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh”  In the first Gospel that of Mark, there isn't any mention of a virgin birth at all.

The church proceeded to make a cult of virginity and this cult attracted many men.  These men could best be described as disturbed, and at worst as pathological pendants.

 Men like the Church father Origen, who castrated himself at age eighteen, in order to make himself a more perfect Christian.  Father Augustine, who hated all pleasure.  Especially that which came from sex!  

 A succession of these men struggled to introduce compulsory celibacy for all teachers of the faith.This finally became the way of the church in 1139.  When marriage and sex were forbidden to priests of the Catholic faith.

 Jesus never mentions celibacy, Paul indicates that there was not even any unwritten testimony to that effect. Paul writes now concerning virgins:
“I have no commandment of the Lord” first letter to the Corinthians (7:25).  Saint Peter was married to Jesus cousin, the daughter of Zebedee and Salome.They frequently traveled together, Paul attests to this in his first letter to the Corinthians (9:5). 

 Paul was also married and most of the apostle’s and seventy two disciples also were, as was customary for Jewish men.

The memory of Paul’s marriage persisted until the end of the second century when it was last mentioned by Bishop Clement of Alexandria.

 Thereafter Paul became celibate and as the male virgins took over the church, women were excluded from its expression.

 In view of the fragments that have survived of Jesus’s life it appears that he too was likely married. The first century Pharisees, a sect of Judaism,“ it was a man’s unconditional duty to marry.”“ Whoever does not engage in procreation is like someone who spills blood.”  Rabbi Eliezer.

If Jesus didn’t marry as the church would have us believe, why didn't the Pharisees make an issue of it?  Why didn't the disciples demand an explanation for his failure to marry. 

 Jesus had many enemies, and most wanted him dead; the Pharisees opposed his teachings, and considered him a heretic to their faith and way of living.  The Romans considered him a trouble maker, they considered him a Zealot, today the authorities would consider a Zealot a domestic terrorist.

Paul was a Pharisee before he was a Christian. If Jesus was celibate, if he did not marry, why didn't Paul make an issue of it?