[Brother Temperance]

Hellbound liberals call for criminal witch to be pardoned

Originally Posted by Guardian

Mary Martin was 11 years old when her father taught her to box. She would come home from school scratched and bruised, her ears ringing with abuse from the playground. Mary Martin had the unhappy distinction of being the granddaughter of Britain's last convicted witch.

Mrs Martin knew her grandmother, Helen Duncan, as a comforting woman she could trust, the granny with a special gift: talking to spirits. But this was April 1944, at the height of the war with Germany. Mrs Duncan had just been branded by an Old Bailey jury as a witch and spy guilty of revealing wartime secrets. Some 50 years after Mrs Duncan's death, a fresh campaign has been launched to clear her name, with a petition calling on the home secretary, John Reid, to grant a posthumous pardon. Her conviction, said Mrs Martin, was simply "ludicrous".

The appeal is winning international support from experts in perhaps the world's most infamous witch trial: the conviction and execution of 20 girls, men and women at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. "Helen Duncan was very much victimised by her times, and she too suffered," said Alison D'Amario, education director at the Salem Witch Museum. Mrs Duncan, a Scotswoman who travelled the country holding seances, was one of Britain's best-known mediums, reputedly numbering Winston Churchill and George VI among her clients, when she was arrested in January 1944 by two naval officers at a seance in Portsmouth. The military authorities, secretly preparing for the D-day landings and then in a heightened state of paranoia, were alarmed by reports that she had disclosed - allegedly via contacts with the spirit world - the sinking of two British battleships long before they became public. The most serious disclosure came when she told the parents of a missing sailor that his ship, HMS Barham, had sunk. It was true, but news of the tragedy had been suppressed to preserve morale.
Desperate to silence the apparent leak of state secrets, the authorities charged Mrs Duncan with conspiracy, fraud, and with witchcraft under an act dating back to 1735 - the first such charge in over a century. At the trial, only the "black magic" allegations stuck, and she was jailed for nine months at Holloway women's prison in north London. Churchill, then prime minister, visited her in prison and denounced her conviction as "tomfoolery". In 1951, he repealed the 200-year-old act, but her conviction stood.

The petition has been set up by an arts festival and the holder of a medieval barony, Gordon Prestoungrange, in the coastal town of Prestonpans east of Edinburgh, a few miles from Mrs Martin's home. Two years ago, Dr Prestoungrange used his ancient powers as the local baron to pardon 81 women and men from the area executed for witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries. "The prosecution and conviction of Helen Duncan as a witch was clearly as much of an injustice as those of the 16th and 17th centuries," he said. "It's hardly credible that a 20th century court would be prepared to convict someone of witchcraft - within living memory of many in this present government. As well as the deprivations suffered by Helen Duncan in prison, the effect of the stigma on her family was and remains considerable."

This story is simply shocking. Leaving aside the fact that this witch was only imprisoned and not executed as God commands, there are people who actually want to overturn her conviction? What sort of a message would that send out? Friends, these people are obviously intent on opening the gates of Hell and turning an entire generation of empty-headed children wickan! This "Baron Prestoungrange" fellow is clearly some kind of a local warlock intent on setting up a witchcult with him as the leader. What on earth was Churchill thinking?

[OnYourKnees]

Originally Posted by Brother Temperance

Hellbound liberals call for criminal witch to be pardoned

This story is simply shocking. Leaving aside the fact that this witch was only imprisoned and not executed as God commands, there are people who actually want to overturn her conviction? What sort of a message would that send out? Friends, these people are obviously intent on opening the gates of Hell and turning an entire generation of empty-headed children wickan! This "Baron Prestoungrange" fellow is clearly some kind of a local warlock intent on setting up a witchcult with him as the leader. What on earth was Churchill thinking?

Let me see if I have this right:

A woman practiced witchcraft (the summoning of familiar spirits). She advertised herself as a medium, in fact.

She then got convicted of practicing witchcraft. Which she advertised herself as doing.

Now, her family wants her conviction for doing exactly what she said she was doing overturned?

[Brother V]

Originally Posted by OnYourKnees

Let me see if I have this right:

A woman practiced witchcraft (the summoning of familiar spirits). She advertised herself as a medium, in fact.

She then got convicted of practicing witchcraft. Which she advertised herself as doing.

Now, her family wants her conviction for doing exactly what she said she was doing overturned?

I'm surprised they don't advertise it as proof that witchcraft works. Which we know isn't the case based on Elijah's fire expiriment thingy.

1 Kings 18:30 And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.

31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:

32 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.

33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.

34 And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.

35 And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.

... shortly thereafter...

37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.

38 Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.

And we all know what Elijah did next. He killed the false god worshippers.

40 And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

PRAISE JESUS!!!

Now, why would anyone want to practice witchcraft?

YIC
V