Our Culture's Crucible: A Continuing Tale

In the 1950s, Arthur Miller wrote his famous drama, The Crucible, in response to the Joseph McCarthy hearings where an accusation of Communist leanings meant devastation to your reputation and death to your past accomplishments and future hopes. In the year 2017, we have strong similarities with the plethora of sexual harassment charges. Allegations are popping up daily on both the left and right side of the political aisle, in Hollywood, and in the sports industry. What will be the end of such claims? What good ... or evil ... will result from our continuous exposure to not workplace harassment but also claims of sexual assault? In the next few blogs, we will look at the issues from both sides as well as explore how all who are effected can live in forgiveness.

Miller's play is set in the middle of the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts several hundred years before today, but the parallels are worth examining. In 1692, young girls presented testimony of being swayed and assaulted against their will by those of influence. Trials ensued; executions resulted. Before the storm ceased, over 200 charges of witchcraft resulted and 20 lives were taken. It was the end of an era.

Consequently, the Salem witch trials destroyed the impact of a driving force at the time:

the church.

In post WWII America, it was communism on trial instead of witchcraft. Accusations of espionage and treason resulted in estrangement, bankruptcy and for some, suicide. To be fair, some brought before the Senate were active members of the Communist Party. Certainly there were trials and convictions of confessing communist spies. The challenge to America was that a mere accusation of "communist!" might result in a guilty verdict as it had in the witchcraft trials. It was the end of the Happy Days of the 1950s; the McCarthy hearings, for many, resulted in decades of mistrust and cynicism toward the government.

Times may change, but humanity does not. Just as I have considered harming another (just considered mind you) "a la Salem", so have I read Russian literature, an act which would align me as a communist sympathizer in the 1950s. In the mentioned time periods, I would be guilty of a capital crime. It is not that I assume all parties are either guilty or innocent. Some of the charges of sexual misconduct are likely accurate. But similar to the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy hearings, daily barrages of accusations of sexual misconduct have whipped us into a froth of hysteria where an individual's career, business and marriage can be destroyed by just an accusation of an inappropriate look. This is unfair. This is unjust.

This is un-American.

Just as the Salem Witch Witch trials and McCarthy Hearings resulted in the loss of credibility for the church and government, the same will soon be true of the women's movement. There are critical needs for women's equality such as equal pay and safety from domestic violence threats. Dr. King's words are crucial here:

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

We must be vigilant. When a mere accusation of impropriety destroys an individual we are on Dangerous Ground.

I know. Years ago my teenage son was misunderstood and prejudged as a sexual miscreant by a group of teenage girls. He was ostracized, and I was ashamed. We lost friends and business clients. A good reputation was soiled needlessly, and that is nearly impossible to regain.

It was 5 years afterward that the originating family recanted and apologized. The parents bravely called my son to ask for forgiveness for their assumptions and resulting behavior. While I am grateful for the apology, the incident keeps all of us on edge when there is a shred of misunderstanding. Therefore I am more careful about assuming that one person is guilty because I can 'simply believe it could'. We all deserve to be thought innocent until proven guilty. It strengthens equality.

Ladies - I know that some of us have paved the way for the accusations to be heard ... we have suffered genuine abuses of power - whether that be from our fathers, uncles, bosses or professors. But in gaining this power let us not lose sight that all lives matter, and that includes those condemned before the trial.

NEXT BLOG - When the accusations are true - How to live in freedom.

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Proverbs 18:17 The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him.