This sort of justice still goes on in our country anyway in subtle ways. Freedom of religion is granted only to those who give lip service to the prevailing religion. There's the case of the owners of an occult shop in a small American town who were evicted from the property and refused space in any other property as well. One of the local preachers rallied the citizens against these folks. He claimed they were supporting the worship of Satan. That of course makes most Pagans shake their heads in disbelieve as most Pagans are nonchristian and therefore don't worship Satan.
Many Pagans must hide their religious beliefs for fear of being shunned by loved ones, or having children taken from them or losing jobs. It is interesting to me that many folks will participate in these significant, life-altering actions without verifying the facts or taking the time to find out what the real truth of the matter is. I was talking to a health food store owner a few weeks ago about the possibility of leaving flyers for a psychic fair. She made it clear she wants nothing to do with supporting the local Pagans and asked me if following the Pagan path did not lead one to eventually follow Satan. I could only tell her that in this day and age there is more than enough literature for that sort of ignorance to be eradicated if a person chose to avail themselves of it.
The study into the historical witch trials continues. There is enough resulting information from these studies now to suggest that some of the research done up to the early 20th century is not accurate or even deliberately false. Many studies have founded their conclusions upon false documentation from earlier decades. A well-written article discussing this can be found on the COG site at: (Recent Developments in the Great European Witch Hung) discussing some of the recent findings.
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