The Trial of Lindsay Clancy and the Return of Witchraft

From Dr Gavin Ashenden, convert, former Anglican "bishop".

The fallout after the verdict following the trial has led to rancour and recrimination between men and women throughout America? The anecdotal and the social media evidence is that women and men in marriage in relationship at work and in society have found themselves sharply disagreeing with each other over the verdict and the trial.

The Slate lawyer columnist Jill Filippo described a sharp gender divide in those demanding prison were overwhelmingly conservative men, while women especially mothers, were convinced that emblematic of all suffering women and mothers, Lindsay Clancy deserved not to be found accountable for her actions. The essay that I thought introduced a degree of interpretive perspective that ought to be widely known was written by Tara Tika TARATHIEKE, entitled The Return of Witchcraft. Our introduction says she wanted to look at the cultural return of witchcraft and its origin in the shift away from Christianity and how cultural shifts have opened a vacuum in which the obsession with the glamour and control, (the essence of witchcraft have entered.

Before getting any further, it’s probably worth pointing out that the difference between men and women in their reaction to the Clancy trial verdict should not be presented as sympathy versus accountability which is what it looks like at first sight.

It is in fact two different objects of sympathy and competition with each other. The feminine or feminist response locates compassion in the mother who has either failed or been failed by others. I will masculine in response as compassion located in sympathy for the three children murdered by their mother and the need to protect children from motherhood when it turns violent or destructive. But what lies behind the change of culture that has led to women turning against the safety of their children?