What happens when spiritual beliefs are used to justify harm against children in the United States? In this episode, Josh Hutchinson, Sarah Jack, and guest host Mary Bingham explore Spiritual and Ritual Abuse, known as SARA, and why it remains a largely unrecognized crisis in American communities. The team examines how belief-driven violence crosses every demographic and faith background, discusses the landmark case of 3-year-old Arely Procter, and raises critical questions about accountability when religious freedom is invoked as a legal defense.

• What Spiritual and Ritual Abuse (SARA) is and how international bodies define it

• How SARA manifests in the United States across faiths, communities, and demographics

• Why cases of belief-driven child abuse often go unrecognized or are prosecuted without acknowledging the spiritual motivations behind them

• How familiar cases like Elizabeth Smart and Ruby Franke fall under the SARA umbrella

• The story of Arely Procter and the ongoing legal proceedings in Santa Clara County, California

• What the Racial Justice Act of 2020 is and how it is being used in Arely's case

• Why the United States lacks a centralized system for monitoring spiritual abuse-and what End Witch Hunts is doing about it

• What research tells us about the prevalence of supernatural beliefs in America

Mary Bingham is a director of End Witch Hunts and a researcher focused on spiritual and ritual abuse cases spanning historical witch trials through present-day prosecutions. Her case research and victim profiles are available on the Sarah Wildes 1692 YouTube channel, including a dedicated playlist for World Day Against Witch Hunts 2025.

• SARA (Spiritual and Ritual Abuse): Abuse where an offender uses spiritual, superstitious, or traditional beliefs to justify harming others, or uses a victim's own beliefs to manipulate and control them.

• Harmful Traditional Practices: The United Nations' terminology for practices related to accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks, reported in at least 60 nations.

• Racial Justice Act of 2020 (California): Legislation ensuring that racial, ethnic, or national origin does not influence criminal investigations intentionally or unintentionally.

National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE (1-800-799-7233)

National Deaf Domestic Violence Hotline: Call 855-812-1001 or text START to 88788.

Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline: Call or text 800-422-4453.

If you are experiencing spiritual or ritual abuse in the home, trained advocates are available around the clock.

Hosts: Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack Guest Host: Mary Bingham Produced by: End Witch Hunts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization

New episodes weekly. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. The Thing About Witch Hunts has been heard in 100+ countries worldwide.

Links

End Witch Hunts Project: End Spiritual and Ritual Abuse

SARA Cases YouTube Playlist

National Domestic Violence Hotline

Podcast Episode: Jordan Alexander Discusses Spiritual and Ritual Abuse

Podcast Episode: Witchcraft Beliefs Around the World with Boris Gershman

Article by Mary Bingham: Witch Hunting from Salem to San Jose: Dorothy Good and Arely Proctor

Article by Mary Bingham: The Psychology Behind Witchcraft Accusations

Law & Crime Network YouTube Video on Arely Proctor Racial Justice Act Defense https://youtu.be/4DJnPgnRVmY?si=8zSMLDGpT0hLw-YL

Wales has something most countries don't: complete, intact court records from every witch trial held in the Court of Great Sessions. Author Mari Ellis Dunning used these archives to write Witch, a historical novel set in 16th century Wales.

About the novel:

Witch follows Doli, a Welsh young woman desperate to have a baby who seeks help from a local soothsayer. The story explores what happens when accusations arise in a community caught between old Welsh traditions and new English Protestant law.

The historical context:

Five witch trials in Wales resulted in death sentences. The records show fascinating details, including Gwen ferch Ellis's case where "ignoramus" (case dismissed) was physically crossed out before her conviction.

Mari discusses the tension between licensed and unlicensed midwives, how the Royal College of Physicians excluded women from medicine, and why lay healers were often more effective than the male physicians who replaced them. Class boundaries determined which accusations progressed to trial.

The conversation explores:

How Mari balanced creating relatable, nuanced characters while staying true to the limited agency women actually had in the 16th century

Why Wales's cultural identity and the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism shaped different attitudes toward folk practices

The connection between historical witch trials and modern medical misogyny, political rhetoric weaponizing "witch," and systemic violence against women

Links

Buy the book: Witsh by Mari Ellis Dunning

Guest Article: Gwen ferch Ellis: The first woman in Wales to be sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft

Before her execution, Governor John Winthrop Jr. treated Mary Barnes as a patient. He recorded her symptoms, prescribed medicines, and tracked the costs in his medical notebook. In 1663, she was executed for witchcraft in Hartford, Connecticut.

This episode isn’t about the execution. It’s about fractured communities, failed institutions, and real people with lives that existed long before the gallows. It’s about what happens when a doctor’s patient becomes a community’s scapegoat, when churches wage war with themselves, and when the one leader who had stopped witch executions leaves town at the worst possible moment.

Between 1647 and 1663, Connecticut hanged more people for witchcraft than any other New England colony. Then it became the first to implement legal protections that saved lives, twenty-nine years before Salem would erupt. Understanding that transformation requires understanding Hartford’s breaking point.

Understanding how communities fracture, how institutions fail their people, and how fear finds convenient targets in those who don’t fit strict norms teaches us to recognize these patterns, whether in 1663 Hartford or anywhere scapegoating takes root.

This is the story of what happened when a doctor’s patient became a witch. When religious anchors became battlegrounds. When neighbors turned on neighbors. And eventually, when a community chose differently.

In May 2023, Connecticut officially absolved all 34 witch trial victims.

The Thing About Witch Hunts examines historical witch trials and contemporary persecution patterns worldwide. Hosts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack explore the context that makes scapegoating possible and how communities can choose differently.*

End Witch Hunts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization

Links

Connecticutwitchtrials.org

Listen to more CT Witch Trials Podcast Episodes

Buy the Book: Before Salem: Witch Hunting in the Connecticut River Valley 1647-1663

What books should I read about the Connecticut Witch Trials?

End Witch Hunts Nonprofit

Salem Witch Trials Daily Program