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June 2
Bridget Bishop, Gilbert Baker, Anthony de Mello, and the Combahee River Raid
David Barnhart
June 02, 2025
Trees in Portland, Oregon, 2025. Own photo.
On today’s date in 1692, Bridget Bishop, a midwife, became the first woman tried and eventually found guilty of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. She was hanged on June 10. The town's witch hunt would kill 18 more women. The town of Salem proclaimed a day of fasting and repentance five years later, realizing they had succumbed to a moral panic.
Today is the birthday, in 1951, of Gilbert Baker, artist and gay rights activist, who designed the rainbow flag. His iconic work has become the recognizable palette of Pride Month, a fitting birthday tribute.
Today marks the death, in 1987, of Anthony de Mello, Jesuit priest, psychotherapist, and storyteller. He often illustrated profound spiritual truths with parables, and incorporated insights from Eastern mysticism in his Christian writing. He wrote, among other things, "If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth."
Today also marks the anniversary of the Combahee River Raid, when Harriet Tubman led 150 African American soldiers and freed over seven hundred slaves.
Reflection
Anthony de Mello wrote
“People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.”
And also:
“Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture. To acquire happiness you don't have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does anybody know why? Because we have it already. How can you acquire what you already have? Then why don't you experience it? Because you've got to drop something. You've got to drop illusions. You don't have to add anything in order to be happy; you've got to drop something.”
Prayer: God, allow us to drop our illusions, our prejudices, and our defense of man-made poverty so that we can experience true happiness. Amen.