This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories and up next, well, a little piece of American history.

Historical truths often emerged with time.

Early on, a hush descended over the 1692 to 1693 Salem witch trials.

Then came playwright Arthur Miller, who made off with the story, or at least his version of it.

Since 1953, the Crucible has become the

culturally accepted storyline that has come to define American Puritans. Dr. Stephen Nichols

is president of Reformation Bible College, chief academic officer of Ligonier Ministries,

and is the author of Jesus made in America

a cultural history from the Puritans

to the Passion of the Christ.

He's here to tell the story of the Puritans

and the Salem Witch Trials.

Here's Stephen Nichols.

Well, as we look over American history,

probably one of the groups that is misunderstood

the most is the New England Puritans.

Most of what Americans know about these New England Puritans we have read in high school

in two books.

The first is Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic text, The Scarlet

Letter, and then there is Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. Neither of these books paint a very

flattering portrait of the Puritans. The Scarlet Letter portrays the Puritans as a bunch of hypocrites, as self-righteous,

...