I mean to be absolutely fair, I do live in Salem, Ma (though the person I was speaking to didn't know that), which actually has a ton of practicing Wiccans, Pagans, mediums, fortune tellers, etc etc. So I do, in fact, know actual witches in the United States in the modern age.

But they weren't talking about people who believe in crystal healing powers and things like that. They were talking about the kind of witches that the Puritans believed in, who are Satanic and go after good Christian people.

It's like when some preacher or politician or relative they like gets caught doing something horrible, like raping a kid. Oh, the Devil saw a righteous man and took over his heart and tried to destroy him, but now he has cast the Devil out and embraced Jesus even more than ever, and he should be utterly forgiven because his only sin was not being strong enough to cast the Devil out sooner.