Interesting one Lotharson–
No I don’t’ think that witch hunting in early modern Europe was a result of Jesus’ teachings. The phenomena was very complex and both atheist and Christians often have a rather distorted version of it.
I don’t really know where to start but here are a few observations -
The witch hunts were facilitated by many factors
A change in emphasis in European law during the Renaissance/Reformation that took the burden of proof off the accuser to prove their accusations and onto the accused to prove their innocence. This was not consonant with the teachings of Jesus.
Those Christians who struggled for the end of the witch hunts – like Father von Spee - saw in the so called witches the face of their Jesus who was falsely accused.
It was not only Christians but also religious sceptics and supporters of early modern science who supported the Witch hunts. Indeed part of the reason for the witch hunts – although not the whole reason by any means – can be seen in the rise of the male medical professions and the need to marginalise and outlaw those women accused of witchcraft who practised herbal medicine, midwifery etc.
Most of the so called witches were not specialists in traditional medicine but rather simple Christians without sufficient literacy or learning to give the correct doctrinal answers when falsely accused, or Christians who happened to dissent from mainstream views (Anabaptists were often accused of witchcraft). So really the witch-hunts of the early modern period are very similar to secular witch hunts of our time – McCarthyism, the Stalinist purges. The Chinese Cultural Revolution (the latter two far worse than the first example – but the first example was still very bad).
The New Atheists are sometimes in danger of replicating the arguments of the witch hunters – especially when they use the metaphor of virus/contagion for religion or argue – as Dan Dennett has done – that good, kind and tolerant religious people are actually worse than maniacs and religious terrorists because they give religion – which produces maniacs and terrorists – respectability. This is the argument of the false accuser which attempts to silence the defending advocate. Obviously religious people still go about scapegoating – but they are not alone.
Thinking that the dynamics of witch hunting is only due to belief in the supernatural or to giving great importance to one criminal law from the OT is, IMHO, to misunderstand a far more complex picture. Because scapegoating is an almost universal human phenomena under certain conditions I think it is unhelpful for either religious or secular people to simply lash out at the opposite side with witch hunter accusations,
I think also all who cite the witch hunts should know facts from myth (they often don’t) –
They didn’t; happen in the Middle Ages – heresy trials did, but not witch trials. They happened in the Reformation period.
Sometimes it is claimed that as many as nine million were killed. This is completely false. The best estimates today are that 90,000 people were killed over a period of three hundred years.
Many people think that all of the victims were women. Actually two thirds of the victims were women and one third men. In some places – notably Iceland – all of the victims were men.
Hope this is useful
Dick
.) I know, I’ve got a good friend who is just like this. She was so messed up by her fundamentalist upbringing that she simply will not listen to *anything *positive I might have to say to her about faith. So I don’t even try 
.)
Which from his all-religion-is-a-virus standpoint makes sense, I guess. (Cf. Sobor’s comment comparing the New Atheist crowd to modern witch hunters.)