Acid Tongued

Not to disagree with tu amor, but I think the town in the story seems to come off as more of a "The Lottery" type town in which everyone is off-kilter than one in which religion causes normal people to do terrible things. In reading the story, I didn't find anything that I would consider to be sacrilegious at all. As far as the group vs individual evil goes, I think that one single religious nut in a story, with his motives and beliefs well-explained, can be much more offensive to sensitive religious people than a vaguely defined group.

Oh, by the way, not to nitpick, but the Ernie's hair- pumpkin guts simile later on in the story reads kind of clunky. Overall an OK story, though.