John Proctor: Heroic Stooge

In my eyes John Proctor is a hero and a stooge because he does things that are heroic even though they make him look foolish in the eyes of the community.  He also does things that are flat out foolish, but those are to be overlooked.  I feel that John's less backward ways of living and views on religion are very good for his town in the long run, because as history has shown us, religion has lost the grip it once had.  There was a time where all of the western world, as well as the middle east, was governed by religion.  Religion lead to many wars and even the dark ages, but now it has far less influence than it once had in our day to day lives.  The society in Salem still is in the shackles of religion, but John has dared to not attend church, and worse, adulterate.  Though I don't condone adultery (or do I?) I believe that this sin is one of the first steps towards lenience in the town of Salem.  John is a freedom fighter, as was George Washington, and even Che Guevara.  I think that the down side to his actions is his reputation as a bad Christian, because he doesn't frequent church, and the repercussion of his sins, which may be revealed later in the play, though honestly they could never be publicly revealed.