diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 868c046..1e66a11 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 *.pyc
 
 # Ignore bot-specific config file:
-config.xml
+config.json
 
 # Ignore pydev's nonsense:
 .project
diff --git a/core/config.py b/core/config.py
index b1331ce..29c3fe1 100644
--- a/core/config.py
+++ b/core/config.py
@@ -1,74 +1,56 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8  -*-
 
 """
-EarwigBot's XML Config File Parser
+EarwigBot's JSON Config File Parser
 
 This handles all tasks involving reading and writing to our config file,
 including encrypting and decrypting passwords and making a new config file from
 scratch at the inital bot run.
 
 Usually you'll just want to do "from core import config" and access config data
-from within config's four global variables:
+from within config's three global variables and one function:
 
-* config.components
-* config.wiki
-* config.irc
-* config.schedule
+* config.components       - a list of enabled components
+* config.wiki             - a dict of config information for wiki-editing
+* config.irc              - a dict of config information for IRC
+* config.schedule()       - returns a list of tasks scheduled to run now
 """
 
-from collections import defaultdict
+import json
 from os import makedirs, path
-from xml.dom import minidom
-from xml.parsers.expat import ExpatError
 
 from lib import blowfish
 
 script_dir = path.dirname(path.abspath(__file__))
 root_dir = path.split(script_dir)[0]
-config_path = path.join(root_dir, "config.xml")
+config_path = path.join(root_dir, "config.json")
 
-_config = None  # holds the parsed DOM object for our config file
+_config = None  # holds data loaded from our config file
 
-# initialize our five global variables to store config data
-components, wiki, irc, schedule, watcher = (None, None, None, None, None)
+# set our three easy-config-access global variables to None
+components, wiki, irc = (None, None, None)
 
-class ConfigParseError(Exception):
-    """Base exception for when we could not parse the config file."""
-
-class TypeMismatchError(ConfigParseError):
-    """A field does not fit to its expected type; e.g., an arbitrary string
-    where we expected a boolean or integer."""
-
-class MissingElementError(ConfigParseError):
-    """An element in the config file is missing a required sub-element."""
-
-class MissingAttributeError(ConfigParseError):
-    """An element is missing a required attribute to be parsed correctly."""
-
-class Container(object):
-    """A class to hold information in a nice, accessable manner."""
-
-def _load_config():
-    """Load data from our XML config file (config.xml) into a DOM object."""
+def load_config():
+    """Load data from our JSON config file (config.json) into _config."""
     global _config
-    _config = minidom.parse(config_path)
+    with open(config_path, 'r') as fp:
+        try:
+            _config = json.load(fp)
+        except ValueError as error:
+            print "Error parsing config file {0}:".format(config_path)
+            print error
+            exit(1)
 
 def verify_config():
     """Check to see if we have a valid config file, and if not, notify the
     user. If there is no config file at all, offer to make one; otherwise,
     exit."""
     if path.exists(config_path):
+        load_config()
         try:
-            _load_config()
-        except ExpatError as error:
-            print "Could not parse config file {0}:\n{1}".format(config_path,
-                    error)
-            exit()
-        else:
-            if not _config.getElementsByTagName("config"):
-                e = "Config file is missing a <config> tag."
-                raise MissingElementError(e)
-            return are_passwords_encrypted()
+            return _config["encryptPasswords"]  # are passwords encrypted?
+        except KeyError:
+            return False  # assume passwords are not encrypted by default
     else:
         print "You haven't configured the bot yet!"
         choice = raw_input("Would you like to do this now? [y/n] ")
@@ -77,235 +59,94 @@ def verify_config():
         else:
             exit()
 
-def make_new_config():
-    """Make a new XML config file based on the user's input."""
-    makedirs(config_dir)
-    
-    encrypt = raw_input("Would you like to encrypt passwords stored in " +
-            "config.xml? [y/n] ")
-    if encrypt.lower().startswith("y"):
-        is_encrypted = True
-    else:
-        is_encrypted = False
-        
-    return is_encrypted
-
-def are_passwords_encrypted():
-    """Determine if the passwords in our config file are encrypted; return
-    either True or False, or raise an exception if there was a problem reading
-    the config file."""
-    element = _config.getElementsByTagName("config")[0]
-    attribute = element.getAttribute("encrypt-passwords")
-    if not attribute:
-        return False
-    return attribute_to_bool(attribute, element, "encrypt-passwords")
+def parse_config(key):
+    """Store data from our config file in three global variables for easy
+    access, and use the key to unencrypt passwords. Catch password decryption
+    errors and report them to the user."""
+    global components, wiki, irc
 
-def get_first_element(parent, tag_name):
-    """Return the first child of the parent element with the given tag name, or
-    return None if no child of that name exists."""
+    load_config()  # we might be re-loading unnecessarily here, but no harm in
+                   # that!
     try:
-        return parent.getElementsByTagName(tag_name)[0]
-    except IndexError:
-        return None
-
-def get_required_element(parent, tag_name):
-    """Return the first child of the parent element with the given tag name, or
-    raise MissingElementError() if no child of that name exists."""
-    element = get_first_element(parent, tag_name)
-    if not element:
-        e = "A <{0}> tag is missing a required <{1}> child tag.".format(
-                parent.tagName, tag_name)
-        raise MissingElementError(e)
-    return element
-
-def get_required_attribute(element, attr_name):
-    """Return the value of the attribute 'attr_name' in 'element'. If
-    undefined, raise MissingAttributeError()."""
-    attribute = element.getAttribute(attr_name)
-    if not attribute:
-        e = "A <{0}> tag is missing the required attribute '{1}'.".format(
-                element.tagName, attr_name)
-        raise MissingAttributeError(e)
-    return attribute
-
-def attribute_to_bool(value, element, attr_name):
-    """Return True if 'value' is 'true', '1', or 'on', return False if it is
-    'false', '0', or 'off' (regardless of capitalization), or raise
-    TypeMismatchError() if it does match any of those. 'element' and
-    'attr_name' are only used to generate the error message."""
-    lcase = value.lower()
-    if lcase in ["true", "1", "on"]:
-        return True
-    elif lcase in ["false", "0", "off"]:
-        return False
-    else:
-        e = ("Expected a bool in attribute '{0}' of tag '{1}', but got '{2}'."
-                ).format(attr_name, element.tagName, value)
-        raise TypeMismatchError(e)
-
-def attribute_to_int(value, element, attr_name):
-    """Return 'value' after it is converted to an integer. If it could not be
-    converted, raise TypeMismatchError() using 'element' and 'attr_name' only
-    to give the user information about what happened."""
+        components = _config["components"]
+    except KeyError:
+        components = []
+    try:
+        wiki = _config["wiki"]
+    except KeyError:
+        wiki = {}
     try:
-        return int(value)
-    except ValueError:
-        e = ("Expected an integer in attribute '{0}' of tag '{1}', but got " +
-                "'{2}'.").format(attr_name, element.tagName, value)
-        raise TypeMismatchError(e)
+        irc = _config["irc"]
+    except KeyError:
+        irc = {}
 
-def parse_config(key):
-    """A thin wrapper for the actual config parser in _parse_config(): catch
-    parsing exceptions and report them to the user cleanly."""
     try:
-        _parse_config(key)
-    except ConfigParseError as error:
-        print "\nError parsing config file:"
-        print error
-        exit(1)
+        try:
+            if _config["encryptPasswords"]:
+                decrypt(key, "wiki['password']")
+                decrypt(key, "irc['frontend']['nickservPassword']")
+                decrypt(key, "irc['watcher']['nickservPassword']")
+        except KeyError:
+            pass
     except blowfish.BlowfishError as error:
         print "\nError decrypting passwords:"
         print "{0}: {1}.".format(error.__class__.__name__, error)
         exit(1)
 
-def _parse_config(key):
-    """Parse config data from a DOM object into the four global variables that
-    store our config info. The key is used to unencrypt passwords stored in the
-    XML config file."""
-    global components, wiki, irc, schedule
-
-    _load_config()  # we might be re-loading unnecessarily here, but no harm in
-                    # that!
-    data = _config.getElementsByTagName("config")[0]
-
-    components = parse_components(data)
-    wiki = parse_wiki(data, key)
-    irc = parse_irc(data, key)
-    schedule = parse_schedule(data)
-
-def parse_components(data):
-    """Parse everything within the <components> XML tag of our config file.
-    The components object here will exist as config.components, and is a dict
-    of our enabled components: components[name] = True if it is enabled, False
-    if it is disabled."""
-    components = defaultdict(lambda: False)  # all components are disabled by
-                                             # default
-    element = get_required_element(data, "components")
-
-    for component in element.getElementsByTagName("component"):
-        name = get_required_attribute(component, "name")
-        components[name] = True
-
-    return components
-
-def parse_wiki(data, key):
-    """Parse everything within the <wiki> tag of our XML config file."""
-    pass
-
-def parse_irc_server(data, key):
-    """Parse everything within a <server> tag."""
-    server = Container()
-    connection = get_required_element(data, "connection")
-
-    server.host = get_required_attribute(connection, "host")
-    server.port = get_required_attribute(connection, "port")
-    server.nick = get_required_attribute(connection, "nick")
-    server.ident = get_required_attribute(connection, "ident")
-    server.realname = get_required_attribute(connection, "realname")
-
-    # convert the port from a string to an int
-    server.port = attribute_to_int(server.port, connection, "port")
-
-    nickserv = get_first_element(data, "nickserv")
-    if nickserv:
-        server.nickserv = Container()
-        server.nickserv.username = get_required_attribute(nickserv, "username")
-        password = get_required_attribute(nickserv, "password")
-        if are_passwords_encrypted():
-            server.nickserv.password = blowfish.decrypt(key, password)
-        else:
-            server.nickserv.password = password
-    else:
-        server.nickserv = None
-
-    server.channels = list()
-    channels = get_first_element(data, "channels")
-    if channels:
-        for channel in channels.getElementsByTagName("channel"):
-            name = get_required_attribute(channel, "name")
-            server.channels.append(name)
-
-    return server
-
-def parse_irc(data, key):
-    """Parse everything within the <irc> tag of our XML config file."""
-    irc = Container()
-
-    element = get_first_element(data, "irc")
-    if not element:
-        return irc
-
-    servers = get_first_element(element, "servers")
-    if servers:
-        for server in servers.getElementsByTagName("server"):
-            server_name = get_required_attribute(server, "name")
-            if server_name == "frontend":
-                irc.frontend = parse_irc_server(server, key)
-            elif server_name == "watcher":
-                irc.watcher = parse_irc_server(server, key)
-            else:
-                print ("Warning: config file specifies a <server> with " +
-                "unknown name '{0}'. Ignoring.").format(server_name)
-
-    permissions = get_first_element(element, "permissions")
-    if permissions:
-        irc.permissions = dict()
-        for group in permissions.getElementsByTagName("group"):
-            group_name = get_required_attribute(group, "name")
-            irc.permissions[group_name] = list()
-            for user in group.getElementsByTagName("user"):
-                hostname = get_required_attribute(user, "host")
-                irc.permissions[group_name].append(hostname)
-
-    return irc  
+def decrypt(key, item):
+    """Decrypt 'item' with blowfish.decrypt() using the given key and set it to
+    the decrypted result. 'item' should be a string, like
+    decrypt(key, "wiki['password']"), NOT decrypt(key, wiki['password'),
+    because that won't work."""
+    global irc, wiki
+    try:
+        result = blowfish.decrypt(key, eval(item))
+    except KeyError:
+        return
+    exec "{0} = result".format(item)
 
-def parse_schedule(data):
-    """Store the <schedule> element in schedule.data and the _schedule()
-    function as schedule.check()."""
-    schedule = Container()
-    schedule.check = _schedule
-    schedule.data = get_first_element(data, "schedule")
-    return schedule
-    
-def _schedule(minute, hour, month_day, month, week_day):
+def schedule(minute, hour, month_day, month, week_day):
     """Return a list of tasks that are scheduled to run at the time specified
-    by the function args. The schedule data comes from our config file's
-    <schedule> tag, which is stored as schedule.data. Call this function with
-    config.schedule.check(args)."""
-    tasks = []  # tasks to run this turn, each as a tuple of (task_name,
+    by the function arguments. The schedule data comes from our config file's
+    'schedule' field, which is stored as _config["schedule"]. Call this
+    function with config.schedule(args)."""
+    tasks = []  # tasks to run this turn, each as a tuple of either (task_name,
     # kwargs), or just task_name
 
     now = {"minute": minute, "hour": hour, "month_day": month_day,
             "month": month, "week_day": week_day}
 
-    for when in schedule.data.getElementsByTagName("when"):
+    try:
+        data = _config["schedule"]
+    except KeyError:
+        data = []
+    for event in data:
         do = True
         for key, value in now.items():
-            if when.hasAttribute(key):
-                req = when.getAttribute(key)
-                if attribute_to_int(req, when, key) != value:
-                    do = False
-                    break
+            try:
+                requirement = event[key]
+            except KeyError:
+                continue
+            if requirement != value:
+                do = False
+                break
         if do:
-            for task in when.getElementsByTagName("task"):
-                name = get_required_attribute(task, "name")
-                args = dict()
-                for key in task.attributes.keys():
-                    args[key] = task.getAttribute(key)
-                del args["name"]
-                if args:
-                    tasks.append((name, args))
-                else:
-                    tasks.append(name)
+            try:
+                tasks.extend(event["tasks"])
+            except KeyError:
+                pass
 
     return tasks
+
+def make_new_config():
+    """Make a new config file based on the user's input."""
+    makedirs(config_dir)
+    
+    encrypt = raw_input("Would you like to encrypt passwords stored in " +
+            "config.json? [y/n] ")
+    if encrypt.lower().startswith("y"):
+        is_encrypted = True
+    else:
+        is_encrypted = False
+        
+    return is_encrypted
diff --git a/core/main.py b/core/main.py
index 649e1f6..0b49842 100644
--- a/core/main.py
+++ b/core/main.py
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ def wiki_scheduler():
         if time_diff < 60:  # sleep until the next minute
             time.sleep(60 - time_diff)
 
-def irc_frontend(components):
+def irc_frontend():
     """If the IRC frontend is enabled, make it run on our primary thread, and
     enable the wiki scheduler and IRC watcher on new threads if they are
     enabled."""
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ def irc_frontend(components):
     f_conn = frontend.get_connection()
     frontend.startup(f_conn)
 
-    if config.components["wiki_schedule"]:
+    if "wiki_schedule" in config.components:
         print "\nStarting wiki scheduler..."
         task_manager.load_tasks()
         t_scheduler = threading.Thread(target=wiki_scheduler)
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ def irc_frontend(components):
         t_scheduler.daemon = True
         t_scheduler.start()
 
-    if config.components["irc_watcher"]:
+    if "irc_watcher" in config.components:
         print "\nStarting IRC watcher..."
         t_watcher = threading.Thread(target=irc_watcher, args=(f_conn,))
         t_watcher.name = "irc-watcher"
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ def irc_frontend(components):
 
     frontend.main()
 
-    if config.components["irc_watcher"]:
+    if "irc_watcher" in config.components:
         w_conn.close()
     f_conn.close()
 
@@ -115,16 +115,16 @@ def run():
         key = None
     config.parse_config(key)  # load data from the config file and parse it
                               # using the unlock key
-    components = config.components
+    enabled = config.components
 
-    if components["irc_frontend"]:  # make the frontend run on our primary
-        irc_frontend(components)    # thread if enabled, and enable additional
-                                    # components through that function
+    if "irc_frontend" in enabled:  # make the frontend run on our primary
+        irc_frontend()             # thread if enabled, and enable additional
+                                   # components through that function
 
-    elif components["wiki_schedule"]:       # run the scheduler on the main
-        print "Starting wiki scheduler..."  # thread, but also run the IRC
-        task_manager.load_tasks()           # watcher on another thread iff it
-        if components["irc_watcher"]:       # is enabled
+    elif "wiki_schedule" in enabled:       # run the scheduler on the main
+        print "Starting wiki scheduler..." # thread, but also run the IRC
+        task_manager.load_tasks()          # watcher on another thread iff it
+        if "irc_watcher" in enabled:       # is enabled
             print "\nStarting IRC watcher..."
             t_watcher = threading.Thread(target=irc_watcher, args=())
             t_watcher.name = "irc-watcher"
@@ -132,9 +132,9 @@ def run():
             t_watcher.start()
         wiki_scheduler()
 
-    elif components["irc_watcher"]:      # the IRC watcher is our only enabled
-        print "Starting IRC watcher..."  # component, so run its function only
-        irc_watcher()                    # and don't worry about anything else
+    elif "irc_watcher" in enabled:      # the IRC watcher is our only enabled
+        print "Starting IRC watcher..." # component, so run its function only
+        irc_watcher()                   # and don't worry about anything else
 
     else:  # nothing is enabled!
         print "No bot parts are enabled; stopping..."
diff --git a/irc/commands/chanops.py b/irc/commands/chanops.py
index 1bd7a8d..210a830 100644
--- a/irc/commands/chanops.py
+++ b/irc/commands/chanops.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ class ChanOps(BaseCommand):
         return False
 
     def process(self, data):
-        if data.host not in config.irc.permissions["admins"]:
+        if data.host not in config.irc["permissions"]["admins"]:
             self.connection.reply(data, "you must be a bot admin to use this command.")
             return
 
diff --git a/irc/commands/git.py b/irc/commands/git.py
index 4d09d9c..5c35739 100644
--- a/irc/commands/git.py
+++ b/irc/commands/git.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ class Git(BaseCommand):
 
     def process(self, data):
         self.data = data
-        if data.host not in config.irc.permissions["owners"]:
+        if data.host not in config.irc["permissions"]["owners"]:
             self.connection.reply(data, "you must be a bot owner to use this command.")
             return
 
diff --git a/irc/commands/tasks.py b/irc/commands/tasks.py
index 5dba593..7776db4 100644
--- a/irc/commands/tasks.py
+++ b/irc/commands/tasks.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ class Tasks(BaseCommand):
 
     def process(self, data):
         self.data = data
-        if data.host not in config.irc.permissions["owners"]:
+        if data.host not in config.irc["permissions"]["owners"]:
             self.connection.reply(data, "at this time, you must be a bot owner to use this command.")
             return
 
@@ -115,9 +115,9 @@ class Tasks(BaseCommand):
 
     def get_main_thread_name(self):
         """Return the "proper" name of the MainThread; e.g. "irc-frontend" or "irc-watcher"."""
-        if config.components["irc_frontend"]:
+        if "irc_frontend" in config.components:
             return "irc-frontend"
-        elif config.components["wiki_schedule"]:
+        elif "wiki_schedule" in config.components:
             return "wiki-scheduler"
         else:
             return "irc-watcher"
diff --git a/irc/frontend.py b/irc/frontend.py
index 56a6f17..2a8537d 100644
--- a/irc/frontend.py
+++ b/irc/frontend.py
@@ -20,8 +20,9 @@ connection = None
 def get_connection():
     """Return a new Connection() instance with information about our server
     connection, but don't actually connect yet."""
-    cf = config.irc.frontend
-    connection = Connection(cf.host, cf.port, cf.nick, cf.nick, cf.realname)
+    cf = config.irc["frontend"]
+    connection = Connection(cf["host"], cf["port"], cf["nick"], cf["ident"],
+            cf["realname"])
     return connection
 
 def startup(conn):
@@ -66,7 +67,7 @@ def main():
                 data.msg = ' '.join(line[3:])[1:]
                 data.chan = line[2]
 
-                if data.chan == config.irc.frontend.nick:
+                if data.chan == config.irc["frontend"]["nick"]:
                     # this is a privmsg to us, so set 'chan' as the nick of the
                     # sender, then check for private-only command hooks
                     data.chan = data.nick
@@ -81,7 +82,7 @@ def main():
                 # hardcode the !restart command (we can't restart from within
                 # an ordinary command)
                 if data.msg in ["!restart", ".restart"]:
-                    if data.host in config.irc.permissions["owners"]:
+                    if data.host in config.irc["permissions"]["owners"]:
                         print "Restarting bot per owner request..."
                         return
 
@@ -89,11 +90,15 @@ def main():
                 connection.send("PONG %s" % line[1])
 
             if line[1] == "376":  # we've successfully connected to the network
-                ns = config.irc.frontend.nickserv
-                if ns:  # if we're supposed to auth to nickserv, do that
-                    connection.say("NickServ", "IDENTIFY %s %s" % (ns.username,
-                            ns.password))
+                try:  # if we're supposed to auth to nickserv, do that
+                    ns_username = config.irc["frontend"]["nickservUsername"]
+                    ns_password = config.irc["frontend"]["nickservPassword"]
+                except KeyError:
+                    pass
+                else:
+                    connection.say("NickServ", "IDENTIFY {0} {1}".format(
+                            ns_username, ns_password))
                 
                 # join all of our startup channels
-                for chan in config.irc.frontend.channels:
+                for chan in config.irc["frontend"]["channels"]:
                     connection.join(chan)
diff --git a/irc/watcher.py b/irc/watcher.py
index c39f47c..b031b20 100644
--- a/irc/watcher.py
+++ b/irc/watcher.py
@@ -19,8 +19,9 @@ frontend_conn = None
 def get_connection():
     """Return a new Connection() instance with information about our server
     connection, but don't actually connect yet."""
-    cf = config.irc.watcher
-    connection = Connection(cf.host, cf.port, cf.nick, cf.nick, cf.realname)
+    cf = config.irc["watcher"]
+    connection = Connection(cf["host"], cf["port"], cf["nick"], cf["ident"],
+            cf["realname"])
     return connection
 
 def main(connection, f_conn=None):
@@ -49,7 +50,7 @@ def main(connection, f_conn=None):
 
                 # ignore messages originating from channels not in our list, to
                 # prevent someone PMing us false data
-                if chan not in config.irc.watcher.channels:
+                if chan not in config.irc["watcher"]["channels"]:
                     continue
 
                 msg = ' '.join(line[3:])[1:]
@@ -62,7 +63,7 @@ def main(connection, f_conn=None):
 
             # when we've finished starting up, join all watcher channels
             if line[1] == "376":
-                for chan in config.irc.watcher.channels:
+                for chan in config.irc["watcher"]["channels"]:
                     connection.join(chan)
 
 def process(rc):
diff --git a/wiki/task_manager.py b/wiki/task_manager.py
index 3c37a63..de40db1 100644
--- a/wiki/task_manager.py
+++ b/wiki/task_manager.py
@@ -53,8 +53,8 @@ def load_class_from_file(f):
 
 def start_tasks(now=time.gmtime()):
     """Start all tasks that are supposed to be run at a given time."""
-    tasks = config.schedule.check(now.tm_min, now.tm_hour, now.tm_mday, 
-            now.tm_mon, now.tm_wday)  # get list of tasks to run this turn
+    tasks = config.schedule(now.tm_min, now.tm_hour, now.tm_mday, now.tm_mon,
+            now.tm_wday)  # get list of tasks to run this turn
 
     for task in tasks:
         if isinstance(task, tuple):         # they've specified kwargs