From: David.Rice@ofa123.fidonet.org
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Religion & Crime / "Satanic Conspiracy"
X-Sender: newtout 0.02 Sep 21 1992
Date: 26 Sep 92  18:02:08

Religion & Crime / "Satanic Conspiracy" Series #008
Posted in alt.atheist in four parts.
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From the Los Angeles Times, Tues. 23 Apr. 1991
 
SATANISM: SKEPTICS ABOUND
 
Worry about devil worship has spread rapidly.  But many lurid claims of
ritual abuse and human sacrifice by cults do not stand up, some experts
say. By John Johnson and Steve Padilla Times staff writers.
 
*****
 
(this  article  is being reprinted in its entirety, and is (c) 1991 Los
Angeles Times/Times Mirror Corp.  All Rights Reserved.)
 
Jacquie Balodis is talking softly about her bad childhood.  How bad was
it?  It was unbelievably bad.
 
"I was born into satanism," the 49-year-old  Garden  Grove  (CA)  woman
said.   As  she  describes  it,  her early years in Pueblo, CO included
devil worship, human sacrifice and cannibalism.
 
She said as a teenager she was twice impregnated by her stepfather, now
deceased.  Both fetuses were aborted and used  in  rituals,  she  said.
"Part of me believed it was my privelege to give my child to Satan."
 
The  memories  were supressed for years, she insists, then recovered in
psychotherapy.
 
Balodis admits that it sounds weird.    Weirder  yet,  such  tales  are
becoming common.    Across  America,  people  say  they  have  regained
memories of abuse by parents who belonged to  a  worldwide  network  of
devil worshippers.
 
Authorities say America is witnessing an epidemic of concern over Satan
and   his   minions,   especially  among  adherents  of  fundamentalist
Christianity.  So-called ritual abuse is only part of it.
 
But are these stories of incest and human sacrifice true?  Many  mental
health experts  think  not.  At least two law enforcement officers with
the FBI and San Francisco PD, say they have looked  into  some  of  the
claims and found nothing.
 
Some  real  events  probably  lend  credence  to  the  idea  that Satan
worshippers are everywhere.
 
For instance, there is a self-styled Church of Satan.  It  was  founded
in  1966  by [the deceased Anton Szandor LaVey] a former lion tamer and
revival-show organist.  Preaching the pursuit of pleasure,  it  employs
satanic  symbols  such  as  [the  Goat of Mendes inverse] pentagram and
black robes in its rituals.  It  has  not  been  linked  with  criminal
activity.
 
In  a  just-concluded  Orange  County  [CA]  case,  two self-proclaimed
victims took their elderly mother to court and accused  her  of  having
been part  of  a  child-murdering  cult.    A jury found IN THEIR FAVOR
(emphasis mine --.\\<-H--) this month, although it did not  award  them
monetary damages.
 
Some  jurors  said  the verdict did not mean they believed the satanism
story, only that the women had been somehow abused.  One of the women's
supporters said after the decision; "It's  a  grand  day  for  victims.
Somebody believed  them.    It's now going to encourage more victims to
talk."
 
A lot of people already are talking.
 
"The Satanism scare has at various times approached panic levels," said
David Bromley,  a  sociologist  at  Virginia  Commonwealth  University.
Bromley is co-author of the forthcoming book, "The Satanism Scare."
 
Jeffrey Victor, sociologist at Jamestown Community College in New York,
has tracked  33  "rumor  panics"  in  24 states in the late 1980s.  One
occured in Breathitt County, KY, where parents kept their children from
school amid rumors  that  Satanists  were  plotting  to  kidnap  blond,
blue-eyed children.  Another caused scores of Jamestown, NY citizens to
arm  themselves  with clubs and scour the forests for a chimerical band
of Satanists.
 
Moreover: * A 1989 telephone survey  of  1,000  Texans  by  the  Public
Policy  Resources Library at Texas A&M University found that nearly 80%
of respondents thought that Satanism had increased  over  the  previous
five years and said they were concerned about it.
 
*Illinois,  Louisiana, Idaho and Texas have outlawed violence committed
during a religious ritual. (A question:  has  anyone  in  these  states
attempted  to  prosecute the Franciscan monks who flagellate themselves
as a way of repenting their perceived sins? --.\\<-H--)
 
* The  Los  Angeles  County  Commission  for  Women  has  produced,  at
taxpayers expense, a handbook called "Ritual Abuse."  It says Satanists
"frequently function together in groups in the operation of preschools,
day-care services and baby-sitting services."
 
<part 1 of 4. Continues next post>

--- Maximus 2.00
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