From: David.Rice@ofa123.fidonet.org
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Religion & Crime / "Satanic Conspiracy"
Date: 14 Oct 92 15:46:08 GMT
X-Sender: newtout 0.02 Oct  1 1992

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    A  patient  told  him she was one of several young women raped
on  an  alter  by  men  in black robes. His common sense rebelled,
Maas said, and he rejected it as fantasy.
 
    "My  reaction  was  one of disbelief, except for the fact that
she  was telling these stories with great pain and conflict," Maas
said.
 
    When  another  woman  came  in with a similar story, Maas said
his  skepticism  was  shaken. About that time, other Orange County
therapists  began  reporting similar stories, he said, so they met
in  groups  at  the  University  of California, Irvine, to compare
notes. Maas became a believer.
 
    Maas  said  it  wasn't a difficult leap. He had his own hidden
memory  of being sexually abused by his grandfather when he was 5,
and  again by a returning World War II soldier who stayed with his
family when he was 7, he said.
 
    "It's taken me a long time to deal with that," Maas said.
 
    Ordained  a  minister  in  1971,  Maas split from the Missouri
Synod   seven   years   later   in  a  dispute  over  the  literal
interpretation   of  the  bible.  He  joined  the  Association  of
Evangelical  Lutheran  Churches,  before  it  merged  with another
branch of the Lutheran church.
 
    One  of  Maas'  former  supervisors,  retired  Lutheran Bishop
Nelson  Trout,  said  Maas  was asked to surrender his ministerial
office  in  1984  for misconduct. "He did not take his call to the
ministry seriously," Trout said. "He leaves no good impression."
 
    Maas  said  he  was  forced  to  resign  from  Lutheran Social
Services  in  Garden  Grove  and  the  Association  of Evangelical
Lutheran  Churches because, "to the best of my recollection is had
to do with a divorce."
 
    But  Trout  and another retired bishop, Will L. Herzfeld, said
many divorced ministers currently serve in the Lutheran church.
 
    Maas  said  the  abuse  he  suffered as a child led to trouble
with  alcohol  and  with forming lasting relationships. He said he
now only drinks socially. He has been married three times.
 
    "I  would  be  inclined throughout my career to want to try to
help  other  people  as  an  indirect way of helping myself," Maas
said.
 
    Maas  said  he  does  not  mind if some people outside Seaview
portray him as a renegade among psychotherapists.
 
    "I  am  quite  willing  to  try  to  learn,  or  at  least ask
challenging  questions about treatment procedures, and not be sort
of  molded  into  a  certain  kind  of direction clinically," Maas
said.  "But  of  course,  unless  you [sic] know what you're [sic]
doing,  it's  easy  to  get  lost in the client's word rather than
being objective."
 
 
 
 
           Roe Case Delved Into Ritual Abuse, Repressed
                      Memories And Disorders
                            SIDEBAR ONE
 
    In  the  landmark  civil case that ended Friday, two daughters
accused  a  Mission  Viejo  grandmother  of  subjecting  them to a
lifetime of satanic [sic] terror and sexual abuse.
 
    The  women  claimed  their  mother  and late father introduced
them  to a secret cult at infancy. Their litany of alleged horrors
was  unrelenting:  human  sacrifices of kidnapped transients; baby
stabbings; animal mutilations; torture by electric shock.
 
    The  mother,  identified in court documents as Ellen Roe, said
she  was  bewildered by the allegations. Roe said her family was a
normal,  healthy  one  until  her  daughters started therapy three
years ago.
 
    An  Orange County Superior Court jury returned a mixed verdict
that  may  further  muddle  the satanic [sic] debate. Jurors found
the  mother negligent ut also found that she neither intentionally
harmed  her  daughters  nor  her  11-year-old  granddaughter. They
awarded no monetary damages.
 
    Jurors  said  afterwards  that they believed the daughters had
been  abused,  but  they  weren't  sure who was responsible. [IT'S
QUITE OBVIOUS MAAS WAS! -D.R.]
 
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--- Maximus 2.00