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  18:04:10

<part 3 of 4>
"As  the  flames  began to consume the sacrifice, I yelled, 'Satan, you
didn't get Joey.  Joey went to be with Jesus.  He fooled you all.   You
may have gotten his heart, but you didn't get his soul,'"she reports in
chapter 10. [Sounds like dialogue from a bad horror film! --.\\<-H--]
 
A  small  Christian  magazine,  Cornerstone  [Hi  to  all  out there in
Chicago!!!   --.\\<-H--]   investigated   her   past   and   questioned
ex-schoolmates about  her  alleged  pregnancies.  It concluded that her
book was "gruesome fantasy."  The book, which has sold 140,000  copies,
was  pulled  by  its  publisher, Harvest House of Eugene, OR. Stratford
insists it is all true.
 
More retiring than Stratford is  a  group  founded  by  Balodis  called
Overcomers Victorious.    It  holds  sessions for about 45 women in Los
Angeles and Dallas.  Balodis will  not  allow  visitors,  saying  three
Satanists once tried to infiltrate the group.
 
Believers   and  skeptics  agree  that  typically  the  survivor  is  a
middle-aged woman who, during therapy for  a  psychiatric  problem,  is
found  to  be suffering from MPD caused by some childhood trauma, often
sexual abuse.  Parents, even grandparents are said to be involved.
 
As therapy continues, the patient begins talking  about  altars,  robes
and animal and human sacrifice.  The therapist calls the police.
 
"That's when  my  phone rings." the FBI's Lanning said.  Except for one
case  in  Washington  State  [Twin  Peaks  and  the  Black  Lodge?  8-)
--.\\<-H--]  it  appears  that  none  of  the reports has resulted in a
criminal conviction.
 
Believers say no evidence is uncovered because  the  Satanists  are  so
clever.  [L.A.]  County's  "Ritual  Abuse"  handbook  puts it this way:
"Explanations for the absense of  found  remains  include  cannibalism,
cult access to mortuaries and crematoria, frozen storage of body parts,
and  the  retention by cult members of bones and body parts for further
magical practices."
 
Lanning says disposing of bodies is not as easy as some think, and some
remains should have been found if cults were systematically sacrificing
people.
 
The only known criminal conviction stems from a bizarre case  in  which
Paul Ingram, a sheriff's deputy and former head of the Republican Party
in Thurston  County,  WA, pleaded guilty to 6 rape charges in 1989.  He
is serving a 20 year prison sentence.
 
Two relatives had accused him of attacking them  for  17  years  during
rituals that  included  killing  2  dozen  babies.  Ingram has tried to
withdraw the guilty plea, saying he was coerced into it.
 
Wayne Fricke, his lawyer,  said  the  police  interrogation  of  Ingram
included a  jailhouse  exorcism.  Ingram was so malleable, according to
Richard Ofshe, a UC Berkeley sociologist who interviewed him as part of
the case, that he was able to confess to a crime that Ofshe made up.
 
Despite the expert opinion against them, the "survivors"  draw  support
from several sources.
 
Foremost  are  FUNDAMENTALIST  CHRISTIANS. [emphasis mine...--.\\<-H--]
The major publishers and producers of books  and  videos  dealing  with
Satanism have strong fundamentalist ties.
 
Hal  Lindsay,  author of "The Late Great Planet Earth" has been a major
supporter of "survivors" -- notably Stratford --  and  has  linked  the
alleged  rise  in  Satanism  to the Last Days prophesied in the Book of
Revelation. "This story is absolutely incredible and  true."    Lindsay
said of "Satan's Underground."
 
Many  of  the  conferences  for  so-called "cult cops" are organized by
church-affiliated groups, such as North American Conferences, which  in
turn is affiliated with the Calvary Chapel of West Covina.
 
J.  Gordon  Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American
Religion in  Santa  Barbara  [CA],  dismisses  the  stories  as  mostly
distorted memories of childhood sexual abuse.
 
If the stories are true, he said, "...this means a generation ago there
were  at  least 400 or 500 satanist groups in the country, functioning,
doing things and able to keep their existence not just hidden, but even
hidden from the rumor mill.  That, to me, is pretty far-fetched."
 
Support also comes from feminists, as suggested by  the  [L.A.]  County
Commission for Women booklet.  They point out that society once refused
to believe women who said they were victims of rape and incest.
 
"We  have seen enough evidence across the country that it is a factor,"
Tammy Bruce, head of the Los Angeles chapter of N.O.W., said of  ritual
abuse. "We must admit that it does occur."
 
Finally, there   are   the  therapists.    Bromley,  the  skeptical  VA
sociologist, estimates that 250 therapists are working on ritual  abuse
cases.   [How   many   of  these  therapists  are  linked  with  Fundie
"Ghostbuster" ministries is not stated in this article...--.\\<-H--]
 
<this was 3 of 4. concludes in next article>

--- Maximus 2.00