
Date:  02-05-90  20:29
From:  Tiffany Hall-graham
To:    All
Subj:  ANTI-SATANISTS SPREADING FEAR FOR PROFIT

      This is an article from the Mesa Tribune that I thought someone might
find of interest:

      "Satanism has become an industry in America.
      But black-robed devil worshippers aren't the industry's leaders.  A
fundamentalist preacher is the more likely profiteer.  Book contracts,
television appearances or paid speaking engagements are the coin of trade in
the triumph of hype over horror.
      If the conspiracy theories are to be believed, the nation is awash in
baby-killing Satanists.  Some so-called experts claim 50,000 people a year
are ritually sacrificed to Satan.  Others claim the figure could go as high
as 2 million a year.
      Alleged survivors of occult captivity say they have witnessed scores 
of ritualistic murders.
      But law enforcement officials have yet to confirm a single satanic
human sacrifice, says Shawn Carlson, author of SATANISM IN AMERICA, a study
published in October that seriously questions the idea of a widespread
satanic murder conspiracy.
      "What shocked us was the total lack of evidence to support those
allegations," Carlson said.  "The people who are spreading these allegations
are opportunists who have done shoddy research."
      The exaggerated claims that play big in tabloids and trash TV may be
nothing more than a widescale hoax, but hoaxes can pay off.  
      Origanizers of seminars offered to police departments and educators
charge as much as $500 per person to attend.  Videotapes and books are also
for sale.
      Gerry O'Sullivan, a co-author of the SATANISM report, says the
videotapes are commonly priced anywhere from "$39 to $200 apiece."  The price
on one 18-minute tape is $345, "but you can rent it for $75," he quipped.
      O'Sullivan, who holds a master's degree in theology, is concerned
because he fears thinly disguised fundamentalist groups are using ritualistic
crime scare tactics to push their own beliefs on police departments and
schools.
      "How much public money and how much public time is being spent on these
fundamental materials?  I think it's a real scandal."
      O'Sullivan says some of the religious groups try to hide their
backgrounds in secular-sounding titles.  North American Conferences, which
organizes occult crime seminars, is based in the fundamentalist Calvary
Chapel of West Coving, Calif.  The FILE 18 newsletter, which reports alleged
instances of satanic crime and is distributed to police departments, is
published by the Cult Crime Impact Network Inc. in the basement of Trinity
Fellowship Church in Boise, Idaho.
      There is no mention of religious affiliations in the newsletter.
      The problem, says Carlson, is that anyone involved in legal, harmless
forms of paganism, witchcraft, or Satan worship is suddenly branded as a
criminal in the eyes of law enforcement officers who attend seminars.  "I
think it's a form of religious bigotry," he says.  "It's hatemongering and
fear-mongering of the worst sort.
      "There are so many of these seminars that the police eventually get
beaten down.  They start thinking if all these people are saying this, it's
got to be true."
      Such beliefs can lead investigators and the public to improper
conclusions:
      *A pair of skinned beavers and a pile of animal carcasses behind a
state highway maintenance garage in New Hampshire were noted as evidence of
animal sacrifice.  The beavers were later found to be skinned by trappers and
the carcasses were identified as roadkill gathered by highway workers.  The
workers had stored the bodies behind the garage until the spring thaw when
the ground would be soft enough to permit burial.
      *Mesa police were checking for clues of satanic rituals last year after
a ram's head was found in a dumpster.  Police later discovered the ram had
been slaughtered for a barbecue.
      * In 1988, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department called on experts
for information on the occult after graves were found desecrated in a west
Valley cemetery.  When the teenage vandals were later arrested, they denied
any connection to the occult, calling the act "stupid drunkenness."
      Many of the more detailed stories come from so-called "survivors" who
claim to have been part of large cults or a network of Satanists.
             (End of article)
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 * Origin: <Deus ex Machina-BBS Free Atenveldt! 602-439-8070>  (Opus
1:114/29)

