

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)



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