Satanic Panic is Alive and Well

Satanic panic is alive and well. The crafty and the naive alike exploit it to achieve their own ends - whether that's putting the fear of God in people, prosecuting an alleged criminal, or just selling lots of DVDs. Just one recent example:

- In a recent interview with David Icke, conspiranoid radio host Alex Jones gave several examples of what he considers Satanic sacrifice and deviant sexuality. "We know that Satanists sacrifice people. They get caught doing it all the time."
He declared that France's Minister of Culture, Frederic Mitterand, bragged in a book that he "goes to slave camps and rapes little boys". Mitterand even refers to this practice as a "ritual".
This is pure bullshit. The book Jones refers to (though he clearly hasn't read it) is Mitterand's 2005 autobiographical novel, The Bad Life, in which he describes visiting young male prostitutes (young men, not children) in Thailand. No "slave camps". No "rape". No "little boys". However, Mitterand did push the envelope by describing his reaction the sex trade in Bangkok thusly: "All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market, excite me enormously".

Jones mentioned that in 1999, a woman escaped from captivity in a Rothschild castle weighing only about 98 pounds, yet the police did nothing. I can't find any incident even remotely matching this description. Knowing Jones, it was probably 1973 and a hotel or something. He gets confused.

Icke stated, "Roman Polanski is a practicing Satanist." He said Sharon Tate's murder was directly connected to Satanism. This is pure bullshit. The Manson Family murders had nothing to do with Satanism, and making a film about devil worshippers does not make you a Satanist. Period.
He went on to explain one of his central conspiracy theories, that the elite routinely rape and sacrifice prepubescent children to obtain their energy (and blood, since they are blood-drinking, shapeshifting Reptiles from another dimension).

Jones listed the cultures that have practiced ritual human sacrifice: Mesoamericans, Africans, Aztecs, Asians, Babylonians, Romans, Greeks, Middle Eastern tribes. All had high priests who worshipped the same snake god and followed the same "secret mathematics religion", and all sacrificed healthy people of all ages and both sexes. Most tortured their victims. Most used hallucinogens (as does Icke himself, but Icke stayed mum at this point in the broadcast). Note, please, that Jones didn't mention Celtic or Nordic sacrifice.
Again, pure bullshit. There is no "secret mathematics religion", and the cultures mentioned had an array of gods (not just a single "snake god", though a few did incorporate snakes or serpents into their cosmology and/or mythology at one time or another - as does Christianity, which Jones favors, and the chemognostic New Age "shamanism" that Icke appreciates).

Jones went on to say that Tony Blair likes to be possessed by the spirit of "white light", and that homosexual orgies take place during Skull & Bones initiation ceremonies. Blair is Catholic now, so his alleged ecstatic states have nothing to do with Satanism. And while I'm sure college secret societies have some homoerotic aspects, no one has ever reported gay orgies (or orgies of any kind) at S&B.

Tell Me Again How Satanists Secretly Rule the World?

Rachel Maddow: GOP Sex Scandal Exposes Secretive Conservative Religious Group

More Satanic Panic in Africa

In Ndola, Zambia, two teen boys (13 and 14) are being sued for defamation by Kamba Ward PF councillor Oscar Himanga. Last year, the boys declared that Himanga lured them into Satanism with money and sweets when they were 5 and 6 years old. Since that time, they claim, he has ordered them to murder over 300 people.
According to the courtroom testimony of the 13-year-old, their initiation took place inside an "old warehouse in Kawama where they found white men who were half humans and half snakes". Over the years "they continued to meet the same people in the Atlantic Ocean", and the boy used a "spiritual computer" to kill people at the Satanists' command. The boy said he came forward with his confession last year because the cultists had ordered him to kill his mother, and he didn't want to do it.
I sincerely hope that Mr. Himanga wins his suit.

Also in Zambia, five girls have been expelled from school for allegedly practicing Satanism.

A Travesty

This isn't quite Satanic/occult panic, but it is deplorable and quite frightening, legally and ethically. The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a Texas death row inmate, who appealed his sentence because the jurors consulted the Bible when deciding whether or not to give him the death penalty in 1999.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/20/ap/politics/main4956478.shtml

A Family Divided

An unhappy ending to 1989 abductions motivated by Satanic ritual abuse panic

Twenty years ago, Marvin Maple and his wife Sandra somehow got it into their heads that their two grandchildren were being ritually abused by their parents (the Maples' daughter, Debbie Baskin, and her husband Mark). The Maples alleged that Debbie and Mark belonged to a Satanic cult in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, which practiced murder, child molestation, animal sacrifice, and other atrocities. So they sought, and were granted, temporary custody of 8-year-old Christie and 7-year-old Bobby. When a yearlong investigation failed to turn up even one indication of Satanic ritual abuse, a court ordered the children returned to their home. At the time, far from being a Satanist, Mark Baskin was pursuing a degree in theology.

Just before the Baskins were scheduled to regain custody of their children in March 1989, the Maples disappeared with the kids. For 20 years, they lived as the "Bunting" family; Christie was renamed Jennifer, and Bobby went by the name Jonathan.

Meanwhile, the Baskins never gave up on their missing children. They distributed fliers far and wide, gave interviews and made media appearances whenever possible, and appealed to the Maples to do the right thing. Their answering machine always contained a message for Bobby and Christie.

Then it happened. Early last month, a patron in a cafe in San Jose, California, overheard 73-year-old "John Bunting" recounting the abduction of his grandchildren. He was annoyed that a newspaper story about the children had described him as a kidnapper.



Police soon located Christie and Bobby. Christie, 28, was working as a nurse in San Jose, while Bobby is married with children of his own. The Baskins eagerly awaited a reunion, but feared that the kids might not feel the same way after being told for 20 years that their parents were abusive Satanists. Unfortunately, their fears manifested when they traveled to San Jose; both children refused to respond to phone calls or visits.

Sandra Maple died in 2006. Marvin faces kidnapping charges in Tennessee. He, too, refuses to speak with the Baskins. He says he is innocent. According to the report below, Debbie's two sisters seem to be supporting their father.




The Baskin abduction bears a striking similarity to a 1990 grandparent abduction in Hobbes, New Mexico. This case has a happier ending, and the underhanded method used to induce stories of Satanic ritual abuse is transparent:

As described in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, Ladonna Morrow had a strained relationship with her mom, Pat Farmer, but needed her to help care for her 4-year-old son, Jared Peters, after she divorced Jared's father. Pat disapproved of the divorce, so using televangelist-produced videotapes and coaching, she taught Jared to describe being molested and ritually abused by members of a Satanic cult. Then she encouraged Jared to report this abuse, and sought sole custody of her grandson.

Two months after custody was granted to Pat Farmer, Jared's father and the authorities came to the conclusion that there was no Satanic cult and no abuse. Ladonna regained custody of Jared, but Pat was allowed monthly, unsupervised visits. She simply didn't return Jared after one of these visits.

Pat was caught in Salt Lake City two years later, and Jared was reunited with his mother.

There may be no such reunion for the Baskins. They remain a family divided and ruined by the spectre of Satanic panic.

Gawd, I love YouTube...

Here's an '85 60 Minutes report featuring Pat Pulling, founder of BADD (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons). See my post "D&D and The Devil's Boardgames" for more info on Ms. Pulling and role-playing game hysteria.

Thank You, Sheldon

Recently a Charismatic Christian named Sheldon shared with me some of the goofiest, weirdest examples of Satanic panic I have ever witnessed. And that's saying something. As you peruse the Deep Thoughts of Sheldon, remember: He believes every word of this stuff, and I doubt he's the only one. It's folks like Sheldon who make me realize that the work of combatting anti-occult misinformation is far from over. We've got a lot to do. So in a way, I should be thanking him for reminding me.

As "explained" in this slideshow, the Jonas Brothers (Evangelical Christian teenagers who sing for Disney) could be demonic entities. In the '80s and '90s, they were a Scandinavian black metal band called The Sanoj Brotherhood. By the power of Satan, they morphed themselves into wholesome American "brothers" in order to entice young girls to the dark side. The dark side of what? Shitty pop music?
The only "evidence" for this is that that Jonas is Sanoj spelled backward. Oh, and the music of both bands sucks some very serious ass.
Saturday Night Live spoofed this on Valentine's Day by having Andy Samberg confront the Jonas Brothers with videos of an '80s hair band. "This is you guys, isn't it? Are you Highlanders?"



- Criss Angel is probably using demonic powers granted to him by the Devil. I asked Sheldon why he only suspects Criss Angel of making a pact with Satan, and not, say, Doug Henning. Sheldon's reply: How else could he lie on broken glass and be run over by a steamroller without being harmed?

- Sheldon has worked with people from seven different Satanic covens operating in our province (which is overwhelmingly conservative and Christian, by the way). He knows Satanic breeders in our area. Also, a local man told him he was allowed to wander through a local Mormon "temple" (he meant a ward house) and discovered a room draped in black, adorned with an upside-down crucifix. My Mormon friend interrupted at this point in the conversation, for obvious reasons. He even offered to take Sheldon through the ward house in question to satisfy himself that no such room exists. Sheldon declined.

- Todd Bentley, the preacher who blessed Sheldon and his girlfriend, is a legitimate healer. Bentley's the guy who made a name for himself by leading a spectacle-laden revival down in Florida last year, healing the elderly by kicking, punching, and kneeing them. Sheldon informed me that God asked Bentley to smack people around just to test him; God prevented actual physical contact from happening. (The numerous YouTube videos of Bentley using his "knee of God" indicate otherwise.) Sheldon believes Bentley's claim of raising a dozen people from the dead during his revival; this is a routine occurrence in the Chinese underground church.
At any rate, Sheldon no longer believes that Bentley is a righteous man, because he was caught having an affair with a staffer. But the staffer was probably a plant, hired to lead Bentley astray.

- It's good that California's Proposition 8 passed. This will avert earthquakes. 'Cause we all know that gayness, rather than seismic waves, creates earthquakes, right?