Debbie_Has_Gone_Wild

SATANISM has assumed a variety of forms through human history. Allegations of organized worship of Satan can be traced to Europe during the Middle Ages. Fears of Satan worship surfaced during the fifteenth-century witch-hunts, and Christian manuals were produced for depicting and combating Satanism. In America, colonial-era New England experienced a period of witchcraft allegations and witch-hunting. Beyond the colonial witchcraft episode, conservative Christian groups that believe that Satan is an active, personal presence in human affairs have perpetuated satanic imagery throughout American history. Satan serves the function of explaining evil and misfortune, identifying unorthodox faiths, and bolstering Christian solidarity. Churches Satanic churches began forming, first in California and then gradually spreading across the United States and to Europe, during the late 1960s. These churches achieved popularity in the 1970s as part of the counterculture movement of that period. The Church of Satan and Temple of Set are the largest and most visible existing satanic churches. A number of other satanic churches also appeared, but most were small and short-lived organizations that originated as schismatic offshoots of the Church of Satan. Although the Church of Satan claimed hundreds of thousands of members during its heyday, the total active membership of all the satanic churches never exceeded a few thousand. The Church of Satan is the more significant of the two groups; it is the first contemporary church devoted to the worship of Satan, it gave rise to most other satanic churches, and practicing satanists typically trace their beliefs to Anton LaVey's thought. Interest in satanic churches, although not Satanism, declined dramatically with the demise of the counterculture. Satanic Cults and the Satanism Scare The "Satanism scare" swept the United States, Canada, and Europe during the 1980s. Satanic cults were thought to exist in an underground network that was involved in a variety of nefarious activities, including ritual sacrifice of children. According to the groups that mobilized to combat satanists, the outbreak of Satanism was simply the latest in a series of incursions by evil forces through human history. The incursion was inevitable, it was argued, even if its timing and form were not predictable. Because putative satanists operate underground, it was believed that they were able to penetrate major social institutions and engage in considerable destructive activity before their presence was detected. By some estimates, satanists were ritually sacrificing fifty to sixty thousand children annually in the United States alone during the 1980s. Satanists allegedly are motivated by a quest for personal power, which they seek to enhance by appropriating the life energy of children at the moment of their deaths in ritual sacrifices. Proponents of satanic cult theory claim that Satanism is organized at four levels, with involvement often beginning at lower levels and subsequently graduating to higher-level activity. At the lowest level are "dabblers," typically adolescents who are lured into Satanism through experimentation with heavy metal music and fantasy games containing embedded satanic themes. More sinister are the "self-styled satanists" who employ satanic imagery in committing antisocial activity and are thought to be members of satanic cults. The public face of Satanism belongs to "organized satanists," consisting of the satanic churches, which publicly engage in the worship of Satan. Orchestrating the entire range of satanic activity are the "traditional satanists," who are organized into an international, secret, hierarchically structured, tightly organized cult network that engages in ritual abuse and sacrifice of children. Satanists procure children through abduction of missing children, purchase of children on the black market, and control over child-care institutions. Some children are abused, some sacrificed, and others raised as "breeders" to produce babies for later rituals. Intimidation, drugs, hypnosis, and brainwashing are employed to maintain power over children in satanists' hands and prevent them from revealing the existence of the satanic cults. Outsiders rarely discover well-concealed, secret satanic activity; those who do are intimidated into silence by satanists in positions of power. A variety of evidence was offered in the 1980s to demonstrate the existence and active operation of satanic groups. There were widespread reports of mutilated animal remains that were thought to have been killed for body parts used in satanic rituals. Communities across the country mobilized to repel satanic cult incursions upon discovering satanic graffiti or rumors of impending satanic abductions of children for ritual sacrifice. Satanic churches, such as the Church of Satan, were cited as evidence of the public presence of satanists. Several high-profile criminals, such as Richard Ramirez ("The Night Stalker") who committed a series of murders in Los Angeles and San Francisco before being captured in 1985, openly flaunted satanic loyalties. Most compelling were the horrific personal testimonies of young children and adults who recalled satanic abuse in the course of therapeutic treatment. Therapists reported threats to their safety if they revealed the accounts of their clients. In response to these various occurrences public opinion began to reflect heightened concern with Satanism. Mass media reports of satanic activity burgeoned, therapists treating individuals diagnosed as ritual abuse victims warned of the catastrophic impact of the abuse on their clients, special training and therapeutic procedures were developed for law enforcement and mental health professionals, police excavated the sites where ritual abuse victims were believed to be buried, and child protection agencies investigated preschools where child abuse allegedly occurred. In addition, legislatures conducted hearings on Satanism and passed laws facilitating the testimony of ritual abuse victims, and a number of high-profile trials resulted in the conviction of individuals on child-abuse charges. The extraordinary claims of satanic cult subversion gradually were discredited, however, as evidence of satanic networks was challenged. Investigations of unexplained animal deaths led to the conclusion that they were the product of roadkills, trapping, disease, poisoning, and predators. Local panics over impending satanic abductions of adolescents turned out to be instances of urban legends with a satanic theme. Graffiti with satanic symbolism was found to be the work of isolated, alienated adolescents. No cases of satanic messages embedded in heavy metal music were documented. No connection between satanic churches or sociopathic criminals and a satanic cult network was ever established. Nor was any trace of the satanic cults themselves produced: no organizational records, documents containing doctrines or rituals, physical implements or equipment, meeting places, or defectors. Repeated official investigations of purported ritual sites yielded no supporting evidence. Most compellingly, not a single death attributable to a ritual sacrifice was documented. By contrast, disconfirming evidence steadily mounted. The primary evidence supporting the existence of satanic cults was the testimony of children and adults who recalled abuse while in therapeutic treatment. However, the validity of these accounts was undermined by discoveries that biographical accounts by individuals claiming to be ritual abuse victims were fraudulent and that satanic material was introduced by therapists rather than raised by clients. A succession of reports by scholars, investigative journalists, police agencies, and governmental commissions unanimously concluded that there was no plausible support for the satanic cult claims. Conclusions The social creation of satanic forces has a long history in Western societies. In contemporary Western societies, Satanism has assumed two marginally related forms. The satanic churches constituted one element of the 1960s countercultural rebellion in which Satanism represented a rejection of traditional Christian morality in favor of hedonistic, individualistic values. The Church of Satan in particular was more culturally significant than its small peak membership might suggest. Many thousands of individuals held brief memberships in the church, and The Satanic Bible became the primary scriptural source for countercultural satanists who never maintained any organizational affiliation. While the Church of Satan and Temple of Set were swept up in the Satanism scare of the 1980s, no connection between these churches and underground satanic cults was ever produced. The Satanism scare of the 1980s was a reaction to rapid social changes that reconstituted home and workplace relationships in North America and Europe. Satanism symbolically represented a widely experienced sense of vulnerability and danger by American families. The threat was symbolically constructed as satanic cults, organizations that exploited the vulnerability of American families by so abusing and terrorizing young children as to permanently impair their capacity for full expression of selfhood. What the satanic churches and Satanism scare had in common, then, was the creation of social evil symbolized in satanic forms, one reacting against historical Christian morality and the other the emerging individuation of modern and postmodern society.