"Satanic ritual"? Or a Christian fundamentalist/Pentecostal/Charismatic/new-Apostolic attempt to drive out Satan?

According to the news story Police told fire part of satanic ritual by Jennifer Baker, Cincinnati.com, March 2, 2011: "Charmaine Ranford, 25, of Lincoln Heights, faces one count of aggravated arson. ... Ranford is accused of purposely setting a fire at the Marietta Terrace apartments at 10101 Love Court in Lincoln Heights on Monday. When police took her into custody on Tuesday, she described the act as part of a 'satanic ritual,' records show. No injuries were reported, and damage from the fire was minor, Lincoln Heights police said."

Likewise, according to the news story Woman told police she started fire to perform satanic ritual, FOX19, March 2, 2011: "CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - A Lincoln Heights woman is behind bars after police say she purposefully started an apartment fire as part of a satanic ritual. ... According to court documents, Ranford started a fire at Marietta Terrace on Monday. She admitted to starting the fire and acknowledged she was performing a satanic ritual."

But then, according to the following story: Police: Woman Claims Fire Was Attempt To Remove Satan, WLWT, March 2, 2011: "When confronted by officers, they said Ranford claimed the fire was part of a Satanic ritual. But the woman later said that the fire was to remove Satan from the items being burned, not to worship him" [Emphasis mine].

The WLWT page originally carried the "Satanic ritual" headline too, but then promptly updated it. The other sources have not yet done so.

Maybe the police and court records got Ranford's initial confession wrong? That would seem the most likely explanation. Burning objects that are believed to be inhabited by demons, or which are regarded as a source of temptation, is a very common practice among fundamentalists, Pentecostals, Charismatics, and new-Apostolics. (For some documented examples, see New Apostolic Reformation Leaders Burn Native Art by Bruce Wilson, Talk To ACtion, Tue Oct 19, 2010.) And I would suspect that not every pastor who promotes the burning of such objects is also careful to teach the congregation about fire safety.

Some Satanists, and some non-Satanist ex-Christians too, occasionally perform rites of Cathartic blasphemy that involve burning Bibles or other objects representing their past experiences with abusive authoritarian forms of Christianity. But such rituals are far less common than fundamentalists/Pentecostal/Charismatic/new-Apostolic burnings of non-Christian religious artifacts and lots of other things too, everything from pornography to Harry Potter books. Statistically, it is far more likely that Charmaine Ranford was following fundamentalists/Pentecostal/Charismatic/new-Apostolic teachings than that she was actually practicing some "Satanic ritual." Moreover, had Ranford burned a Bible or any other Christian religious artifact, or if the ritual had involved any actual Satanic symbolism, I'm sure these details would have been featured in the headlines.

I also wonder whether she really intended to confess to "arson" (an attempt to burn the entire building), or whether she just started a fire for the purpose of burning particular objects and was insufficiently mindful of fire safety. I would be interested to know how the police went about interrogating her. It is, alas, far from unheardof for cops to pressure suspects into confessing to something far worse than they are actually guilty of, if anything. It is also not uncommon for the police to make exaggerated charges against someone in anticipation of a plea bargain. Since Charmaine Ranford is also African-American, I also wonder if racism, on the part of the police, might have been a factor here.

I don't know for sure, but I strongly suspect that this woman is a victim of -- among other things -- bureaucratic ignorance about the practices of her particular form of Christianity. If so, I wonder whether her church, if any, will come to her defense, or whether they too will jump to the conclusion that she was practicing "Satanic ritual" and therefore shun her.

Jared Lee Loughner

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the following on the group blog Talk To Action, about suspected mass murderer Jared Lee Loughner, who is believed to have shot Arizona Congress Representative Gabrielle Giffords:

• Jared Lee Loughner and the "sovereign citizen" movement - Tue Jan 11, 2011


• More about Jared Loughner's politics, plus some conspiracy debunking resources - Tue Jan 18, 2011


• Religious right wingers blame Jared Loughner's actions on atheism and occultism - Tue Jan 18, 2011

In the first two posts I discuss what is known about Jared Loughner's political beliefs by people who are actually knowledgeable about various fringe political beliefs -- solid information which did NOT get much attention in the mass media, being drowned out by ill-informed debate over whether he was a leftist or a follower of the likes of Sarah Palin and Glen Beck.

In the third post, I discuss the background of the claim, by many right wingers, that Loughner is/was a Satanist or Pagan.

Talk To Action is a group blog for people who oppose the religious right wing. If you choose to post a comment there, please be sure to read their Guidelines first. (In particular, note that the majority of the people who post on Talk To Action regularly are liberal Christians. Do NOT post anything there that is disrespectful toward any of the Abrahamic religions in general, as distinct from the religious right wing in particular. And, even regarding the religious right wing, what's desired at Talk To Action is solid news and analysis, not name-calling.)

Forthcoming comment policy

I need to write up a formal comment policy sometime soon. This blog is not intended to be a forum for complete nuttiness.

Just today, someone tried to post a comment threatening mass murder of Christians. HELLO? That's an incredibly stupid idea, even "regardless of what the law says." Someone has apparently been taking black metal lyrics a little too seriously, methinks.

How bigotry against Muslims threatens Pagans and Satanists too: an example

The Green Bay Gazette has a Guest column: America needs to have the real debate on Islam, in which one Dan Linssen said the following on August 20, 2010:

When our founding fathers drafted the First Amendment to the Constitution stating "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," they likely viewed religious diversity as variations of the Judeo-Christian theme prevalent throughout Europe and the colonies at the time. But things are much different today.

So, the first question we should be discussing is: Do we really mean "any" religion? Satanism is on the rise in countries like Poland, and it has become so prevalent that its practice is now allowed in the British Royal Navy.

What if the Aztec religion, complete with horrific human sacrifice and its policy of conversion or death, suddenly enjoyed resurgence? What if some religion worshipped a god of fertility and practiced pedophilia?

Do we truly believe Americans should be allowed to practice any religion? If not, we are abandoning a founding tenet of American liberty. And where do we draw the line?

I'm guessing the majority of Americans have limits to what they believe is acceptable as religion. But that's not what we espouse. We need to resolve this dichotomy.

First, "human sacrifice" and child molestation are not allowed under U.S. law, period, not even in the name of religion. Dan Linssen is grossly ignorant of constitutional law if he really thinks these are unsettled questions. He needs to look at, for example, the Supreme Court decision in Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993), which ruled on the legality animal sacrifice.

The 1993 Supreme Court ruling held that no law can single out animal sacrifice. But animal sacrifice can still be prosecuted under other, more general laws, e.g. against cruelty to animals, depending on the locale. Thus, animal sacrifice - at least of some species of animals - might be legal in many rural areas, where hunting is allowed and where people are allowed to slaughter their own farm animals, but still illegal in most urban areas. The point is that animal sacrifice must be subject to the same laws that govern animal-killing in general, whatever those laws might be. (See my page about animal sacrifice.)

Laws against murder and child molestation are general. They do not single out any religion. Thus, no religion is allowed to commit these crimes as part of its religious practice.

Be that as it may, the worship of "fertility gods" need not entail "human sacrifice" or child molestation. Nor does it typically involve such activities, at least in today's world. Ditto for Satanism. See the Church of Azazel statement against violent crime and vandalism, for example. There are plenty of law-abiding Pagans, and there are plenty of law-abiding Satanists too.

By the way, the decision by the British Navy to allow a Satanist to practice his religion does not imply that Satanism has become "prevalent" there.

Anyhow, Pagans and Satanists should take note of the following: See how Dan Linssen appears to be using the current wave of anti-Muslim scaremongering to argue that the government should consider taking away our rights too. And indeed, if even the constitutional rights of Muslims can be abridged, then all the more so can the rights of smaller religious minorities. We must stand up for across-the-board religious freedom, limited only by generally applicable laws with a secular purpose.

(Dan Linssen himself seems educable, though. On his blog, he does not come across like a full-blown religious right wing demagogue. However, it is highly likely that plenty of right wing demagogues will be using arguments similar to his in the not-too-distant future.)

Irving Davis in Austin, Texas

I just now came across the news story Satanism wrongly used at trial, death row inmate argues by Chuck Lindell, American Statesman, Austin, Texas, Tuesday, July 6, 2010.

Irving Davis, convicted of raping and killing a 15-year-old El Paso girl, has asked a Texas appeals court to throw out his death sentence, arguing that jurors should not have been told about his new religion — Satanism.

First off, I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who rapes and kills a 15-year-old girl.

Nevertheless, the issue of how Satanism gets used in court is indeed an important matter for people of all nonmainstream religions. In particular:

Prosecutor Lily Stroud said the evidence was meant to show that Davis had chosen to affiliate with an organization that condones and encourages human sacrifice and other illegal acts.

Hello??? The particular form of Satanism he is said to have practiced is "the Church of Satan." The Church of Satan does NOT condone illegal acts. On the contrary, I think most Church of Satan members would insist that he deserves the death penalty regardless of what his religion might be and regardless of how it got used by the prosecutor. I find it hard to imagine that the Church of Satan would actually have accepted him as an active member, given the CoS's stance on violent crime, although he may have adopted the CoS belief system (or some aspects of it, at least) informally.

Thus, his interest in Satanism a la the Church of Satan is clearly not evidence of anything having to do with the crime he's convicted of, and its use by the prosecutor was clearly wrong.

John Katehis update

Back on March 31, 2009, I posted about the murder of George Weber by John Katehis.

I just now came across the news story Notorious Criminal Defendants Appear in Brooklyn Supreme Court by Samuel Newhouse, Brookly Eagle, June 25, 2010, which reports on several different criminal cases including that of John Katehis. This article says:

John Katehis, of Queens, who just turned 18 on Saturday and once referred to himself as the “prince of darkness,” has pleaded self-defense for stabbing to death WABC newsman George Weber, 47, of Henry Street in Carroll Gardens.

Katehis, a self-described Satanist, was 16 when he stabbed Weber to death in March 2009 after going to his apartment in response to a Craigslist ad placed by Weber soliciting sex for about $60.

It is believed that Weber and Katehis engaged in rough bondage sex and may have used drugs together before the murder.

Katehis faces 25 years to life if convicted. He is due back in court on Sept. 3.

This article also talks about the (apparently unrelated) case of a man who burned down his own apartment building, claiming that "demons" told him to. I can't help but suspect he's just out to get himself declared insane, rather than admit a more pedestrian motive like a desire to collect insurance.

About the Katehis case itself, I found only two other recent reports via Google News, both in gay news sources: Defense in Philly Murder Case Planning to Use Variation of ’Gay Panic?’ by Kilian Melloy, EDGE (Boston), Wednesday Jun 23, 2010 (mostly about another case, but refers to the Katehis case too), and Kids Who Kill, Gay Times (U.K.), July 10 - Issue 382. Both these source are covering the story as an anti-gay hate crime, which perhaps it is, but there's also the complicating factor that the adult victim was paying a 16-year-old for sex.

I guess it's good for all the affected minority groups (gay men, BDSM people, and Satanists) that this case is not receiving a lot of ongoing publicity, although it did get quite a flurry of publicity back when the crime was originally committed. As I remarked back then: Alas, when members of unpopular minority groups commit crimes, they are too often seen as reflecting on the group as a whole, whereas, when other people commit similar crimes, they're seen as just aberrations.

Amanda Knox and Italian Satanic Panic

At some point I should write a post about the trial of Amanda Knox, an American who (together with her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito) was convicted, in Italy, of the murder of her English roommate, Meredith Kercher, allegedly as part of a "a premeditated ... sexual and sacrificial rite." The verdict is highly controversial, with many commentators saying there was no evidence.

Recently the prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, was convicted of abuse of office. according to the Independent (U.K.) story Knox prosecutor tainted by 'satanism' case by Peter Popham, Sunday, June 6, 2010.

Another new development: Amanda Knox is innocent, jailed Italian mobster says his brother killed Meredith Kercher by Sean Alfano, New York Daily News, June 9, 2010, and Jailed mobster claims he can prove Amanda Knox is innocent by Hada Messia and Mallory Simon, CNN, June 11, 2010.

I'll dig up more of the background of this story sometime later.

Church of Azazel - statement against violent crime and vandalism

The Church of Azazel proto-congregation, a theistic Satanist group based in New York City, has recently issued a statement condemning violent crime and vandalism. The statement includes the following: "We do not want to live in a lawless society, nor do we consider ourselves to be above the law. Not only would a lawless society be a very unpleasant place to live, but the world's more lawless societies -- and the more lawless neighborhoods within our own society -- are also fertile soil for the theocratic/fundamentalist religions that we oppose."

The Church of Azazel statement also warns against Satanic panics, noting that "There have been periodic panics about alleged widespread 'Satanic crime,' such as the 'Satanic Ritual Abuse' scare of the 1980's and early 1990's, in which many probably-innocent people were sent to prison. ... Satanic panics are extremely dangerous not only to Satanists but also to adherents of other minority religions (who are often regarded by fundamentalist Christians and Muslims as 'Satanic') and to atheists. They are also dangerous to ordinary mainstream Christian folks. Most of the best-publicized accusations in the 'Satanic ritual abuse' scare involved ordinary mainstream people."

Ygraine Gidney-Mitchell on news stories about "Satanism" and crime

Ygraine Gidney-Mitchell is a longtime member of the Church of Satan and very attached to the view that the CoS represents the one and only "genuine Satanism." Obviously, I do not agree with her on that point.

But she has written an otherwise very interesting article, Orlando criminal is not a Satanist. Less 80's, more justice, please, in which she makes some excellent points in response to the mass media's tendency to cast aspersions on Satanism whenever some criminal happens to have some "items ... associated with Satanism and witchcraft."

More Satanic panic stories from Africa

AllAfrica.com has a story, Zambia: Katete Pupils Expulsions Queried, Times of Zambia, 24 June 2009, about an official reaction to a school expelling students for practicing "Satanism":

EASTERN Province education officer, Pilila Jere has demanded a full report from Katete Girls Boarding High School management on the expulsion of five pupils accused of practicing satanism.

Ms Jere said in an interview in Chipata yesterday that she was shocked to learn that the pupils had been sent away from the school without proper investigations and formal communication with her office.

Ms Jere said one of the parents whose child was sent away from the institution which is run by the Reformed Church in Zambia (RCZ) complained to her about the school management's decision.

"It is saddening and shocking that pupils were sent away from the school on suspicion of practicing Satanism. Such allegations require exhaustive investigation," she said.

Meanwhile, on a South African news site called IOL, there's a story about two accused murderers whose defense is apparently "some Satanists made us do it": Money, sex blamed for Lotter claim by Tania Broughton, June 22 2009.

And, according to a South African news site called The Citizen, the SA Police Service has a "Satanism unit" and purported "Satanism experts": "JOHANNESBURG - Satanism expert Dr Kobus Jonker, former head of the SA Police Service’s satanism unit, is to evaluate convicted schoolboy murderer Morné Harmse to assist the South Gauteng High Court in deciding whether the boy was out of touch with reality because of 'influences from the dark side' when he fatally wounded a fellow pupil with a samurai sword," according to the news story Satanism expert to quiz killer, 6/16/2009. I have to wonder if these "Satanism experts" are anything like the fundamentalist Christian "Satanism experts" who stoked the Satanic panic of the 1980's and early 1990's here in the U.S.A.

P.S.: Just now, after posting the above, I came across another AllAfrica.com story from today: Zambia: We Killed 300 People, Ex-Satanist Teens Testify, Times of Zambia, 2 July 2009. This story is about two teenagers being sued for slander by Kamba Ward PF councillor Oscar Himanga, whom they claim initiated them into Satanism eight years ago. Supposedly, at Himanga's instigation, they then killed hundreds of people by magical means. The boys made some pretty darned fanciful claims, such as, "The boy testified that the next day, Mr Himanga took him and his friend to an old warehouse in Kawama where they found white men who were half humans and half snakes" and "He said after they were initiated, he had powers to turn into a dog and two people had seen him do that."

"Witch Hunt" -- on the Bakersfield cases

I recently came across this review, by Aaron Whitehead, of "Witch Hunt" a recent MSNBC TV documentary about one of the first alleged cases of "Satanic ritual abuse" back in the 1980's.

Here are some other reviews:

• Los Angeles Times - ‎Apr 10, 2009‎


• San Jose Criminal Law Examiner


• KGET 17 - ‎Apr 10, 2009‎


• Bakersfield Now

Though I didn't get to see it, I'm VERY glad that such a documentary was aired recently.

See also my collection of links about the Bakersfield cases on my "Against Satanic Panics" site.

On the murder of George Weber by John Katehis

Last week there was a flurry of news stories about the death of WABC (New York) news reporter George Weber at the hands of 16-year-old John Katehis of Elmhurst, Queens.

I'm very sorry to hear about this. I feel bad for the families of both. Also, of course, I'm concerned about possible repercussions for gays and for BDSM people, and, even more so, the possible repercussions for Satanists and various religious minorities that have been popularly confused with Satanists.

According to various news reports, Weber paid Katelis for "violent sex," having contacted him via an ad on Craigslist. For whatever reason, the scene got out of hand, and Katelis ended up stabbing Weber. Katelis claims to have freaked out when Weber got out a knife first. The cops don't believe his story because of the large number of stab wounds. Katelis admits that both he and Weber were on drugs, and blames the drugs for his alleged freak out.

On some GLBT sites, such as Tips Q, there are articles about how the religious right wing is using this tragedy to vilify gays in general. Alas, when members of unpopular minority groups commit crimes, they are too often seen as reflecting on the group as a whole, whereas, when other people commit similar crimes, they're seen as just aberrations.

Some though not all news stories brought out a "Satanism" angle. The New York Post and WPIX said he was a fan of Anton LaVey. The New York Post article even mentioned the Church of Satan, yet also called Katehis a "Satan worshipper" - a bit of a contradiction, because the CoS emphatically does not believe in "worship" of anything but oneself. We were not given enough details to determine what kind of Satanism Katehis actually believed in, if any.

The Norwegian Black Metallers grow up

This past week, the Village Voice published Peter Beste and the Many Shades of Black Metal by Annie Fischer, June 3, 2008, a review of True Norwegian Black Metal, a large-format coffee-table book of photos by Peter Beste, published by Vice Books.

Back in the 1990's, the Norwegian Black Metal scene was notorious for murders and church-burnings. (See various pages linked in the section on Maniacal musicians in my article Tabloid prophecy fulfillers: Satanism's real-life criminal fringe: How should law-abiding Satanists respond? on my website Against Satanic Panics.)

The Village Voice quotes Beste as saying:

"In comparison to the early behavior, they aren't terribly violent anymore," he says. "They maintain similar [political and social] views, but they just . . . well, I think they mostly just kind of grew up. They saw that burning churches didn't really serve a purpose — if anything, it made the Christian community stronger. To rid Norway of Christianity . . . it's just not a realistic goal."

I'm glad they now realize that burning or otherwise vandalizing churches serves no valid purpose whatsoever. Indeed, if the point is to attack Christianity, it's completely counterproductive even in terms of that goal, for exactly the reason Beste mentioned: It just makes the Christian community stronger, if anything. I too made that very same point several years ago in my article The purpose of blasphemy in Satanism on my Theistic Satanism website.

Private rites of blasphemy can be a good catharsis. But there is no good reason to destroy or damage other people's property in the name of Satan or Satanism.

"What is Witchcraft?" - some suggestions to Christopher Kimberley

Here on Google/Blogspot, I recently came across a blog called What is witchcraft? by Christopher Kimberley, jam-packed with news stories, from around the world, about everything having to do with witchcraft. The majority of the news stories are about witchhunts. Some are about actual practitioners of various witchcraft traditions, and some are about ritual crimes. The witchhunt stories are primarily from Africa, as one might expect, but there are witchhunt stories from other places too, including Saudi Arabia and India. This blog has the potential to become an excellent research resource.

Some suggestions to Christopher Kimberley on how to make it more useful:

1) Add a label list to your side panel. You're already using labels on most of your posts. A label list on the side panel could serve as a topic index. (For an example, see the label list here on my own blog, on the side panel, just below the blog archive.)

2) On all posts from henceforth, use one of the following general category labels, or something similar, in addition to the kinds of labels you are already using now:

• witchhunts - for all stories about witchhunts


• practitioners - for all stories about actual practitioners of some witchcraft or magical tradition


• ritual crimes - for all stories about ritual murders and other crimes for magical purposes, or alleged magical purposes

With the above improvements, your blog could become an extremely handy and valuable scholarly and journalistic resource.

Gwydion Tiamat's precaution against hate crimes against Satanists and Pagans - P.S. to my response to Hrafnkell

In a comment beneath my previous post, "Are Satanists Pagans?" - response to Hrafnkell, Hrafnkell posted a link to the Washington Post article A Capital City With The Devil in the Details? by Dan Morse, Wednesday, April 9, 2008; Page C01.

The relevant part, on page 2 of the article, says:

The Washington Monument ... was described by Bay, the South Carolina author, as a filthy, phallic and satanic homage to the god Baal.

Unlikely, said an avowed Satanist from Laurel.

He agreed to meet at the Washington Monument recently, strolling up the Mall in a long black robe and passing through a throng of sun-drenched tourists. A government contracting employee, the 37-year-old spoke on the condition that he be identified only by his satanic name (Gwydion Tiamat). Friends' houses have been firebombed, he said, and they're just pagans.

A husband and father and the director of the East Coast office of the Brotherhood of Satan, he said "a couple of thousand" Satanists live in the Washington area. This is a group that is widely misunderstood, he said: Members don't sacrifice cats; they're not out to hurt people; they simply acknowledge that humans are carnal animals and enjoy the freedoms and indulgences that flow from that understanding. "Having a whole Sara Lee strawberry cheesecake, for example," he said.

And in one sense, he mused, while looking toward the Lincoln Memorial and the infinite regions beyond, McCain is right.

"Satan," said Tiamat, "is everywhere."

I find nothing here contradicting my earlier interpretation of Gwydion Tiamat's remark about his friends who were "just pagans." Again, it seems to me he's saying not that these particular friends of his were also Satanists, but that, if even his Pagan friends' houses got firebombed, then he, as a Satanist, would be in even more danger.

I seriously doubt his estimate of "a couple of thousand" Satanists living in the D.C. area. I think a couple hundred would be more like it, if that many.

There are, after all, far fewer Satanists than modern Pagans, even in anonymous media like Internet forums. I've seen estimates of between half a million and a million modern Pagans in the entire United States. I would not expect the number of Satanists to exceed 5% of the number of modern Pagans, which would give us a maximum of 50,000 Satanists in the entire U.S.A. More likely I would expect there to be between 10,000 and 20,000 Satanists in the entire U.S.A.

The Washington Post article starts out as follows:

Presidential candidate John McCain keeps calling Washington the city of Satan. Turns out he's not alone.

"McCain was right," said David Bay, speaking by phone from Lexington, S.C., where as director of Cutting Edge Ministries he has long asserted that Washington's streets are positioned to usher in Lucifer as "the ultimate master of Government Center."

...

Using Dupont and Logan circles as northern points, Bay instructs, you can trace various interlocking streets to form a demonic pentagram, one that bores directly into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

This is followed by a brief summary of typical anti-Masonic claims, followed by a brief retort from a Mason.

Laurie Cabot, "expert" on "non-traditional faiths"? - blooper on animal sacrifice

The news story What washed up on the Keansburg beach? by Alyssa Passeggio (Bayshore Courier, New Jersey, U.S.A., May 9, 2008) reports the discovery of animal remains along Keansburg beach, including (1) garbage bags of headless chickens and (2) bones and hooves of deer, goat, or sheep. Cops think these are animal sacrifices and have arrested two Aborishas (Santeria practitioners).

The news story mentions a similar finding last year, on which Laurie Cabot (a well-known modern Pagan Witch) is paraphrased as blaming "a ritual performed by individuals practicing Santeria, San Paulo, Voodon or Satanism."

It's possible she was misquoted. But, if Laurie Cabot really did say "Satanism" or even "Devil worship," then she's utterly wrong.

The vast majority of Satanists, even most theistic Satanists, staunchly reject the idea of animal sacrifice. (See Animal sacrifice and Satanism on my page about Animal Sacrifice on my Theistic Satanism site.)

And the small minority of today's theistic Satanists who perform animal sacrifices would be unlikely to sacrifice chickens, sheep, and goats in particular, for reasons I explain here in my longer post on my LiveJournal blog: Laurie Cabot - willfully ignorant about Satanist views on animal sacrifice?

Anyhow, I also question the cops' claim that the recent New Jersey incident, in particular, has anything to do with a Santeria sacrifice. Garbage bags seem like a very non-traditional - and not very reverent - way to dispose of a sacrifice.

More about Satanism and the Catholic Church in Italy

I just now came across Satanic Cults in Fashion in Rome, Says Priest by Jennifer Riley, Christian Post, Tue, Apr. 22 2008. Nothing new, really. Mostly just a shorter version of the CBN article I wrote about in my previous post.

Again we have the claim: "The overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation of Italy has an estimated 800 satanic cults, with more than 600,000 followers." This article then melodramatically adds: "But Rome, home to Vatican City and the pope, is where the fiercest spiritual battle is taking place."

Some news from Italy, about Satanism and about the Catholic Church

I recently came across an interesting article on the CBN website, part of Pat Robertson's empire: Is the Devil Gaining a Foothold in Rome? by George Thomas, April 21, 2008.

First, I'll skip ahead to and quote in full the most interesting part, about Marco Dimiti, the leader of a Satanist group in Italy:

But Marco Dimiti says that the Catholic Church's portrayal of Satan is part of the problem.

To many Italians, Dimitri represents the devil. He heads the Children of Satan, a group that reportedly has more than one-thousand members.

"We don't have a cult of devil worship, that would be absurd because the cult of the devil would be the cult of evil - but for us, good and evil are subjective to each individual," says Dimitri.

In 1996, Dimitri was accused of raping a 2-year old boy and a teenage girl in satanic rituals. He was jailed for 14 months before being exonerated by the Italian courts.

"True Satanism puts man at the center of the universe - and is a noble expression," Dimitri said. "I want to say to Father Amorth what I say to all exorcists. Leave people in peace!"

The rest of the article features claims by Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's Chief Exorcist; Father Pedro Barrajón, a Catholic priest who serves in Rome; and Silvano Lilli, an evangelical pastor in Rome.

One claim is: "There are an estimated 800 satanic cults operating in the country [Italy], with more than 600,000 followers." Yeah, right. I wish.

And then Lilli says: "The devil's diabolical influence is growing in so many areas of our society. ... He needs to be driven out." He doesn't explain what he means by "the devil's diabolical influence." If he's a typical religious right winger, that means things like feminism and gay rights, I guess.

Then Amorth talks about how he does exorcisms.

After that is a discussion of the "Beasts of Satan" case, about which see this collection of news stories on my Against Satanic Panics site.

See also Italy's recent Satanic panic - and its impact on the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, and see also the collection of news stories about Exorcism, the Vatican, and the recent Italian Satanic panic on my page about Exorcism, "spiritual warfare," and anti-occultism.

Next in the CBN article are several paragraphs bemoaning the rise of "magicians, fortunetellers and faith healers" as rivals to the Church.

After that are the several paragraphs I quoted earlier about Marco Dimiti.

The article ends with more exorcism-talk by Amorth.

West Memphis Three

Looking up "Satanism" in Google News, I find West Memphis 3 Judge is "Ready to Get It Over With" - KAIT, AR, Apr 15, 2008. It's good to see that there's some movement on the West Memphis Three case, although it's painfully slow -- an appeal hearing is scheduled for September.

For background about the case, see the sites listed on my page about the West Memphis Three on my Against Satanic Panics site.

Full-blown alleged SRA case in Italy

For at least the past few years, there has apparently been quite a bit of hysteria in Italy about "Satanism". But I was not aware of any full-blown "Satanic Ritual Abuse" allegations over there until just now:

• "Grandmothers arrested over 'satanic sex abuse'"
  by Richard Owen
  Rome, April 25, 2007
  Times Online (U.K.)

Like nearly all such cases, this one is blatantly fishy. The above article starts off as follows:

Three women teachers were among six people arrested today accused of sedating and sexually abusing children as young as 3 at a school near Rome.

The teachers — two of whom are grandmothers who had taught at the school and at Sunday school for decades — are said to have taken part in the repeated abuse of 15 children aged 3 and 5 for a year, filming them in sexual acts with satanic overtones at the teachers’ homes and in a wood.

Had there ever been any complaints about these teachers before, during their many decades of teaching? If not, it is conceivably possible that one old grandmother could suddenly start molesting kids in her old age, but two of them at the same school? I suppose that's possible too, but seems very unlikely to me.

The alleged abuse — in the town of Rignano Flaminio, 25 miles (40km) north of Rome — came to light when some of the children began describing their “games” to their parents. They drew pictures of a “man in black” who wore a hood and drank his own blood, and said they had played a game in which “a wolf chases a squirrel and eats it”.

So far, this sounds like a game that the kids could perhaps have come up with on their own, depending on what kinds of TV shows they had been watching. Kids can indeed have very gruesome imaginations.

However:

They were warned that if they told their parents about the “games”, they would be “taken away from their mothers by devils”. If the truth were to come out and they were asked who had taught them to perform sexual acts, they were to say “my father”.

How was this information elicited from the kids, I wonder? Was care taken to avoid asking the kids too many leading questions? In many alleged multiple-victim, multiple-offender (MVMO) child sexual abuse cases, there have turned out to be serious problems with the way the kids were questioned.

The parents also reported bruising and swelling around their children’s genital areas and that they had returned home from school in a confused state. Police say that the children were given tranquillisers and told they were sweets.

Assuming this is accurate, this does sound as if someone abused the kids. But it seems to me most likely that the questioning got out of hand, implicating innocent people as well as the truly guilty.

The article quotes a local priest and a former teacher at the school voicing skepticism about the charges against the teachers. But, amongst many other people in town, a lynch mob mentality is prevailing.

Thanks to iteration_x for mentioning this story in the "Satanic news" community on LiveJournal.