when you hear the word Satanism what
comes to mind for many a conjures scary
images of cloaked figures orgies and
blood sacrifices conducted in basements
or maybe it brings to mind high-profile
political stunts like setting up a
satanic statue in a courthouse to help
draw attention to the separation of
church and state now Satan definitely
has a lot of stereotypes around him in
the Christian tradition at least he's
viewed as those adversary to God the
king of demons and the personification
of evil itself
but today Satanism is a broad term for a
diverse group of people that view Satan
as a model or a symbol or a force around
which they can structure their lives
it's important to realize that Satanism
breaks any simplistic definition that we
might have for the word religion in fact
there's a big debate over whether we can
even call it a religion jesper our Garr
Peterson a scholar of Satanism states
contemporary religious Satanism spans
the field from full-blown religion with
tradition rituals communitarian ethos
and hierarchy to an austere
individualistic philosophy and the
scholars Jenny Reichert and James
Richardson refer to Satanism as a
decentralized subculture rather than a
religion
so why the ambiguity well it comes in
part from the diversity of Satanism
there are Satanists that are atheists
and there are Satanists that actually
believe in Satan as a being that they
can follow some scholars have called
these esoteric Satanists and rationalist
Satanist rationalist Satanism sometimes
called a theistic Satanism view Satan as
a symbol of rebellion individuality
carnality and empowerment these groups
don't worship Satan they don't even
believe that he exists as a being
instead these groups see their identity
as Satanists as a practical stance to
life a non conformist path of
self-realization groups that fall under
this category include the Satanic forum
in Denmark and the Church of Satan
founded by the author and occultus Anton
LaVey
in the 1960s but even within rationalist
Satanism there's a lot of diversity so
for example the Satanic temple is also
rationalist an atheistic but they
strongly reject laveyan type Satanism as
too authoritarian and to
supernaturalists
since LaVey advocate
the practice of magic The Satanic temple
is probably the best known group in the
United States as they have made national
news for suing the Arkansas government
for installing the Ten Commandments on
the Capitol grounds and attempting to
hold a black mass on Harvard
University's campus and even though
these practices are offensive to some
people the Satanists that engage in them
see them as a type of advocacy to draw
attention to important issues like the
separation of church and state or the
abuse of religious authority this leads
us to our other generalized category
esoteric or theistic satanism
esoteric Satanists still don't
necessarily worship Satan but they're
much more likely to view him as an
actual being that they can model their
life around some scholars point to the
temple of set as an example of esoteric
Satanism the founder Michael Aquino
argued that Satan was a corruption of
the Egyptian god set who he believed was
a guide or teacher to humanity
esoteric Satanist groups also practice a
form of magic and for example this
temple of set distinguishes between
white magic and black magic and
encourages all of its members to become
experts in black magic during the 1980s
and the 1990s a moral panic swept
through the United States where people
started to believe that an international
cabal of Satanists were conducting gory
ritualized abuse sexually defiling
children sacrificing babies and
practicing mind-control the other faith
of adult Satanism is violent and being
centered on sexual ritual and torture
frequently descending into the vilest
crime of all sexual abuse of children
the panic in part was sparked by the
publication of a book titled Michelle
remembers in 1980 a now discredited
autobiography written by Michelle Smith
and her psychiatrist turned husband
lawrence pastor the book claimed that
Smith was ritually abused by La phase
churches Satan and memories of her
torture were only unlocked through
repeated therapy sessions and although
the book was quickly debunked and the
author had to retract her statements
after Anton LaVey threatened to sue her
for libel the damage was already done in
the 1970s sixty-six legal cases were
filed alleging satanic activity compared
this to 168 cases filed in the 1980s and
361
cases filed in the 1990s this was peak
moral panic but these fears were largely
based on stereotypes and negative media
not reality practice of Satanism that's
worship of the devil now police have
been skeptical and investigating these
acts just as we are in reporting them
but there is no question that something
is going on out there now don't get me
wrong I'm not saying that no ritual
abuse has ever been conducted in the
name of Satan it goes without saying but
ritual abuse can happen in any religious
community and there have been some
high-profile crimes committed in the
name of Satan the members of the heavy
metal band the Beast of Satan for
example committed a series of ritualized
murders between 1998 and 2004 but the
notion that there was a vast conspiracy
of Satanists practicing cannibalism and
murdering babies is just fantasy but the
moral panic surrounding Satanism is an
interesting sociological phenomenon in
and of itself it tells us a lot about
how humans sharpen differences between
our own in-group and a scary out group
of somebody that we don't like how we
sharpen differences between us and them
the scholar David frankfurter the author
of a book on rumors of ritual abuse
argues that inventing evil conspiracies
and accusing others of participating in
evil conspiracies is an age-old tactic
to mobilize society against a
marginalized group and throughout
history we see a pattern in how humans
ostracize and demonize each other
accusations of infant sacrifice perverse
sexual acts and cannibalism are among
the most common tactics under the Roman
Empire Christians themselves were
accused of cannibalism and in the early
modern period anti-semitic moral panics
swept through Europe that accused Jews
of ritually murdering Christian children
but in all of these cases these
accusations were based in fantasy not
reality and they mirror what we see in
the 1980s and 90s with the moral panics
surrounding satanic ritual abuse
accusations of infant sacrifice
pedophilia and cannibalism without any
evidence and fed by negative media
stereotypes here in the 21st century the
moral panic seems to be tapering off
between 2000 and 2009 two hundred legal
cases were filed alleging satanic abuse
down
the 360 legal filings that we saw in the
1990s overall Satanism not only is a
great example of how difficult it is to
define religion but it's also a great
example of how humans ostracize and
demonize a group that they view as
threatening whether or not an actual
threat exists now I have a bibliography
below if you'd like to check my sources
and as always thanks for watching so
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solace the Satanist girl so thank you so
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and finally music which is found here in
the neighborhood record store under the
category of heavy metal music