The Great Satanism Scare, 1980–1994

chapter 11 The Great Satanism Scare, 1980–1994

From Anti-cultism to Anti-satanism

Preceded by some significant but isolated episodes in the 1970s, a great Sa- tanism scare exploded in the 1980s in the United States and Canada and was subsequently exported towards England, Australia, and other countries. It was unprecedented in history. It surpassed even the results of Taxil’s propaganda, and has been compared with the most virulent periods of witch hunting.1 The scare started in 1980 and declined slowly between 1990, when the McMartin trial was concluded without convictions, and 1994, when official British and American reports denied the real existence of ritual satanic crimes. Particu- larly outside the u.s. and u.k., however, its consequences are still felt today. The year 1980 is important for the publication of the bible of this anti- Satanist movement, Michelle Remembers.2 Obviously, however, the great Satanism scare was not generated by one book. We cannot understand the anti-Satanism of the 1980s without looking at the anti-cult movement of the 1970s. Alternative religious movements such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons always had their opponents, motivated by both religious and politi- cal reasons. In the late 1960s and 1970s, America, followed by Europe, saw the sudden growth of a new wave of religious movements: Scientology, the Unifi- cation Church, the Hare Krishna, and the Children of God (who later changed their name into The Family). A significant number of young people, not only American, left their families and prospects of career to work freely and full time for the new movements. This did not make sense, claimed their parents, soon supported by some psychiatrists: their children could not have changed so quickly. Something sinister should have happened to them: “brainwashing”, which suddenly and radically transformed their personality. Many of the parents and psychiatrists who made up this first “anti-cult” movement in the early 1970s were not partic- ularly religious nor concerned with the theology of the new movements. They were interested in deeds, not in creeds, in behavior, not in belief. freecog (Free Our Children from the Children of God) was founded in 1970 and evolved into the Citizen’s Freedom Foundation and later into can, the Cult Awareness

1 S. Mulhern, “Souvenirs de sabbats au xxe siècle”, in N. Jacques-Chaquin, M. Préaud (eds.), Le Sabbat des sorciers (xve–xviiie siècles), cit., pp. 127–152. 2 Michelle Smith, Lawrence Pazder, Michelle Remembers, New York: Congdon & Lattés, 1980.

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Network.3 can remained the world’s largest anti-cult organization until 1996, when it went bankrupted and its assets and trademark were bought by a group connected with the Church of Scientology. Parallel to this secular anti-cult movement, a religious counter-cult movement also appeared. I first proposed in 1993 the distinction, now widely adopted, between anti-cultists, who oppose the “cults” for purely secular reasons, and counter-cultists, who base their crusade against “cults” on religious motivations.4 Of course, the two movements frequently overlap and often use the same arguments. Their background and ultimate aims are, however, differ- ent. Anti-cultists want to “free” the “victims” of the “cults”, and in principle do not care what their philosophical or religious opinions will be, once they will have left the “cultic” movement. Counter-cultists want to attract the “victims” to Evangelical Christianity or to Catholicism. “What good is accomplished, wrote two leading counter-cultists in 1992, if people are extricated from cults but their spiritual needs (which drove them into the cults in the first place) including the question of their eternal destiny, are left unattended?”5 Another point of disagreement is that secular anti-cultists often find “cultic” behavior in high-demand Protestant and Catholic communities that counter- cultists regard as perfectly orthodox. Johannes Aagaard (1928–2007), who founded the Dialog Center in Denmark, one of the largest international counter- cult organizations, wrote in 1991 that secular anti-cult movements might easily become “anti-Christian”.6 The accusation of “brainwashing” may also be used against Christian groups.7

3 There is an important sociological literature on the anti-cult movement. Early studies include Anson D. Shupe, Jr., David Bromley (eds.), The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions, Beverly Hills, London: Sage, 1980; A. Shupe, D.G. Bromley (eds.), Anti- Cult Movements in Cross-Cultural Perspective, New York, London: Garland, 1994. 4 See M. Introvigne, “Strange Bedfellows or Future Enemies?” Update & Dialog, vol. iii, no. 3, October 1993, pp. 13–22, reprinted and expanded as “The Secular Anti-Cult and the Religious Counter-Cult Movement: Strange Bedfellows or Future Enemies?” in Eric Towler (ed.), New Religions and the New Europe, Aarhus, Oxford, Oakville (Connecticut): Aarhus University Press, 1995, pp. 32–54. 5 William M. Alnor, Ronald Enroth, “Ethical Problems in Exit Counseling”, Christian Research Journal, vol. xiv, no. 3, Winter 1992, pp. 14–19. 6 Johannes Aagaard, “A Christian Encounter with New Religious Movements & New Age”, Update & Dialog, vol. i, no. 1, July 1991, pp. 19–23. For similar comments by American counter- cultists, see Robert Passantino, Gretchen Passantino, “Overcoming the Bondage of Victimiza- tion: A Critical Evaluation of Cult Mind Control and Exit Counseling”, Cornerstone, vol. 22, 1993–1994, no. 102–103, pp. 31–40. 7 Barbara Hargrove, “Social Sources and Consequences of the Brainwashing Controversy”, in D.G. Bromley, J.T. Richardson (eds.), The Brainwashing/Deprogramming Controversy: Sociological, Psychological, Legal and Historical Perspectives, New York: Edwin Mellen,