     Pitchmen of the Satan Scare
     by Anson Shupe
     Published by the Wall Street Journal
     Friday, March 9, 1990

       Last  Sunday  Roman  Catholics  who attended  services  at  St.
     Patrick's  Cathedral  in New York heard  Cardinal  John  O'Connor
     lambasting  heavy-metal rock music as "pornography in sound" that
     leads  to  spiritual  entrapment  and  suicide  among  teenagers.
     Echoing  a  message  dear to the hearts of Tipper  Gore  and  her
     watchdog  Parents Music Research Center,  His Eminence called  on
     the music industry to police itself more thoroughly.
       But Cardinal O'Connor went further.   While not naming them, he
     linked  rock  groups  like  Judas Priest  and  Black  Sabbath  to
     cemetery desecrations, perverse sex, and demonic possession.  His
     sermon  even included readings from "The Exorcist."   He  claimed
     William   Peter  Blatty's  best-selling  novel  was   "gruesomely
     realistic."
       Unfortunately,  the  cardinal's sermon only added more hype  to
     what  has  become a form of cultural hysteria in  America.   That
     hysteria is Satanism or,  more accurately,  a preoccupation  with
     worrying about satanic influences in our music,  our movies,  our
     families, even in our high schools.
       From    the   occasional   teen-age   dabblers   to   purported
     conspiratorial   rings  of  devil-worshippers  in  high   places,
     Satanists are credited with promoting drug abuse,  snatching kids
     off  the street,  organizing child  pornography  rings,  breeding
     infants for ritualistic sacrifice and cannibalism, and mutilating
     cattle  in  the countryside.   Groups such as the Cult  Awareness
     Network,  which formerly stuck to making life difficult for  such
     unconventional  religions as Sun Myung Moon's Unification  Church
     and  the  Hare Krishnas,  have now sounded the Satanist alarm  in
     earnest.

     A Growth Industry

       Satanism-exposure-mania  has become a growth industry  in  this
     country, as Arthur Lyons reveals in evenhanded but blunt terms in
     his 1988 book "Satan Wants You."  The Satanic theme is profitable
     not  just  as a gimmick for rock bands and titillating  Hollywood
     horror  movies,  nor  simply for  publishers,  both  secular  and
     Christian,  who  churn out potboiler accounts of mass murders and
     disturbed young would-be Charles Mansons.   It also is profitable
     for  a  growing  cadre  of  self-proclaimed  "experts"  who   are
     canvassing North America offering seminars to police departments,
     clergy, social workers, nurses and educators.
       Commanding   between   $500  and  $1,000  (plus  expenses)   an
     appearance,   these  speakers  purport  to  reveal  the  rituals,
     implements,  beliefs,  symbols  and secret codes used by  Satan's
     occult  underground.   Under  the rubric of  Satanism  they  draw
     connections among violence,  mind control,  sexual orgies, drugs,
     the lyrics of rock music,  and even the fantasy game Dungeons and
     Dragons.
       The  content of most of these seminars is pure rubbish from any
     kind    of   informed   scholarly   standpoint.     Aside    from
     unsubstantiated  claims  and sweeping  generalizations,  what  is
     presented is a naive mish-mash of occult and mystical  traditions
     confused  with  shamanism  and  the  theatrical  antics  of  such
     performers as rocker Ozzy Osbourne.
       Relatively  benign  and openly operating groups such  as  Anton
     LeVey's  Church  of Satan and Michael A.  Aquino's Temple of  Set
     (which  offer syntheses of philosophy,  unexceptional  fraternal-
     organization gibberish,  and exotic costumes for initiates, while
     never  really  acknowledging  a personal  devil  figure  such  as
     Lucifer) are thrown together with the bloody drug-cult murders in
     Matamoros,  Mexico,  as examples of the imminent danger among us.
     It  would all be laughable if serious,  well-intentioned  persons
     were not taking this Satanic threat at face value.
       Economics  fuels the spread of the fear of Satanism beyond  the
     popular  culture of rock music and horror movies to  professional
     audiences.   Many  middle-level  educators,  health  and  social-
     service workers, and law-enforcement officials across the country
     are  required  to attend a number of educational  workshops  each
     year  to  keep or upgrade their certifications or to be  eligible
     for raises and promotions.   Just as ex-Satanists have  seemingly
     come  out of the woodwork in recent years to give their  gripping
     testimonies, so also the entrepreneurial experts of Satanism have
     emerged.   Now  they are offering workshops to enlighten  service
     providers.   As a result, Satanism has emerged as one of the most
     popular  offerings  in  such  continuing  education.   The  lurid
     content  of  the presentations sure beats the generally dry  fare
     otherwise provided at such conferences.
       How  much money is involved?   Likely no one is getting  filthy
     rich, and mere millions, not billions, are involved on a national
     scale.   But  the  fees typically come out  of  local  taxpayers'
     pockets.   Moreover,  these new entrepreneurs have now spread the
     gospel  of  Satan-fear  through all 50 states and in  most  large
     urban areas.   Recently,  according to J. Gordon Melton, director
     of  the  Institute for the Study of American  Religion  in  Santa
     Barbara,  Calif.,  and  the nation's premier authority on  _real_
     Satanic cults,  these speakers have taken their workshops to such
     middle-size communities as Sioux City,  Iowa;  Sioux Falls, S.D.;
     and,  in  my  Indiana  backyard,  the cities of  Fort  Wayne  and
     Evansville.
       Such workshops are rarely publicized and are closely limited to
     specific  audiences of professionals.   One reason often given is
     that  Satanists  would  try  to find  some  way  to  disrupt  the
     proceedings  if  they  knew  about  them  in  advance.   However,
     probably   the  better  reason  is  the  sad  quality  of   their
     "information."   Says Mr.  Melton,  "If what was being taught  in
     these  'limited seminars' were revealed and became fair game  for
     public  discourse,  the  ridiculousness of it would be  evident."
     But minus such open inspection, an entire generation of genuinely
     concerned  professionals  is being exposed,  under the  guise  of
     technical training,  to downright misleading,   false and  poorly
     assembled information.
       Ironically, this entrepreneurial expansion comes at a time when
     the   Satanist  hysteria  may  actually  be  losing  some  power.
     Cardinal  O'Connor himself admitted Sunday that there  were  only
     two  exorcisms in the entire New York archdiocese last  year--not
     much  of  a body count for active Satanists or  their  opponents.
     And recently Harvest House Publishers, a Christian press, decided
     to  cease  publication  of "Satan's  Underground,"  a  successful
     "autobiographical"  best seller by Lauren Stratford,  who claimed
     that  as a Satanist she had deliberately bred three children  for
     sacrifice.   It  seems  reporters for the  evangelical  Christian
     magazine Cornerstone tracked down ambiguities and inconsistencies
     in her account and discovered that Ms.  Stratford had made up the
     whole thing (which she later admitted).
       Likewise, some professionals who have been the largest audience
     for  Satanism  hysteria  have  become  angry.   Robert  Hicks,  a
     criminal justice as become vocally critical of the sloppy content
     of workshops supposedly informing his law enforcement  colleagues
     about  Beelzebub's current activities.   Much of  it,  Mr.  Hicks
     maintains,   is   based   on  sensational   newspaper   articles,
     undocumented secondary sources, or unsubstantiated claims.

     Skeptical Officers

       Police  never  find  the  tangible  evidence  to  back  up  ex-
     Satanists' claims, such as one commonly repeated claim that about
     50,000  human  sacrifices  are  perpetrated  each  year  in  this
     country.   The absence of _any_ traces of such activity has begun
     to  cause some reflective police,  at least,  to question if they
     have  been  conned.    As  a  result,  skeptical  law-enforcement
     officers  in  Virginia are now boycotting  workshops  that  offer
     Satanic  conspiracies  as a tempting way to "clear" the  unsolved
     crimes on their blotters.
       Cardinal  O'Connor cannot be blamed for being  concerned  about
     the  hedonism,  the  decline  in aesthetics,  and  the  decay  of
     civility in modern American society.   But seeking its cause in a
     demonic  influence loose among rock lyrics--just as professionals
     are  now being told to seek the roots of abuse and  maladjustment
     they see in their clients and patients in Satanic cult  abuse--is
     to retreat to medieval thinking.  History shows that human beings
     are perfectly capable of acting in evil, destructive ways without
     infernal help.

     ----
       Mr.  Shupe  is  a  professor  of  sociology  at  Indiana-Purdue
     University  at  Fort  Wayne and is preparing a book on  cult  and
     Satanic phenomena in the U.S.
