[review: following is an example of the kind of repetition of the
 fallacious and hysterical claims which permeated the Neopagan
 community as a result of the Zell participation in the Satanic
 Panic.  it contains a modicum of caution in terminological usage
 while maintaining the solid connection between 'Satanism' and
 an unsubstantiated Christian-Shadow ritual child abuse.  taken
 as facts, it also appears to symbolize a valuable statement about
 how "Witches" and "Satanists" have been painted with the same
 brush and pagans of various sorts have merely extracted them-
 selves from the picture and believed deluded members of their
 own community who had been led to their 'recovered memories',
 thereafter identifying the "perpetrators" as "Satanists".  if nothing
 else this should emphasize the value of caution in condemnation.
 I will be adding this to the "NonSatanist Propaganda" files. nocTifer]

_____________________________________________________________

RECLAIMING NEWSLETTER #33, Winter 1988; pp. 13-6.
__________________________________________________

from 'Sexual & Ritual Abuse of Children', by Roy King
------------------------------------------------

...

there is one aspect of what is shared in these [twelve-step]
meetings that has been very shocking to me -- the incredibly
high incidence of reported ritual abuse, often labeled
"Satanism" or "Witchcraft", and often reporting use of the
same symbols and sabbats as we use in the feminist Craft.

The essence of "Satanic" {author's note: I am using the word
"Satanic" to refer to abusive ritual, although I am not sure that
all Satanists practice ritual abuse, nor that all perpetrators of
ritual abuse call themselves Satanists.} ritual is, of course,
exactly opposed to our ritual.  The "Satanist's" purpose seems
to be, in its extreme, to rob their victims, usually children, of
all their natural power and reduce them, through torture and
terror, to slaves, to utterly control their wills....

...A friend who is a therapist, and incest survivor and a witch
attended and was extremely upset that some of the "expert"
speakers made no distinction between tortuous, sexually
abusive ritual and the joyous, celebratory ritual of the Goddess
movement.  They referred to the whole spectrum of occult ritual
as "Witchcraft" and distributed literature which included
symbols (pentagrams, etc.) that "Witches" use, implying that
everyone using these symbols is practicing ritual abuse.

Shortly after this conference the topic of ritual abuse came up
in a Reclaiming collective meeting.  I made the mistake of saying
that ritual abuse is, in a sense, the shadow side of Witchcraft.
The discussion got kind of hot then and someone said ritual
abuse has nothing to do with the Craft, but is the shadow side
of Christianity.  (In pagan circles, Satanism is generally considered
to be the invention of the Christian church, which created Satan
by perverting images of the horned gods of the old European
religions, which were an obstacle to their conquering, single-minded,
patriarchal movement.  Satanism, in a twisted sort of way, filled in
the void created by the unbalanced Christian theology, and
borrowed form [sic] the symbols and forms of Christianity as well
as the old pagan religions.)  Someone compared the current
accusations of ritual abuse in the Craft {author's note: Some well
known pagan priestesses have been recently accused in national
media campaigns by fundamentalists and other political idiots of
kidnapping children for ritualistic sexual abuse and sacrifice.} to
accusations by Nazis in pre-war Europe of Jews for eating
Christian babies.  I pointed out that while Jewish baby eating was
a total and preposterous lie, ritual sexual abuse and torture of
children, now, in this country, is widespread and ongoing.  We can
no longer deny it totally as fictitious fundamentalist propaganda
aganist the Craft.  It is real.  Unbelievable, but real....

[the author goes on to repeat a batch of 'statistical' lies which are
 now being debunked concerning widespread ritual abuse. they
 are typical and I do not reproduce them here.  note: at no time
 does the Mr. King make the sources of his 'statistics' known. nocT]

...As the more hideous ritualized forms of physical and sexual
child abuse increasingly pervade the media, labeled as "Satanism"
and "Witchcraft" (terms already synonymous to the average
American), the hoardes [sic] of repressed and guild ridden fundamentalist
incest perpetrators are going to be laying blame very heavily and
very loudly and very directly on "Witches", their old theological
adversaries, we who worship the Goddess....

It occurs to me, in pondering the phenomenon of ritual abuse, that
"Satanists" use ritual to perform acts that are too cruel, hideous
and morally reprehensible for their ordinary status of feeling and
acting.  They would naturally invoke and submit to the authority
of "evil gods", much as Satan, to release them of thier responsibility
for the torture and abuse they perpetuate, much as the Nazis used
the coming of the "Superman" to justify the evil that they enacted.
Where as we use ritual to step closer into the blessed circle of the
life of the planet, "Satanists" use ritual to step further out of it.
The insulating nature of ritual buffers them from their crimes and
allows them to return to "normal" consciousness and resume
"respectable" roles in the world....

...Goddess worshipping witches, already considered evil in much of
the mass mind, condemned in the Bible, and sharing the
designation "Witchcraft" and some superficial aspects of ritual
with perpetrators of "Satanic" atrocity, are in a unique position to
be caught in the vortex of [a] backlash.  The crimes of the abusers
are outrageous and nasty, and the backlash reaction they create
will be proportionate in degree and in kind....

An article that may be of interest for the pagan community,
_The Ritual Child Abuse Issue_, by Morning Glory Zell, appeared
in THE GREEN EGG, vol XXI, No. 82.  GREEN EGG, P.O. Box 1542,
Ukiah, CA 95482.

[apparently this is where Mr. King derived his 'facts'. -- nocTifer]

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