Tag: religion

Survivors Alleging Satanic Ritual Abuse Raise Awareness Amid Media Claims of ‘Panic’

Survivors alleging satanic ritual abuse (SRA) and their advocates are continuing a decades-long fight to advance their cases as media companies push a narrative that the type of abuse they allege is largely the creation of a social panic.

Last month, the South by Southwest film festival screened “Satan Wants You,” which “tells the untold story of how the Satanic Panic of the 1980s was ignited,” according to the festival’s website. Echoing years of skeptical news coverage, the description adds that “satanic rumors spread through panic-stricken communities across the world, leaving a wave of destruction and wrongful convictions in their wake.” Other “satanic panic” warnings can be found in recent coverage of cases in Scotland and Utah while the backlash against Sam Smith’s Grammys performance has prompted similar caution.

But for advocates like Cindy Metcalf, the “Satanic Panic” narrative is false and degrades the stories she encounters on a regular basis. In March, Metcalf’s newly formed group Relentless Hope held a meeting in the Salt Lake area for survivors to discuss potential legal options for pursuing allegations involving the Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).

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Mormon church doesn’t have to report confessed child sex abuse, Arizona Supreme Court rules

The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can refuse to answer questions or turn over documents under a state law that exempts religious officials from having to report child sex abuse if they learn of the crime during a confessional setting.

The ruling was issued April 7 but not released to the public until Tuesday. A lawsuit filed by child sex abuse victims accuses the church, widely known as the Mormon church, two of its bishops, and other church members of conspiracy and negligence in not reporting church member Paul Adams for abusing his older daughter as early as 2010. This negligence, the lawsuit argues, allowed Adams to continue abusing the girl for as many as seven years, a time in which he also abused the girl’s infant sister.

Lynne Cadigan, an attorney for the Adams children who filed the lawsuit, criticized the court’s ruling.

“Unfortunately, this ruling expands the clergy privilege beyond what the legislature intended by allowing churches to conceal crimes against children,” she said.

In a statement, the church concurred with the court’s action.

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Satan Clubs Should Be Allowed in Schools

On March 31, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against Pennsylvania’s Saucon Valley School District after it dismantled the “After School Satan Club,” an after-school program sponsored by the Satanic Temple with chapters across the country, allegeding the club failed to communicate that it was not formally sponsored by the district. The ACLU argues that the removal was actually motivated by the hundreds of angry messages the district received from local parents and the general public. 

Saucon Valley is not the only American community bedeviled by Satan clubs. Similar clubs in Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, California, and New York have all generated controversy. The primary concern, as one Pennsylvania parent put it, is that “Satan is here to kill and destroy.” Other parents have asserted that the United States is “one nation under God” and that to deny Satan a place in public schools is therefore a necessary and prudent measure. The Napa Legal Institute’s Frank DeVito even used Satan clubs to justify restoring the pre-World War II tradition of blasphemy laws. 

After School Satan Clubs (and most modern Satanists) do not literally worship Satan. Satan clubs espouse “free inquiry and rationalism,” and “[do] not believe in introducing religion into public schools and will only open a club if other religious groups are operating on campus.” The Satanic Temple openly rejects the supernatural, using Satan’s name and image for shock value. 

But even if Satan Clubs were actually worshiping Satan, there’s little that can (or should) be done about them. A defense of American pluralism requires a defense of, or at least apathy toward, Satanism. 

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FBI Sent Undercover Agents to Church Services to Investigate ‘Domestic Extremism’

On Monday, Jim Jordan subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray for documents related to the FBI’s handling of a domestic violent extremism investigation against Catholic Americans.

Jordan, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that the FBI used at least one undercover agent to produce their analysis and that FBI agents engaged in outreach programs to Catholic parishes. This included clergy as well as church leadership.

Jordan’s letter reports that the FBI document sought to categorize Catholic Americans based on theological distinctions, as an attempt to label certain kinds of Catholic Americans as domestic terrorists.

“We have repeatedly sought information from the FBI relating to a January 23, 2023 document… After receiving no response, we reiterated our outstanding requests in a subsequent letter dated March 20, 2023. On March 23, 2023, we received a substandard and partial response consisting of only 18 pages — many with significant redactions of ‘personally identifiable information’ or ‘specific non-public information about [FBI] investigations, sources, and methods’ that prevents the Committee from fully assessing the content and context of the documents and obtaining information requested from the Bureau,” wrote Jordan in the letter to Wray.

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REPORT DETAILS ‘STAGGERING’ CHURCH SEX ABUSE IN MARYLAND

More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused over 600 children and often escaped accountability, according to a long-awaited state report released Wednesday that revealed the scope of abuse spanning 80 years and accused church leaders of decades of coverups.

The report paints a damning picture of the archdiocese, which is the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in the country and spans much of Maryland. Some parishes, schools and congregations had more than one abuser at the same time — including St. Mark Parish in Catonsville, which had 11 abusers living and working there between 1964 and 2004. One deacon admitted to molesting over 100 children. Another priest was allowed to feign hepatitis treatment and make other excuses to avoid facing abuse allegations.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released the findings of their yearslong investigation during Holy Week — considered the most sacred time of year in Christianity ahead of Easter Sunday — and said the number of victims is likely far higher. The report was redacted to protect confidential grand jury materials, meaning the identities of some accused clergy were removed.

“The staggering pervasiveness of the abuse itself underscores the culpability of the Church hierarchy,” the report said. “The sheer number of abusers and victims, the depravity of the abusers’ conduct, and the frequency with which known abusers were given the opportunity to continue preying upon children are astonishing.”

Disclosure of the redacted findings marks a significant development in an ongoing legal battle over their release and adds to growing evidence from parishes across the country as numerous similar revelations have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

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Ostara and the Hare: Not Ancient, but Not As Modern As Some Skeptics Think

If you’re curious about modern holiday beliefs and calendar customs, you might be reading or doing research about them online. Chances are, you come across some stories that the presenters claim are ancient, and reach into the pre-Christian past. One popular story you might have seen recently involves the origin of the Easter Bunny. Essentially, the tale is that Ostara, the ancient Germanic goddess of the spring, transformed a bird into a hare, and the hare responded by laying colored eggs for her festival. Some online sources, such as Goddess Gift, claim this story is very old indeed.  Others, such as Family Christmas Online, say it was invented in the 1980s.

So whom should you believe?  As it turns out, neither one!  I’ve traced the story back to the late 19th century.  So it may not be ancient, but it’s not that new either.

Let me back up a moment to set the scene. On Easter Sunday 2016, I had the pleasure of appearing on CBS Sunday Morning as a folklore expert in a segment on the Easter Bunny. The resulting story can be viewed at this link. The interview gave me an incentive to organize my thoughts on the matter and publish two blog posts, which you can view here and here. In the comments section of the first of these posts, reader Holly B. asked about the story of Ostara and the hare.

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Sympathy For The Devil: The True Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment

“Google ‘The Process Church of the Final Judgement’ and you’ll discover a long list of conspiracy theories. Only now, former members reveal the truth about the misunderstood group once dubbed ‘One of the most dangerous Satanic cults in America.'”

Meth-Smoking Satanist Vicar Convicted of Paedophilia, Zoophilia

An Anglican vicar who smoked crystal meth, boasted of corrupting young boys, abused animals, and discussed sacrificing babies to Satan with online paedophiles has been convicted in England.

Reverend David Renshaw, 63, was convicted of “three counts of possessing indecent images of children; three counts of making indecent images of children; possessing prohibited images of children; and possessing extreme pornographic images portraying acts of intercourse with animals, namely dogs and horses,” according to a Sussex Police statement.

Strangely, he does not appear to have faced any charges relating to animal cruelty or neglect, despite police officers finding his vicarage full of dead and dying animals including cats, dogs, and chickens.

“The search of his address was one of the most revolting tasks our officers will ever have to endure,” commented investigating officer Detective Sergeant David Rose. “As well as malnourished living animals, there was also a dead rotting kitten and a dead rotting rat on the floor, in addition to used needles and other drug paraphernalia lying around. It was a deeply unpleasant scene to search.”

In lurid conversations with other child predators, Renshaw had bragged: “I’m a sadistic bastard. Through and fucking through.”

He also referenced his desire to “sacrifice babies to Satan” in these conversations, and urged another paedophile to sacrifice his own three-year-old to the Devil.

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Yes, Leftism Is a Religion: University Gives Greta Thunberg an Honorary Doctorate in Theology

For the Left, it works both ways. Last year, woke students at Duke Divinity School proclaimed that “God is queer,” and for Leftists, the reverse is also true: “queerness,” along with the rest of the Left’s agenda, including climate hysteria, the vaccines, race obsessions, and every other aspect of the Left’s obsessions, are for them a god. Leftism today is a religion, a sad and tatty substitute for genuine religion, but a religion nonetheless, an all-consuming preoccupation and a prism through which the devotee sees and understands all things. The University of Helsinki confirmed this anew on Monday by announcing that it was giving climate hysteric Greta Thunberg an honorary doctorate…in theology. As David Strom said over at HotAir, “Climate Change is a religion. We all know that.” Yes, and it’s just part of the Left’s worship.

Now, once one accepts the Greta mythology, the idea of her getting an honorary doctorate is not much of a step beyond what the believer has already swallowed. If someone actually thinks that Greta Thunberg is a precocious child who has been speaking her own thoughts and giving her own opinions, and that she actually has something of substance to contribute to the pressing issues of the day, then it’s no problem at all for a university to give her some kind of honorary degree in The Science™. Give her a degree in “climate science” or “atmospheric studies” or something. But instead, the wise Finns decided to give Greta a theology degree, and that’s telling. It’s out in the open now. At least at the University of Helsinki, they don’t seem to care if people realize that the Left is not about rationality and logical thought, but about false gods of their own imagining.

Nor are the solons of the University of Helsinki by any means the first Leftists to make a religion out of their delusions. Former (haha) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Smirnoff) back in 2021 gave thanks to her god for his salvific sacrifice. No, not Jesus, silly. Did you really fall for that business about her being a Catholic? No, Pelosi prayed to her real savior: “Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice.” A few months after that, Catholic University joined the cult by displayed a painting of George Floyd as Jesus.

Like climate change, George Floyd worship is just one aspect of the Left’s religion. New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D-Planned Parenthood) revealed in September 2021 that the COVID vaccines were a kind of sacrament: “I prayed a lot to God during this time, and you know what – God did answer our prayers. He made the smartest men and women, the scientists, the doctors, the researchers – he made them come up with a vaccine. That is from God to us and we must say, thank you, God. Thank you. And I wear my ‘vaccinated’ necklace all the time to say I’m vaccinated. All of you, yes, I know you’re vaccinated, you’re the smart ones, but you know there’s people out there who aren’t listening to God and what God wants.”

Leading the applause for the newly minted Doctor Greta, the high priestess of the climate change cult, will be the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which even has a hymn for its climate change worship: “The Climate is Changing.” It’s about as cheerful as you might think: “The climate is changing! Creation cries out! / Your people face flooding and fire and drought.” Inspiring! Not to be outdone, climate idolaters at Union Theological Seminary have begun worshipping potted plants as a “liturgical response to our climate crisis.”

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The Climate Change Movement is a Religion

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently said that climate change has become a religion because it “actually has nothing to do with the climate,” and is instead all about power and control. To test if the public agrees with this assessment, a Rasmussen Reports survey found that 60 percent of likely voters agreed with him; 35 percent disagreed.

The poll did not reveal who the minority is, but we know from other surveys who they are.

The Pew Research Center found in 2021 that those who express the most concern about climate change are young people and those on the left. Younger adults, for obvious reasons, tend to be more concerned than older Americans about the dangers of climate change. Ideologically, those on the left are considerably more concerned about this issue than those on the right. This pattern is generally true in other developed countries as well.

Those who say they are the most concerned about climate change would argue that it is their genuine concern for the environment that makes them more sensitive to this issue; conservatives, they would maintain, just don’t care that much about it. But most Americans aren’t buying it. They say it’s because the “pro-environmentalists” are motivated more by power than purity, and that they have made a religion out of it.

There is no doubting that power is the signature of the left. From the time of the French Revolution to the latest antics of Antifa, the desire to control the words and deeds of the masses has been their overriding goal. So when surveys show that most Americans believe that those who are the most concerned about climate control are really obsessed by power and control, they are referring to those on the left. Conservatives favor small government, not large government.

There are good grounds to conclude that the left has made climate control a religion. For example, a Gallup poll released last year found that young people, liberals and Democrats are the most secular of any demographic group in the nation: they are the most likely to say they are religiously unaffiliated, agnostic or atheist.

It does not follow that those who have no conventional religious beliefs are without an ersatz religion, or something which functions as a religion for them. In the case of young people and those on the Left, their devotion to climate control acts as a ready substitute.

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