I sure do. I was already a young adult. I think it was in 1987. That sounds about right.
Anyway he was widely criticized for it. I’ll add a cite if anyone wants one. But basically people said his statistics were way off, and that there in fact was no secret Satanic conspiracy in the U.S.
His statistics were a little off. I think he said every city, every municipality, every township had at least one Satanist in it. That may have been a little off. But I recall he had a lot of gory pictures too. I seem to recall a man they poured wax into his eyelids and a bloody mortar and pestle for some reason. And he said he didn’t show the worst of the pictures. What did that mean?
Okay, maybe it isn’t as widespread or organized as Geraldo said it was. But some of the special was still thought provoking.
There is an official Church of Satan, so it’s definitely organized. It’s more of an anti-religion or protest religion than an actual church worshiping Satan, though. But if you want to get married in the Church of Satan, they do provide wedding services. They also provide funeral services and baptism services, according to Wikipedia.
There is also the Satanic Temple, which again is more of an atheistic or protest religion than a true Satan-worshiping religion. The church was formed as a protest against George W. Bush’s formation of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and according to its founder, the idea was to form a church “that met all the Bush administration’s criteria for receiving funds, but was repugnant to them”. The Temple currently has 22 chapters in the U.S. and 3 chapters outside of the U.S.
Wikipedia links:
By the way, Wikipedia also has this:
In December 2007 the Associated Press reported on a story concerning the Church of Satan, in which a teenager had sent an email to High Priest Gilmore stating he wanted to “kill in the name of our unholy lord Satan.” Gilmore then reported the message to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who informed local police, who arrested the teenager.
So, they aren’t exactly encouraging members to go around killing in the name of Satan.
I personally would call it more of a protest against religion than an actual Satanic conspiracy.
ETA:
As for the special, I do remember it, and I remember thinking that it was all pretty silly, just like Al Capone’s vault. I never took Geraldo seriously as a journalist.
It means “If it bleeds, it leads.” Rivera was going for shock and tittilation, and using deliberately scary imagery to attract eyeballs.
Satanists certainly existed and exist - the Church of Satan, the Temple of Set, are still around. But they’re minority religions, and have nowhere near the influence or power the “Satanic Panic” nutjobs attributed to them.
At a guess, the most influential Satanist group around today is The Satanic Temple, the folks behind putting a Baphomet statue on the grounds of the Oklahoma state capitol, in protest to a lawmaker’s attempt to erect one to the Ten Commandments; and handing out Satanic storybooks to kids in a Florida school that had been targeted by the Gideons handing out Testaments. While the leaders of TST claim to be authentic atheistic Satanists - who don’t believe in his literal existence, but celebrate him as a symbol of free thought and rebellion against dogma - the Temple’s primary mission is to use Satanic imagery to highlight instances of Christian privilege and church-state violations. They’re by no means a secret, hidden organization, nor an evil one - as a matter of fact, their core moral principles are superior to much Christian morality, in my view. But mainly they’re defenders of the First Amendment and religious freedom. I think The Satanic Temple is great - they’re like the ACLU, if it were run by Monty Python.
ETA: ninja’d by @engineer_comp_geek! I call down His Infernal Majesty’s curses on you, ECG!
I’ve always been intrigued by the theory that the Satanic Panic of the 80’s was triggered by fundamentalist backlash to feminism. Rumors of organized Satanist pedophile rings taking over daycare facilities was a concept actually put forward on that Geraldo special.
Of course, if women were at home taking care of their kids as God intended, those poor kids wouldn’t be getting ritually molested and sacrificed by Satanists, would they?
Having been a teenager during the Satanic Panic, I still remember fondly how my Mother accused us of playing D&D in the basement because it was dark down there. I reminded her it was because she kicked us out of the dining room.
Geraldo wasn’t a big influence, but 60 Minutes sure was.
There are probably a few Satanists in the US or world, but you won’t find them in the Church of Satan nor the Satanic Temple. And I doubt there was any truth whatsoever in anything that Geraldo said or showed on that special. The gory pictures were probably staged by special effects pros.
As far as panic goes, my dad was convinced that Enya was satanic, but he didn’t even notice when one of my friends came over and played Marilyn Manson on the stereo (specifically for the purpose of trolling my dad, of course). Mom, fortunately, was sane.
Uh, what? You don’t think there are Satanists in the Church of Satan or The Satanic Temple? Why on earth not? Why would a non-Satanist join a Satanic religion?
It’s possible that there may be some members of The Satanic Temple who don’t actually adhere to that religion, who simply support the Temple in its work. But TST founder Lucien Greaves claims to subscribe to non-theistic Satanism, and there’s no reason to doubt him. I imagine most other members do as well.
A satanist is someone who worships Satan, which both of the major organizations explicitly say they don’t do. Yes, they call themselves satanists, but if they called themselves unicorns, they wouldn’t be that, either. Why do they call themselves something they’re not? You’d have to ask them that.
It might also be possible (if not probable) that you don’t know what the Satanic Temple and the Church Of Satan are all about…although there has been more than one attempt in this thread to enlighten people on the subject.
I was just reading through the Wikipedia entries on the CoS and TST when you posted this. Don’t know much about the Church of Satan, true, but I’m fairly familiar with The Satanic Temple and the work they do. I don’t see what has prompted this rather hostile post.
I remember the rumor that Motley Crue once performed the ritual sacrifice of a live baby at one of their shows. And they got away with it in front of, what, 35,000 fans?
Oh, I see what you’re saying. However, there is a tradition of non-theistic Satanism/Luciferianism going back to the Enlightenment that venerates Satan as a symbol of rebellion, skepticism, and rational thought, without believing in his actual existence. And they call themselves Satanists. Just as the followers of Siddhartha Gautama call themselves “Buddhists”, even though they don’t worship him.
As Chronos said, the active worship of Satan is actively discouraged by both organizations, so the likelihood of finding people who do not actually worship Satan in either group is actually quite high.
I had a conservative Christian colleague circa 1990 who told us a couple times about his church having experts come in to explain how to spot graffiti from Satanists.
Paid experts seem to fuel a lot of the hysteria in such crazes.
From what I’ve seen this thread I, as a Christian, have no quarrel with TST. I don’t know that I can say the same thing about COS. If it’s true that Anton LaVey said that Rand’s Objectivism was Satanism without the ceremony, then I have a problem with them. That would mean they oppose the teachings of Jesus, while the former champions freedom of religion. While neither professes belief in a being called Satan (I don’t either, for that matter), from what I’ve seen here the two groups look pretty different.
