More Satanic Panic

“Expectin’ a miracle to make all this go away?  You know they don’t happen anymore.” William King Hale, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

The Mayor from Jaws, became a Cop to 
institutionalize Tom Hanks in Mazes & Monsters

I don’t believe I can describe how utterly ridiculous the moral panic from Christianists over the Satanic Temple’s trolling seems to me.  Hilariously, the Satanic Temple is basically espousing a Humanist creed but, since disingenuous Republicans (including numerous past and current Supreme Court Injustices) treated an absence of religion to not being afforded 1st Amendment protections, the Satanists are a "religious" organization.

Decades ago I told my family I didn’t want to go to CCD classes or church anymore because I knew my own mind and I didn’t believe in god.  My loving grandparents didn't push it despite nominally being Polish Catholics and were totally fine with my decision.  I'd only learn many years later that my grandfather lost his faith during the war especially over the killing of your fellow man and being given special dispensation to eat meat on Fridays.

Long before I read Carl Sagan's Demon-Haunted World, I was aware of the conservative freakout over Dungeons & Dragons and so-called secret satanic cults.  Of course, these days conservatives call their latest iteration QAnon but, the falsehoods, underpinning, agitprop and people pushing it are the same ideologically with the same goal in mind; persecuting innocent people and to garner political power.

The 1st (modern) Satanic Panic in the 1980's came about from a confluence stemming from the political rise of Reagan and the rightwing moral hand-wringing over Heavy Metal lyrics, repressed memory recall, Dungeons & Dragons, and a whole bevy of false accusations of Satanic child abuse cults.  Religious fundamentalists, Congress, and law enforcement took a look at these claims and used them to blame and persecute a lot of innocent people.

What's always infuriated me about this was those who lead these moral panics, are invariably involved in the various church sex abuse scandals or abuse and misconduct.  This is the case to this day as Republicans run around with accusations which always turn out to be thinly veiled confessions.  For instance, the cryptofascist Florida Moms for Liberty couple which demonized and vilified innocent LGBTQ peoples.

In my entire life religion in America has been used to cynically excuse the crimes of rich, powerful, or well connected and shield them from accountability or as a cudgel against minority groups and those who ran counter the dominant culture.

In 2018 Illinois Attorney General began a 5-year investigation into the cover-up of child sex abuse by the Illinois Archdiocese of Chicago and the Dioceses of Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford, and Springfield.  Spurred by the Pennsylvania Grand Jury findings documenting 70 years of abuse and cover-up you can access and search the report here.

Over the course of this investigation, two goals remained at its core: first, to obtain a full accounting of substantiated child sex abuse committed by Catholic clergy in Illinois and provide a complete public report of substantiated abusers; and second, to give voice to survivors in an attempt to contribute to their healing journey. To these ends, my attorneys and investigators examined thousands of diocesan files, reviewing more than 100,000 pages of documents held by the dioceses. They spent countless hours engaged in interviews and conversations with diocesan leadership and representatives. And over the course of this investigation, my office received more than 600 confidential contacts from survivors through emails, letters, voicemail messages, interviews, and phone calls. My investigation team treated each allegation with the respect it deserved and followed leads as they arose to ensure we conducted a thorough and comprehensive investigation. To build the most compelling portion of this report, my team worked closely with survivors to draft narrative accounts of their experiences as children sexually abused by clerics. Without those survivors who bravely came forward to share their experiences and perspectives, neither the investigation nor this report would feel complete. I express my sincerest gratitude to each of those survivors, and to the others who contacted my office, for their deeply personal contributions.

And this isn't just a crime and cover-up confined to the very powerful Catholic Church but is rampant amongst the Baptists, Mormon Church, and other "christian" denominations.  Yet...

You never hear this mentioned by the Republican QAnon caucus, which instead directs their duped rightwing drones to direct violence, death threats, and attacks on the LGBTQ (especially, the small Trans community) which is under direct threats by legislation and of course, mass shootings from rightwing gun nuts.

That's merely the most direct reason I find the current Satanic Panic to be trite, ridiculous, and cynical.  It's again being used to direct violence, anger and hatred at the marginalized and oppressed to shield the Powerful and keep power in the hands of those who continue to use that power to harm, oppress, and afflict the afflicted, in direct opposition to the so-called tenets of Jesus Christ.

Additional:

For years these same right wing Reactionary catholic bishops called anyone in the US who questioned their fascist interpretation of the creed a “cafeteria catholic” now are being pissy babies complaining about the infallible Pope blessing same sex marriage.