Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

8 The Anticult Movement
stages, opposition to minority religions had organized
itself around deprogrammers—individuals
who forcibly and sometimes violently abducted
individuals from nontraditional religions. “Cult”
members were snatched off the street and locked
up in houses or motel rooms, where their beliefs
were assaulted until their religious faith was
destroyed. Deprogramming, controlled entirely by
independent entrepreneurs, could never have
developed into a viable profession without the
simultaneous development of secular “cult watchdog”
groups. These organizations regularly referred
concerned parents to deprogrammers.
Deprogrammers, anticult organizations, and
other less directly involved individuals together
constitute what academic observers term the
anticult movement, sometimes referred to as the
secular anticult movement to distinguish it from
Evangelical Christian anticult groups. The
Christian anticult movement is distinguished
from the secular anticult movement by its focus
on theological issues. While the religions criticized
by Christian anticultists may be accused of
exploiting and brainwashing their members, the
more important accusation is their theological
divergence from Evangelical Christianity. Because
of this theological emphasis, certain groups not
normally considered “cults”—such as the
Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses—are classified
as such by the Christian ACM. The Christian
ACM, unlike the secular ACM, also distanced itself
from the practice of deprogramming.
The Citizen’s Freedom Foundation—later
renamed Cult Awareness Network—eventually
became the national umbrella group for the ACM
in the United States. In addition to working
closely with deprogrammers, anticult groups
attempted to influence legislators at all levels of
government to pass laws against cults (e.g., a
proposed New York law would have made founding
a “pseudo-religion” a felony). First Amendment
rights and other considerations frustrated
most attempts to legislate against nontraditional
religions. Where anticultists were the most
successful was in the mass media. Dramatic
stories about brainwashed young people being
exploited by sinister “cult” leaders have an appeal
that is difficult to deny, and the media provided
virtually an open forum for the propagation of
the anticult viewpoint.
The Satanic ritual abuse movement enjoyed
similar success in the media, and adopted both the
stereotype of sinister cults and the mind control
notion from the ACM. Although understood as a
kind of cult mind control, Satanic mind control
was originally invoked for a completely different
reason: Cult mind control explained why
someone’s adult child could join a “crazy” religious
group. Satanic programming, on the other hand,
explained how a hypothetical network of secretive
underground Satanic cult groups could manage to
control both victims and members so that no one
would ever reveal the truth about their existence. It
also provided a theoretical background for understanding
how recovered memory therapy (hypnotizing
alleged victims to uncover repressed memories
of abuse) worked and why it was necessary.
The ACM climbed aboard the ritual abuse
bandwagon to expand its own scope of activities.
In the 1991 book, The Satanism Scare, James
Richardson noted that:
Having joined those promoting the idea that
Satanism is increasing, the ACM is taking a
leading role in the effort to convince America
that Satanists are brainwashing people
everywhere. ACM groups sponsor conferences
on the topic and their publications promote
their view. This serves ACM interests, meshing
particularly well with the ideology of one
segment of the ACM—fundamentalists who
believe that Satan is active in the world. Other
segments of the ACM, including some mental
health professionals, are not religiously
motivated, but also find it worthwhile to
promote the idea of Satanism as a growing
threat to our society. (209)
As public concern over Satanism grew, ACM
groups like CAN and AFF (American Family
Foundation) received so many inquiries about
Satanism and clandestine Satanic cults that they
developed information packets to sell to callers.
Composed largely of photocopied newspaper and
popular magazine articles, such packets simply
repeated popular stereotypes.