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The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse starting in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s, and persisting today. The panic originated in 1980 with the publication of Michelle Remembers, a book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient, Michelle Smith, which used the controversial and now discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy to make claims about satanic ritual abuse involving Smith. The allegations, which arose afterward throughout much of the United States, involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult or Satanic rituals. Some allegations involve a conspiracy of a global Satanic cult that includes the wealthy and elite in which children are abducted or bred for human sacrifice, pornography, and prostitution.
Warren Steed Jeffs is an American cult leader who is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sexual assault following two convictions in 2011. He is the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamous cult based in Arizona. The FLDS Church was founded in the early-20th century when its founders deemed the renunciation of polygamy by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be apostate. According to the LDS Church it disavows any relation between it and the FLDS Church.
Roch Thériault was a Canadian cult leader and convicted murderer. Thériault, a self-proclaimed prophet under the name Moïse, founded the Ant Hill Kids in 1977. They were a doomsday cult whose beliefs were based on those of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In April 1978, Thériault was removed from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He maintained multiple wives and concubines, impregnating all female members as a religious requirement, and fathering 26 children. Thériault's followers, including 12 adults and 22 children, lived under his totalitarian rule in a commune and were subject to severe physical and sexual abuse.
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Bethel Church, also called Bethel Interdenominational Church, is a Christian religious organisation based in Mansfield Woodhouse, England, founded by John Hibbert and Jean Spademan. It has a sister church, King's Chapel, in Norwich, Connecticut. Within the movement, Spademan was known by the name "Syro" – "an obscure Biblical reference to a Syro-Phoenician woman who appeals to Jesus to save her daughter from a demon".
The Kidwelly sex cult was a British cult that operated in Kidwelly, Wales, that raped children for decades until its perpetrators were arrested in 2010. Known by its members as simply "The Church", its leader Colin Batley psychologically terrorised and coerced vulnerable children into performing sexual acts, by using death threats and brainwashing. Batley, three female members, and a second man were convicted of child sex offences in 2011 and jailed.
The Birmingham bathing cult was a cult based in Birmingham, England that committed serious sexual offences against children for over 20 years. Its leader Michael Oluronbi gave children "holy baths" as cover for the abuse and was jailed for 34 years.
References
- 1 2 Leonard, Bill J. (2012). "Children of God". In Leonard, Bill J.; Crainshaw, Jill Y. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Religious Controversies in the United States. ABC-CLIO. pp. 202–203. ISBN 9781598848687.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chancellor, James (2014). "A Family for the Twenty-first Century". In Lewis, James R.; Petersen, Jesper Aa. (eds.). Controversial New Religions (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 13–38. ISBN 978-0-19-931531-4.
- 1 2 Shepherd, Gordon; Shepherd, Gary (2010). Talking with the Children of God: Prophecy and Transformation in a Radical Religious Group. U of Illinois P. pp. 7–. ISBN 9780252077210.
- ↑ House, H. Wayne (2000). Charts of Cults, Sects, and Religious Movements . Zondervan. ISBN 0-310-38551-2.
- 1 2 Goodstein, Laurie (January 15, 2005). "Murder and Suicide Reviving Claims of Child Abuse in Cult". The New York Times . Retrieved July 27, 2014.
- ↑ Levithan, Steven (April 11, 2021). "Karen Zerby Leak: Unmasking a Cult Leader Who'd Remained Faceless for Nearly 30 Years" . Retrieved July 7, 2021.
