Op-ed: The Culture of Satanic Panic

I’m not sure what it was that brought the name into my head. Maybe it was God. Maybe it was one of my synapses misfiring. For some reason, Rebecca Brown popped into my head not long ago. Brown wrote two books, He Came to Set the Captives Free and Prepare for War.

My mother insisted that I read both when I was in junior high school. The books told the story of Brown and her “associate,” Elaine, and their self-described journey through Satanism. The books bordered on pornographic. As an eighth-grader in Houston at a private Christian school, I was young and impressionable. Mom wanted me to understand what she said was “really out there.” She heartily disliked my desire to learn martial arts and had begun to stop letting me watch movies like The Karate Kid and most Disney films because of their perceived dangers.

As a kid my head was filled with tales of Satanism and evil pervading everyone around me. To this day I question my sanity. But fear of what is “really out there” has far-reaching effects.

As I waded through the now nearly endless parade of articles written debunking Brown’s claims, I came across a story I hadn’t heard about in years: the West Memphis Three. It isn’t often that I side with the accused in a crime these days. I was long ago convinced, though, that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley are all innocent.

http://www.advocate.com/Politics/Commentary/Op-ed_The_Culture_of_Satanic_Panic/

A good read.