From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (Lorax)
To: private email
Subject: Re: Satanism/Neopaganism (Was Re: non pagan confused)

ky951008


I'd rather see a healthy comparison of views, followed by support for 
one's reasoning and assertions, than to let them go by without response.  
I don't claim to know I am right.  Therefore I don't require you to 
change.  However, if you go about making public statements, please 
prepare for me to argue vehemently against what I tentatively presume 
to be false.


I'd like to know how much you know about its practice.  I've kept
myself pretty ignorant of it so far, and I want to learn as much
as I can about what other people tell me first of all (especially
Neopagans).  Even so I've heard many reliable testimonies regarding
the ambiguity of some religions and their crossings, histories.  

I find it fascinating to suspend my judgement and listen to the stories,
especially when well-founded.  I've heard Satanic Ritual Abuse Victims
(so called) describe their knowledge of Satanists.  

I've heard Jehovah's Witnesses and many other Christian sources explain 
to me (quite often in very different manners) what 'Satanism' meant.  
Half the time they included Neopaganism and Hermetic and Masonic groups 
within a big batch of other horrible folx (sociopaths, like Manson, etc.) 
and this is what they mean by 'Satanism'.  

There are Neopagans who are convinced that organized Satanists are mass-
murdering neighborhood pets, well-known ones, *AND MAKING THESE ASSERTIONS 
TO THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE VIA USENET*.  This is serious business.  Real people's
lives are at stake.  Careful critical scrutiny of such information must be
exemplified if we are to avoid serious xenophobic religious tensions (in my
Wicca-meter that smells 'H A R M').

...

Lorax
tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com