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 | a victim is kidnapped by members of "religious group B." |
| the victim is usually an innocent person. An infant, young child or a blond blue-eyed teenage virgin girl are typical. |
| the victim may be abused or tortured. They are ritually killed in order to meet the requirements of the perpetrator's religion. |
| in an act of cannibalism, the victim's body is eaten and/or the blood is consumed. |
| obscene sexual orgies (sometimes involving incest) are held during or after the ritual. |
The contrast between the innocence of the victim and the evil nature of the ritual killers makes a blood libel myth striking in its intensity.
Needless to say, "religious group B," the victims of the myth, are typically a small faith group. Their persecutors are usually the dominant religion.
Sometimes the effect of one of these myths is rather amusing. Consider the teenage, blond, virgin women who dyed their hair black on Thursday the 12th so that they would not be kidnapped, mutilated and killed by non-existent Satanic cultists on Friday the 13th. But other times it has led to the trial and imprisonment of innocent people - thrown in jail for crimes that never even happened. And it has also resulted in past mass exterminations of followers of minority religions.
This basic fable has been flourishing over the past 2 millennia. In each era and each country where it surfaces, details are often added to or subtracted from the basic story line. Sometimes the myth will disappear for decades and even centuries, only to reappear later in another part of the world.
A few examples are:
| Date | Group A (Accusers) | Group B (Victims) |
| 1st century BCE | Greeks | Jews in Palestine |
| 2nd century CE | Romans | Christians |
| 12th century and later | Christians | Followers of Judaism |
| 13th Century | Christians | Cathars |
| 14th century | Christians | Knights Templar |
| 15th to 18th century | Christians | Witches and other heretics |
| 19th century | Protestants | Roman Catholics |
| 19th century and later | Christians, Nazis, Communists | Jews, viewed as a race; Roma (Gypsies) |
| 1980's and later | Fundamentalist Christians, feminists | Wiccans, Druids & other Neopagans and nonexistent evil, Satanic cultists, |
| 1994 | Bulgarian Orthodox Church | Protestant Evangelical missionaries |
| 1980's & 1990's | A small minority of Christians; mainly Fundamentalist | Wiccans, Druids & other Neopagans |
| Today | A minority of Muslims | Jews |
Of course, the above table does not imply that all of Group A are or were spreading a blood libel rumor about all of Group B. But there have been enough accusations to convince a sizable fraction of the population of the truth of the rumor. For example, a public opinion poll in Utah revealed that 90% of the population believed in evil Satanic cults ritually abusing children.
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Similar Blood Libel Myths, Separated by 18 Centuries:
| Pagans vs. Christians during the 2nd Century CE: Here, the official religion of
the Roman Empire was Roman Paganism. The victims were the early Christians. Rumors of Christians as an evil, underground, abusive religious group were well documented during the early history of the Christian church. The government promoted a myth that the Christians kidnapped babies, ritually killed them, drank their blood, ate their flesh and engaged in degenerate sexual practices, including incest. The myth was mainly based on inaccurate understandings of three Christian activities:
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| Christians vs. Jews from 1144 CE to the early 20th century: Christians historically blamed Jews for the judicial murder of Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ). They noted that the "...last meal before his crucifixion had been the Passover seder..." They created the fiction that "at every Passover the Jews re-enacted this crucifixion with yet another innocent Christian victim. The original victims of the accusation had become the accusers of a new victim." 1 This myth was responsible for the execution of many hundreds of Jews during the Middle Ages and up into the 20th century. It formed part of the foundation upon which Hitler was able to build his plan to exterminate all Jews in Europe - the Nazi Holocaust. | ||||||
| Christians and others vs. Neopagans and others during the 1980's and early 1990's: Here, the main perpetrators of the blood libel myth were some Christians, feminists and police officers. (All of the promoters of this myth who were primarily motivated by their religious beliefs appear to be conservative Christians. The myth appears to be an outgrowth of belief in Satan as an evil entity. However, it is quite possible that we have missed some mainline or liberal Christians involved in the movement.) The targeted victims were perceived as evil followers of an international, criminal, underground cult of Satan worshipers. Such cultists do not exist. However, conservative Christians often do not differentiate between Satan worship, and other, unrelated religions. So, they have lots of groups to victimize. R.V. Canning of the FBI commented in a 1992 report: "In books, lectures, handout material, and conversations, I have heard all of the following referred to as satanism: Church of Satan, Ordo Templi Orientis, Temple of Set, Demonology, Witchcraft, Occult, Paganism, Santeria, Voodoo, Rosicrucians, Freemasonry, Knights Templar, Stoner Gangs, Heavy Metal Music, Rock Music, KKK, Nazis, Skinheads, Scientology, Unification Church, The Way, Hare Krishna, Rajneesh, Religious Cults, New Age, Astrology, Channeling, Transcendental Meditation, Holistic Medicine, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, Islam, Orthodox Church, Roman Catholicism." To this list, can be added Wicca, Druidism, various other Neopagan faiths, Goddess Worship, a number of 12 step self help organizations such as Alcoholic Anonymous, and even the Society of Friends (Quakers). This modern form of blood libel myth is called Satanic Ritual Abuse or Sadistic Ritual Abuse (SRA). |
There were no documented cases of SRA in this century before 1980, when the first SRA "survivor" book, Michelle Remembers, was published. It described horrendous sexual and physical abuse allegedly suffered by the co-author, Michelle Smith. She described perpetrators as Satanists who felt that the pain inflicted upon their victims increased their black magical powers. The group also allegedly engaged in human sacrifice and cannibalism. During the following decade, Recovered Memory Therapy (RMT) became increasingly common among psychiatrists, psychologists, and other therapists. Hundreds of thousands of adult recovered memories of severe sexual abuse during childhood. About one in 7 of them recovered memories of SRA. Thousands of children suffered from implanted memories of ritual abuse in day cares, preschools, Sunday schools, etc.
Three separate investigations of Michelle Remembers have proven it to be a hoax. Other studies by Christian ministries have shown that similar books by other authors are also frauds. RMT is now believed by many therapists to often generate false memories of events that never happened. The entire SRA movement is dying because almost two decades have passed with a complete lack of hard evidence showing that anybody has ever been abused or killed by Satanists.
The legacy of this Satanic and RMT Panic is:
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As blood libel myths go, North America in the 1980's and 1990's was at least saved the mass murders of previous occurrences. Individuals were harmed; some committed suicide. Families of origin were damaged. But few people were murdered.
Reference:
- Shari Schwartz, "Editor's Preface: The Making of a Martyr," at: http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/
Copyright 2003 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Latest update: 2003-JUN-15
Author: B.A. Robinson
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