Between the Christian panic over Dungeons and Dragons and the Christian panic over the Internet came the Christian panic of "satanic ritual abuse." It was a stupid fad in which the fearmongers talked a bunch of insulting nonsense that made them feel important; they had uncovered a secret underground of evil baby killers and mind controllers. It's a lark.
Except there are still some people in prison over these inherently impossible charges. It's true that some got out - why, Paul Ingram only lost around a decade of his life to these fruitcakes and their fairy tales. The West Memphis Three are still in prison, eleven years after not committing any crime (but they did listen to the wrong kind of music, after all). Bernie Baran is serving three life sentences for doing nothing at all (but he's a fag so who cares anyway). It was just a fad for the Christians. Something to sell a few self-help books to parents with, to help refine their alienation from their own children. Too bad others had to pay for their fun. And what fun they had!
Religion is a public mental health crisis and it's time we started treating it as such.
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