Diane Vera

Here's a news story I missed during the time I took a break from monitoring online developments having to do with Satanism:

( London Daily Mail story about Pope setting up exorcist squads )

See also the following posts on my Theistic Satanism blog (listed below in forward chronological order):

• Full-blown alleged SRA case in Italy - Friday, April 27, 2007
• Some news from Italy, about Satanism and about the Catholic Church - Monday, April 28, 2008
• More about Satanism and the Catholic Church in Italy - Friday, May 2, 2008
• Blaming "Satanists" for Catholic clergy sex scandals??? - Saturday, May 3, 2008
• How they'll clean up after you at a Maltese hospital - Tuesday, May 13, 2008

In most parts ot the U.S.A., the religious right wing seems to be dominated by evangelical Christians. But here in New York City, it seems to be dominated by ultra-conservative Catholics and ultra-Orthodox Jews.

And one of its leaders is now a judge.

( Read more about Noach Dear, former city council member, now a judge. )

Talk To Action has a weekly series by Frank L. Cocozzelli on "The Catholic Right," about the Catholic religious right wing. The most recent post in the series is Jindal, Rising, about Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. Frank Cocozzelli apparently lives in Brooklyn, judging by his post My Son's School, in which he identifies his parish as St. Finbar's in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York.

( Links to all posts in the series )

P.S.: My list of Frank Cocozzelli's posts includes quite a few posts about Opus Dei, but none about the Legion of Christ. On Talk to Action, I just now posted Catholic religious right wing: Legion of Christ, to inform him about the latter order.

In The End of American Jewry's Golden Era, Daniel Pipes is quoted as saying:

"Militant Islam cannot be compared to any segment of Christianity, Judaism, or Hinduism. These religions do not embody groups with totalitarian utopian ideologies that seek world hegemony.

Yes they do.

Admittedly, the Christian and Jewish equivalents of Islamism (the totalitarian ideology) are a much more marginal fringe, among adherents of their religions, than Islamists now are among Muslims. Hence they are currently far less dangerous on a worldwide scale. But they do exist. And, from my point of view, the Christian counterparts of Islamism do pose a real threat - although not nearly as big a threat, on a worldwide scale, as Islamism.

The Christian counterparts of Islamism are Reconstructionism and Dominionism, whose longterm goal is the restoration of "Biblical civil law." For Christian Reconstructionists and other hardcore Dominionists, this would include a death penalty, by stoning, for "idolators," "blasphemers," and homosexuals. Although they are a fringe, Reconstructionists and other Dominionists are disporportionately active in the Christian religious right wing, still a very powerful political movement.

( Links to info about Christian Reconstructionism and Dominion Theology )

There are also ultra-Orthodox movements within Judaism with a similarly theocratic agenda - and which have enlisted the support of some like-minded non-Jews.

Traditionally, Jews don't try to convert non-Jews to Judaism. However, Jews traditionally do believe that all humans, including non-Jews, are obliged to obey the seven "Noahide laws," one of which is the establishment of courts of justice to enforce the other Noahide laws. At least "theoretically," this would include a death penalty for "idolators," "blasphemers," and homosexuals - albeit by beheading, rather than by stoning. There is now a new and growing "Noahide" religious movement of non-Jews who have not fully converted to Judaism, but who follow the teachings of Jewish rabbis (usually Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox rabbis) regarding the Noahide laws, and whose ultimate aim to establish a worldwide theocracy. Noahide groups differ on whether and to what extent the "death penalty" is to be taken literally, but, as far as I can tell so far, it seems that most Noahide groups, or at least the more visible ones, do call for a literal death penalty for purely religious transgressions.

( Links about theocratic Judaism and Noahidism, with my comments )

( Some info about theocratic movements in Israel )

Still, despite the growing strength of the Israeli religious right wing, it seems that GLBT rights are better in Israel than anywhere else in the Middle East.

( Links to more info on GLBT rights in Israel )

One of my heroes is Brad Hicks, who was one of the earliest activists against the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" scare back in the 1980's. (He discusses this briefly in the following posts of his here on LiveJournal: Wicca Lies (part 3): Hierarchy and Wow, I Haven't Been Threatened for My Writing in More than a Decade.) He was president of the Alliance of Magical and Earth Religions (AMER), in which Michael Aquino, founder of the Temple of Set, was also active.

Anyhow, a recent post of his calls attention to something very scary about Hillary Clinton. Her pastor, Doug Coe, runs a secretive, cultish group called "The Family" or "The Fellowship," to which a lot of religious right wing politicians also belong.

( More here about Doug Coe )

On another topic, another excellent post on Brad Hicks's blog: Republicans and the War on Justice.

P.S., 5/19/2008: Regarding Brad Hicks's fight against the SRA scare, I just now came across another relevant post of his: Personal History: Me versus a Religious Bigot Cop.

Given my interest in building an activist organization against religion-based bigotry (see the blog of New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry), I should attend the following event, here in New York City: Self-Criticism in the American Muslim and Jewish Communities with Reza Aslan, Moushumi Khan, Rabbi Stern, and others.

"Leading American Muslims and Jews look in the mirror and critique their own communities. They point out where leadership falls short in its efforts to create dialogue bewteen the two communities and explore factors that contribute to hostility and suspicion between the two groups."

( Details here )

P.S., 5/8/2008: Apparently this event has been cancelled.

( More info here )

A while back I noticed a trend, among conservative and traditionalist Catholics, to blame the clergy pedophilia scandals on an alleged conspiracy by Satanists to infiltrate the Catholic hierarchy. For more about this, see my article The "Satanic Ritual Abuse" scare -- it's BAACK! The alleged conspiracy of "Satanic pedophiles" in the Catholic clergy.

Now it seems that this same alleged Satanist conspiracy is being blamed for clargy sex scandals involving adults too. Not only that, but one priest has even used this claim in an attempt to get himself off the hook.

( Read more )

In one of my replies in the thread Grandmothers arrested over 'satanic sex abuse' on "satanicnews," I wrote:

I do not deny that human sacrifice exists. However, it exists in the context of religious and magical worldviews that are largely (though not completely) extinct (unless you stretch the definition of "human sacrifice" to include things like religious wars, religiously motivated terrorism, and executions).

Satanism, on the other hand, is inherently post-Christian, or at least post-Abrahamic. Satanism necessarily involves reinterpretations of the Christian/Abrahamic figure of "Satan." (By the way, I don't define "Satanism" as narrowly as some folks do, e.g. by limiting that term of LaVeyan Satanism. To me a "Satanist" is anyone with a favorable view of Satan.)

Because Satanism necessarily post-dates the Abrahamic religions, most Satanists, of whatever stripe, are simply not in touch with the ancient magical and religious worldviews that necessitated human sacrifice. Ditto for most modern Pagans and occultists, whose beliefs are likewise post-Christian, even though they do pride themselves on drawing from more ancient roots. Of course, even Christianity does preserve the idea of human sacrifice in symbolic form (e.g. the Eucharist). However, by the time of the Roman Empire, most of the civilized world (not just the Abrahamic religions) had pretty much left human sacrifice behind.

( Read more )