Brad Hicks

The Truth About Ritualized Child Abuse

Filename: TRUTH-RA.TXT

Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions
presents...

THE TRUTH ABOUT RITUALIZED CHILD ABUSE

These days the newspapers and the television are both full of reports of a
heinous new crime wave.  Self-proclaimed "adult survivors" and parents of
alleged child victims tell stories of sexual abuse, physical torture,
degradation, and of being forced to participate in the torture and slaying of
animals and even human beings.

The reports almost unanimously blame a vast, coordinated, world-wide
conspiracy of Satanists and other occultists.  Allegedly, this conspiracy has
infiltrated day-care centers, schools, and churches across the nation and has
as a goal the moral and spiritual destruction of this entire generation.

A vast network of groups, such as Believe the Children, Child Lures, Cult
Crime Impact Network, and the self-proclaimed US Citizens' Commission on Crime
and Narcotics, have spent tens of thousands of dollars over the past five
years to promote these stories.  But there are a few facts about their
accusations that these "experts" aren't telling you.  We at the Alliance for
Magical and Earth Religions thought that you really ought to know.

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Not one of these cases has ever produced so much as one tiny piece of evidence
that any of the alleged rituals ever took place.

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In case after case, children have described ritual rooms where they were
molested, described robes worn and implements used by their molesters, and
identified fields where bodies of animals and humans were buried.  But in
every single case: searches of the buildings revealed no such rooms; searches
of the homes of the accused discovered no such robes or implements; fields
where bodies were allegedly buried have turned out not to have been disturbed
in this century and no human or animal remains have been found.

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There are exactly two kinds of accusers in cases of alleged "ritualized
abuse."  The most common type are child witnesses, and in every case which has
made the news so far, the children made these accusations only after they had
all been questioned repeatedly, and insistently, by one person or small group.
A former prosecutor resigned from the infamous McMartin case, complaining that
the person who lead the questioning of the children "could make a baby confess
to being molested."

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The other witnesses on whose testimony the entire ritualized child abuse scare
depends are women who claim to be "adult survivors of ritual abuse."  What do
all of these women have in common?

 * They have been diagnosed as either schizophrenics or as
   sufferers of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD).
 * They claim to know full well the identities of  the
   conspirators who arranged for and participated in their
   abuse.
 * They accuse those conspirators of participating in or
   planning such felonies as child pornography, child
   prostitution, or murder.
 * None of these women will name a single suspect.
 * None of these cases has resulted in successful
   prosecution for as much as a single crime.

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The nation's top expert on child sexual abuse considers these accusations to
be entirely false.  Special Agent Ken Lanning, who heads up the FBI's center
on crimes against children, has investigated over 200 allegations of
ritualized abuse and has come to the conclusion that every single one of them
was a false accusation.

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The most vaunted piece of evidence that these crimes exist is that so many of
the "victims" are all telling the same story.  This is no surprise at all. 
For over five years a well-financed industry has provided investigators with
lists of leading questions to ask children, descriptions of alleged ritual
scenes, and in fact all of the details that repeat from case to case.  It was
in just this fashion that the original Inquisition provided similar lists to
their "investigators," to provide people with accusations to use.

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The ritualized child abuse scare diverts attention away from the realities of
child sexual abuse.  The Center for the Scientific Evaluation of Religion
reported that even if all of the allegations of ritualized abuse were
true--and as we've seen, they aren't--American children are 20 times more
likely to fall into an uncovered swimming pool and drown than they are of ever
being ritually molested.

Each year there are approximately three or four alleged cases of ritualized
abuse--and approximately 113,000 documented cases of children being sexually
abused by relatives and "close family friends."  And the more time we as a
nation spend searching for scapegoats, the more children will be sexually and
physically and mentally abused.  We will not end this crisis until we are
ready to face the real facts about child abuse.

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The Truth About AMER

The Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions (AMER) is a St. Louis-based
organization made up of representatives of several distinct Magical and/or
Earth-centered religious traditions.  Its members have only one thing in
common: all of them feel that they have been unfairly blamed by some in the
media and in law enforcement for the problems of today's society.

AMER's Statement of Purpose:

1.  AMER will defend the right of every American to practice his or her own
religion, insofar as that religion's practices do not directly harm anyone. In
particular, AMER will actively campaign for tolerance for Magical and
Earth-centered religions.

2.  AMER will work to promote a positive image for Magical and Earth-centered
religions, and to counter negative propaganda about such groups.

3.  AMER will promote cooperation among the various Magical and Earth-centered
religious groups.

4.  AMER will serve as a source of accurate information on Magical and
Earth-centered religions and practices.

For more information about AMER, send a stamped, self-addressed long envelope
to AMER, 11220 West Florissant, Suite 288, Florissant, Missouri 63032.