Project Witch Hunt Watch for September 1992 (Fall Equinox)

 In June there was a "news" item on "The 700 Club" about evangelist
 Jeff Fenholt (host of "Highway to Heaven" on Trinity Broadcasting
 Network) and his planned speaking engagement at Salem,
 Massachusetts.  The report noted that local occultists, especially
 wiccans, were most upset about it and were doing everything they
 could to prevent Fenholt from speaking.  Fenholt specializes in
 his own brand of "anti-satanism" (i.e., fomenting anti-occult
 hysteria), and while one might concede that people who don't like
 occultists also have free speech, one cannot help noticing that
 Fenholt showed bad taste in speaking in Salem to observe the
 three-hundredth anniversary of the infamous witch trials, lending
 them some apparent legitimacy despite the fact that the accused
 were innocent of the "crimes" for which the good but hysterical
 people of Salem executed them.  Moreover, freedom of speech does
 not include the right to misrepresent oneself.  Fenholt, who often
 claims in his pitches for Jesus to have been a former lead singer
 for the "satanic" rock group Black Sabbath, was the subject of an
 MTV News item in May of 1991.  Fenholt's claims had forced Tony
 Iommi, the group's guitarist, to give a press conference and state
 that Fenholt had only auditioned for the group.  A trip to the
 record store to peruse the Black Sabbath albums will reveal that
 Fenholt, who sings acceptably but is no match for either Ozzy
 Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio, never recorded with Black Sabbath,
 casting even further doubt on his claims.

 And Jeff Fenholt is not the first neo-inquisitionist to give
 legitimacy to the Salem witch hunt.  In Mike Warnke's humorous,
 hokey, and highly dubious 1972 book _The Satan Seller_, there is
 a high ranking female witch (or satanist; Warnke makes no
 distinction) named Bridget Bishop, who has the same name as the
 first of the Salem women to be hung for the crime of "witchcraft"
 in the 1690's hysteria.  This is most interesting, as Warnke
 claims that he did not always use the real names of the people
 mentioned in the book.

 Those who have been following the growth of the myth of "satanic
 ritual abuse" will be pleased to read that the beginning of the
 end of this lunacy may be in sight.  Earlier this year in
 Pittsburgh a sixteen-year old girl who had accused her parents and
 other adults of abusing her in this manner decided not to testify
 against her parents, resulting in the dismissal of all charges.
 Prior to this decision her credibility as a witness had severely
 deteriorated anyway when it was discovered that she could not
 describe the interiors of the houses where she claimed the abuse
 took place, or that she could not recognize or identify some of
 the people she had accused, and that her story had over fifty
 parallels with _The Diaries of Laura Palmer_ (a book based on the
 "Twin Peaks" television series, which an adult had recommended to
 her when she began making her accusations).  Also, a mid-July
 broadcast of the "Sally Jessy Raphael Show" dealt with the topic
 of "false memory syndrome".  It seems that many of the
 "therapists" who treat these "victims", often turn out to be
 lacking in any qualifications or credentials and are actually
 brainwashing their patients into believing they've been
 victimized.  As Ms. Raphael is one of the many so-called "tabloid
 TV" hosts who have helped spread the "ritual abuse" nonsense in
 the first place, we are glad to see her take a role in undoing the
 damage which she and others have done to the occult community's
 reputation and religious freedoms.

 -- from the _Whiskey Rebellion Camp Newsletter_, Issue 9,
	 Autumn Equinox 1992.