"Satanic Panic"

[fossum at austin.ibm.com]

While I believe that it's possible for people to worship the "dark side" of
Christianity, I think that there really aren't many who do so.  Unfortunately,
many can gain power and prestige by whipping up intolerance through fear of
the unknown, so that pagans (like myself) get accused of associations with 
deities that aren't in any pantheon that I'm interested in.

I ordered a book recently (through my connections with the Libertarian Party)
that should be required reading for any mundane law authority who is faced with
fears of Satanism in his/her community.

Its title is "Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend", and I 
believe it to be the best exploration extant regarding the urban legend of
widespread occult practices.  Its author is Jeffrey S. Victor, who is a 
professor of Sociology at SUNY.  It was published in 1993.  Its ISBN number
is 0-8126-9192-X (paperback) or 0-8126-9191-1 (cloth bound).

If anyone who has dealings with this painful area of SCA life would be
interested in reading this book, I would happily arrange to get one into his
or her hands.  Any interested parties should let me know through private 
email, or leave a message on my home phone machine at (512)832-8387.

Thorbiorn Nordstrom, mka Gordon Fossum
contributing just a little to the furtherance of the Dream
_______________________________________________________________________________
                                          ____________
     Gordon C. Fossum, Staff Programmer   \__________/   All opinions found in
          3D Graphics Software Developer   \________/   this note come from me
          Power Personal Systems Division   \______/   personally, and are not
          internet:  fossum at austin.ibm.com   \____/   necessarily the opinions
    (512) 838-1629 (Internal Tie Line: 678)   \__/   of anyone else in IBM nor
 International Business Machines Corporation   \/   the IBM corporation itself
_______________________________________________________________________________