[Sca-cooks] SCA media relations

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

During the "Satanic Panic" of the mid-1980s, the SCA was often 
branded as a group/organization that would tempt children/teenagers 
into a life of eeeeeevil. Since there was a group calling itself "The 
Satanic Church of America" there was some (intentional?) confusion 
between us and them.

Additionally an unsolved death in San Francisco was the topic of an 
episode of one of those TV shows - i don't recall which, although i 
did watch it - something like "Unsolved Mysteries".

A teenage boy had died mysteriously - it was unclear if his death was 
accidental, murder, or suicide. Like many teenage boys, he played 
D&D, drew pictures of dragons and monsters in his note book, hung out 
with the SCA, and was involved with a specific branch of neoPaganism.

As far as i can tell, before his death his parents were not terribly 
religious, but after his death his father became a Fundie and accused 
every single group and activity the kid did with causing his death 
(probably including rock and roll - at that time "heavy metal" was 
frequently branded as "Satanic".

Let me tell you, slo-mo action shots of helmeted fighters can look 
very dark and menacing, especially when shot with trick lenses at 
funny angles.

Fortunately most of us came out of the 80s OK. Labeling all RPG's and 
the SCA (our SCA) as Satanic and leading directly to Hell is no 
longer a feature in the major news outlets, and various kinds of 
"pop" music are not longer blamed for causing depressed teenagers to 
kill themselves (nope, instead, they're blamed for kids getting their 
parents' weapons and taking them to school...)

So, while it looks to me like the SCA has come out of the "darkness" 
for the most part, there's no guarantee we will "stay in the 
light"... We can still benefit from good PR.

I can't add anything to the debate on how to handle photogs and 
reporters, however.

Anahita