10AR15-40

Apologia Report 15:40 (1,045)

November 17, 2010

Subject: Satanism in America: An Update

In this issue:

AMERICAN RELIGION - strong criticism of Rodney Stark and Baylor University's survey findings

SATANISM - update continues to dismiss concerns as false alarms

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM - 3rd ed. of E.G. White's definitive biography coincides with Adventist response to internal controversies

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AMERICAN RELIGION

What Americans Believe, by Rodney Stark [1] -- reviewer Barry Kosmin is obviously upset by Stark's approach. "This strange volume is built around 23 short essays each on a theme seemingly chosen in order to refute supposed myths and misperceptions held by 'avid listeners of National Public radio' that were created by 'experts based in the elite, very liberal divinity schools' and various misguided sociologists. ... The general method is to set up a straw man based on an idea drawn from a long list of experts who got it wrong and then to knock the thesis down with supposed facts and figures drawn from the font of Baylor wisdom or survey findings.

"[W]e are assured that the mass of ordinary Americans and Rodney Stark have a shared conception of faith and religion.

"[T]he Baylor surveys report counter-intuitive results that contradict most other surveys....

"To mimic the style of the book - they look as though they were recruited at a faculty club on a liberal college campus in Scandinavia." Sociology of Religion, 71:2 - 2010, pp244-245.

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SATANISM

Earlier this year, Social Compass Journal (56:4 - 2009) arrived a bit behind schedule with the theme: "Satanism and Satanism Scares in the Modern World." Most of its contents focus on Europe.

With the introduction (pp499-502), Titus Hjelm recounts a tongue-in-cheek, yet intentionally provocative declaration by J. Gordon Melton: "Satanism is the largest religion in the world ... that does not exist." Hjelm goes on to explain that "outside the sphere of actual practitioners, there exists a publicly shared myth of Satanism that is very different from what existing satanic organizations or individual Satanists profess. The myth paints a picture of crime, ritual abuse and human sacrifice. This more or less consistent cultural consensus about the criminal nature of Satanism has its beginnings especially in the American Satanism scares of the late 1980s and early 1990s, but has since spread to Europe and has even had an impact on the Islamic world.

"Satanism is deviant by definition; thus the image of Satanism in [a] particular society is also a mirror of the society itself. ...

"[A]lthough a particular social context inevitably influences the process of public construction of Satanism and the process of identifying as a Satanist, there are remarkable similarities in the

dynamics of these processes across different cultures."

Pages 552-563 feature "Satanism in America: An Update" by James T. Richardson, Jenny Reichert, and Valerie Lykes. The abstract reads: "The Satanism scare was a significant moral panic in America in the 1980s and early 1990s. Scholars analyzed it from a social constructionist perspective, citing a number of factors and developments whose confluence contributed to this high-visibility moral panic. The authors examine those factors that were deemed of importance in the rise of the Satanism scare, to ascertain why the scare seems to have waned in recent years. Particular attention is given to developments within the justice system, the professions of psychology and psychiatry, and the waning of the Anti-Cult Movement to explain why the panic lost momentum. Other contributing factors are also discussed, including the weakening of Christian Fundamentalism as a force in society and the shift of attention of the mass media and the general public to other topics. Attention also is given to various behaviors among youth that have redefined and contributed to the maintenance of Satanism as a social phenomenon of note."

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SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM

Laura L. Vance has written an uncritical joint review of Prophetess of Health: A Study of Ellen G. White (3rd ed), by Ronald L. Numbers [2], and Charisma and Routinisation in a Millennialist Community, by Richard Bowen Ferret [3]. Vance opens: "Claiming more than twenty million adherents and worldwide systems of educational, medical, and publishing institutions, Seventh-Day Adventists have outpaced Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and other American religious movements in membership growth and institution building. ... In the last four decades, as Adventists increasingly participated in secular graduate education programs and then returned to Adventist schools to teach and pursue research, central tenets of Adventist belief - especially the nature of Ellen White's prophetic writings - were subjected to scholarly attention, sometimes with devastating results. Prophetess of Health helped to spark, and Charisma and Routinisation in a Millennialist Community attempts to respond to these controversies.

"First published in 1976, Prophetess of Health examined the life of Ellen G. White employing methods of the secular historian, and in doing so both ignited debate within Adventism regarding the divine origin of Ellen White's prophecies, and introduced White to non-Adventists. Still the definitive biography of White, Numbers' work explicates her life and health message, placing her prophecies on health in the context of the nineteenth-century health reform movement, and specially noting the influence of such reformers as James C. Jackson, Sylvester Graham, Horace Mann, and L.B. Coles on White's writings. ...

"Especially useful features of the third edition of Prophetess of Health include two new appendices: one including transcripts from the trial of Israel Dammon in 1845, in which witnesses describe early Adventists (including Ellen and James White) engaging in ecstatic worship practices that they would later renounce; and another of transcripts from the 1919 Bible Conference, at which Adventist leaders discussed concern pertaining to White's prophetic gift. ...

"Most controversial for Seventh-day Adventists is Numbers' comparison of passages written by White with those written by other health reformers. The similarities are undeniable and have inspired a deluge of comparisons between White's and other authors' writings that continues today. ...

"Adventists, particularly scholars and theologians, have since worked to reconcile their understanding of their prophet with her apparent reliance upon other authors. Charisma and Routinisation in a Millennialist Community constitutes a contribution to this attempt to reconcile history, belief, identiy, and scholarship." Nova Religio, 14:1 - 2010, pp133-135.

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - What Americans Believe, by Rodney Stark (Baylor Univ Prs, 2008, paperback, 200 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/23epbap>

2 - Prophetess of Health: A Study of Ellen G. White (3rd ed), by Ronald L. Numbers (Eerdmans, 3rd ed., 2008, paperback, 417 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/2c7t3xo>

3 - Charisma and Routinisation in a Millennialist Community, by Richard Bowen Ferret (Edwin Mellen Prs, 2008, hardcover, 356 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/25qwbt4>

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