U.S. SRA expert Does U-Turn

-REVIEW OF AN ARTICLE FROM THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE FORUM 15 December 1990

This article entitled "SATANISM WORKSHOPS BEDEVILED" was authored by Donald Sills, a Minister and former special investigator for the State of California. He is currently working on a book on religious intolerance.Michael Rokos was one of the leading lights of Cult Awareness Network a high powered influential group which specialised in holding seminars for police and social workers on how to identify and arrest Satanic Abuse. Such seminars have become endemic in the U.S.A. (following the Satanic Abuse Scare which peaked over there in 1990) and tend to mix lawenforcement and social work practice. Sills highlights the conviction in 1982 of Michael Rokos for soliciting perverted sex from a young man and his subsequent resignation from CAN once this had been made public in 1990. In listing the inaccurate and inciting activities of CAN Sills goes on to state: 'Many [law enforcement] professionals who have spent considerable time investigating the issue share concerns about the reliability of the information given at these workshops & conferences. "The major problem with these satanism workshops is that they are spreading a lot of false information" says Dr J Gordon Melton, Director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion. "They are also consuming a lot of public money because a lot of these workshops are now given as continuing education to police and other state employees." 'Dr David Bromley of Virginia Commonwealth University has come to the conclusion that "there are numerous groups running satanism workshops mainly because they are financially viable". One possible solution, to take the money motivation out of this isssue, is for organisations to sponsor seminars where only expenses are paid and the "experts" are given only a plaque and a "thank you" but no fees."'Until this happens however Dr Victor sees only bad things to come. "This problem is going to get worse because there are a lot of people benefiting from the satanism scare" he says "People are getting paid thousands and thousands of dollars for these workshops" "In addition the police and other experts who give these lectures get a great deal of ego boosting from the resulitng media and publicattention" said Brad Hicks [Specialist in Violent Crime from theVirginia Dept of Criminal justice]. 'The fundamental driving force behind these workshops however is an extremist, close-minded attitude about religion. These workshops are taught by people who are motivated by their own sense of religious truth. The bottom line is that police, acting on unreliable information and reacting to public hysteria can actually make their communities more dangerous by fueling unfounded fears.'SO IS OUR SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SECURITY GOING TO REMAIN INACTIVE AGAIN OR WILL SHE TAKE CONTROL OVER THE WHOLESALE PROMOTION IN THE U.K. OF THESE BIASEDWORKSHOPS? Ends:

(c) world copyright holders: The Sub-culture Alternatives Freedom Foundation (S.A.F.F.) Leeds, Yorkshire, U.K.



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