Followers of minor religions (usually occult beliefs) such as Wicca, Santeria, Vodun (more commonly known as Voodoo) are often equated with Satanism.
Serial muderers occasionally claim the order of the Devil as their motive for the killings. The Son of Sam is perhaps the most famous example. They use the "The Devil made me do it" line in order to justify their actions, and this is also often equated with Satanism.
Abusive paedophiles (predators) sometimes use Satanic imagery. The purpose for this is to set up a backdrop in which the child will become exceedingly obedient. They are not connected in any way with true Satanism.
Startlingly enough (sarcasm), a California-Davis study in 1994 showed that most cases of suspected SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse) were either clearly false or at least highly suspect. The study came to the conclusion that nearly all reported cases of SRA never happened, and offered an explanation for the prevalence of such cases: therapeutic agencies, police officers, parents or guardians, and perhaps other people whom the child trusts actually can create false memories of such experiences, or coerce the child into making the claims. This can be done by heavily modifying a memory that does exist, and distorting it from its original context to a "Satanic" one. Or, the memory simply is false and the event never occured.
Some authors incorporate all the above false definitions of Satanism into one quasi-definition. So be on the lookout for more than one propaganda tactic at once.
In the 1970s up to the 1990s, a widespread terror of Satanism swept the United States. Satanists were accused of paedophilia, rape, murder, kidnapping, and even cannibalism in which the murdered bodies of babies and young children were used as the main course.
From the beginning of the Satanic Panic to its end, it can be estimated that a total of 750 to 900 thousand cases of Satanic (or Sadistic) ritual abuse (later dubbed SRA) were reported in the United States alone. Police agencies (including the FBI) even established "Ritual Abuse Experts", usually an FBI agent trained in behavioral science. These so-called "experts" travelled to various cities where they often gave lectures on how to protect oneself from occult crime. Early on in the 1980s, one of these behavioral experts named Kenneth V. Lanning took special interest in suspected SRA cases and from Quantico, VA., he monitored hundreds, possibly thousands, of cases. He traced back the routes of the cases and examined so-called evidence. Eventually, he was one of the first to come to the conclusion that "Satanic Ritual Abuse" is not real and never was. He found a significant lack of evidence to support claims of abuse. Lanning also made the conclusion that if, as many people had claimed, Satanists truly did make up a world-wide conspiracy meant to topple the current world order (it sounds like a bad James Bond movie now), there was and still is no way that such a conspiracy could be kept under the wraps for 15 years. His 1992 report entitled "Investigator's Guide to Allegations of 'Ritual' Child Abuse" is available on the internet (a href="http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_rep03.htm").
Anti-Satanism hate literature can be characterized by a certain set of fixed ideas.
One, it claims or it can be inferred that Satanic Ritual Abuse is a real threat to society and is a massive cover-up. It is believed Satanists and other secret societies (such as Wicca, Thelema, and Qabala among others) make up a wide-scale conspiracy responsible for crime, violence, mind control, and political upheaval.
Two, it claims that said SRA is headed by local community leaders. These could be anyone in a position of power. In other words, your president could be a Satanist in disguise and he wants to destroy the current government and replace it with a New World Order (when we all die because of George Bush Jr, it's not our fault).
Three, it claims that abuse, Satanism, and these community leaders all tie together in an underground movement with a central, secret organization controlling it all.
Fourthly, it claims that the different branches of Satanism are a smokescreen. In other words, it says we all work together to overthrow you.
Finally, in certain circumstances, Satanism isn't even applied to Satanism. Other minority religious groups are perceived as being Satanic.
Conservative Christians are responsible for a great deal of the misinformation and hatered against Satanists and the occult in general, and even of other non-occult religions. There have been instances in which Baptist ministers have claimed that God does not listen to prayers of the Jews. Another Baptist minister called for the mass-murder of all Wiccans in the United States--death by napalm. One Evangelical minister claimed that there are two groups of people in the world: those who are saved (Christians), and those who worship the Devil (everyone else). Yet another Evangelical minister claimed that all New Age beliefs were nothing but vieled attempts by the Devil to promote immorality, destroy Christianity, and create unethical values. Once again, an Evangelist claimed that only Christians believe in sin, and all other religions promote sin and tempt others. A televangelist said on national television that the federal government should round up all Wiccans and murder them. I once saw a tv program claiming Hinduism is devil-worship. With regard to the current sex-scandal that is (once again) rocking the Catholic world, several commentators (Bill Donahue among others) have claimed that pedophilia is a consequence of toleration. Similar statements are made every day.
It's important to remember that such claims as the above are not made by the mainstream branches of Christianity. Most Christians are much more liberal nowadays and are too intelligent to make such claims.
The statements made above are derived from the literal interpretation of the Bible. They are made by conservative Christians who believe that the Bible is entirely correct in what it says and means precisely that. For example:
Conservative Christians would take this passage to mean that the Word comes directly from God, is thus infallible, and is the model to live your life by--no exceptions.
These Christians who believe that the Bible is inerrant pay attention to the claims made by the Bible that all other religions are specifically from the Devil and are thus evil.
There is one exception to the conservative Christian views that all other people who are not Christians are damned. It is an Evangelical church (a conservative denomination) called The Promise Keepers. It encourages males (I noted they didn't mention women) of all races and religions to openly discuss their beliefs and to join their rallies that promote religious tolerance.
The majority of Christians today, the mainstream ones, believe that all religions, including the occult, are different paths that in the end reach God in some form. They believe that the actions, beliefs, and rituals of all religions are valid paths to discovering one's own God.
These liberal Christians disregard parts of the Bible as outdated or simply ridiculous. Extreme punishments for minor failures, intolerance of other beliefs in a multi-faith world, even the concept of eternal Hell are either modified or outright ignored. Many mainstream Christians believe that Hell is a stepping stone to Heaven. They believe that those who die without being saved are sent to Hell until they are redeemed.
Groups such as these look at all religions in a positive light, making it easier for them to be tolerant. In this way, these liberal organizations tend to be in the mainstream.
Many times Christian and other religious groups come under unjust fire. Conservative Christians believe that it is not right to teach contraceptives in sex-ed classes at school. They may believe that a program of abstinence is a better solution. Whether or not a Satanist such as myself agrees with this solution (for the record, I do not), these Christians have a legal and moral right to speak their views on such things. Their religion motivates them to protest outside abortion clinics and attempt to restrict political benefits to married couples, among other things. Actions such as these are what make discussion. They make argument. In other words, let them have their say whether you agree with it or not (again, for the record, I have the opposite position to everything above--I believe contraceptives should be taught in school, I am pro-choice, and I believe it is discriminatory to restrict benefits only to married or heterosexual couples). After all, the Constitution of the United States gaurantees us the right to speak our views; Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Wiccans are also included in that group.
In some cases, a clergyman may be regarded differently than a regular man. Studies show that 40% of men commit adultery--nothing any of you women out there couldn't have told us, unfortunately. But in the recent case of Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had a child out of wedlock, a congressional committee is assigned to look into it! The same goes for other people in positions of leadership (read: President William Jefferson Clinton). No one out there can say that's fair treatment.
There is still a long way to go before occult groups are considered on equal level with mainstream religions such as Christianity, and some Christians today still try to hold down occult beliefs and other religions as being lower than it. But in any case, what's fair is fair and in American society (worse so in places like the Middle East), religions that are mainstream here are unjustly restricted, or a double standard is set.
I criticize Christianity a great deal, but I, and other Satanists, recognize that Christianity is a religion and it's unwarranted and unjust to discriminate against it.