Filename: TRUTH-RA.TXT

Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions
presents...

THE TRUTH ABOUT RITUALIZED CHILD ABUSE

These days the newspapers and the television are both full of reports of 
a heinous new crime wave.  Self-proclaimed "adult survivors" and parents 
of alleged child victims tell stories of sexual abuse, physical torture, 
degradation, and of being forced to participate in the torture and 
slaying of animals and even human beings.

The reports almost unanimously blame a vast, coordinated, world-wide 
conspiracy of Satanists and other occultists.  Allegedly, this conspiracy 
has infiltrated day-care centers, schools, and churches across the nation 
and has as a goal the moral and spiritual destruction of this entire 
generation.

A vast network of groups, such as Believe the Children, Child Lures, Cult 
Crime Impact Network, and the self-proclaimed US Citizens' Commission on 
Crime and Narcotics, have spent tens of thousands of dollars over the 
past five years to promote these stories.  But there are a few facts 
about their accusations that these "experts" aren't telling you.  We at 
the Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions thought that you really 
ought to know.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Not one of these cases has ever produced so much as one tiny piece of 
evidence that any of the alleged rituals ever took place.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

In case after case, children have described ritual rooms where they were 
molested, described robes worn and implements used by their molesters, 
and identified fields where bodies of animals and humans were buried.  
But in every single case: searches of the buildings revealed no such 
rooms; searches of the homes of the accused discovered no such robes or 
implements; fields where bodies were allegedly buried have turned out not 
to have been disturbed in this century and no human or animal remains 
have been found.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

There are exactly two kinds of accusers in cases of alleged "ritualized 
abuse."  The most common type are child witnesses, and in every case 
which has made the news so far, the children made these accusations only 
after they had all been questioned repeatedly, and insistently, by one 
person or small group. A former prosecutor resigned from the infamous 
McMartin case, complaining that the person who lead the questioning of 
the children "could make a baby confess to being molested."

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The other witnesses on whose testimony the entire ritualized child abuse 
scare depends are women who claim to be "adult survivors of ritual 
abuse."  What do all of these women have in common?

 * They have been diagnosed as either schizophrenics or as
   sufferers of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD).
 * They claim to know full well the identities of  the
   conspirators who arranged for and participated in their
   abuse.
 * They accuse those conspirators of participating in or
   planning such felonies as child pornography, child
   prostitution, or murder.
 * None of these women will name a single suspect.
 * None of these cases has resulted in successful
   prosecution for as much as a single crime.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The nation's top expert on child sexual abuse considers these accusations 
to be entirely false.  Special Agent Ken Lanning, who heads up the FBI's 
center on crimes against children, has investigated over 200 allegations 
of ritualized abuse and has come to the conclusion that every single one 
of them was a false accusation.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The most vaunted piece of evidence that these crimes exist is that so 
many of the "victims" are all telling the same story.  This is no 
surprise at all.  For over five years a well-financed industry has 
provided investigators with lists of leading questions to ask children, 
descriptions of alleged ritual scenes, and in fact all of the details 
that repeat from case to case.  It was in just this fashion that the 
original Inquisition provided similar lists to their "investigators," to 
provide people with accusations to use.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The ritualized child abuse scare diverts attention away from the 
realities of child sexual abuse.  The Center for the Scientific 
Evaluation of Religion reported that even if all of the allegations of 
ritualized abuse were true--and as we've seen, they aren't--American 
children are 20 times more likely to fall into an uncovered swimming pool 
and drown than they are of ever being ritually molested.

Each year there are approximately three or four alleged cases of 
ritualized abuse--and approximately 113,000 documented cases of children 
being sexually abused by relatives and "close family friends."  And the 
more time we as a nation spend searching for scapegoats, the more 
children will be sexually and physically and mentally abused.  We will 
not end this crisis until we are ready to face the real facts about child 
abuse.