I’ve managed to completely avoid the Amanda Knox trial. I just generally steer clear of show trials as much as I possibly can, a habit dating back to OJ. But via some discussion at the Wild Hunt, I came across a column from Tom Chivers at the Telegraph: Amanda Knox acquitted: the Devil was in the details.

According to Chivers, the prosecuting lawyer, Giuliano Mignini, is a bit of a loop, with a thing for finding conspiracies and satanic cults that don’t actually exist. Apparently he had it out Knox becuase she was ‘”a diabolical, satanic, demonic she-devil” who “likes alcohol, drugs and hot, wild sex”. ‘

What’s interesting is that Chivers then goes on to ty this case to the “Satanic Panic”. This may be old hat to you, but since I’ve avoided the story it’s news to me:

It’s all very reminiscent of another Satanic panic which flared up a couple of decades or so ago in the US and Britain. “Satanic ritual abuse” became something of a buzzword after the 1980 publication of a book, Michelle Remembers, apparently detailing the childhood memories of the eponymous Michelle, uncovered using hypnotherapy, in which she claimed to have been abused by her mother and others in part of a Satanic cult in Victoria, Canada. Shortly after, a parents’ group in California decided that their children’s school was being run by Satanists, after a schizophrenic woman made claims about practices at the school, and the children – under lengthy questioning after initial denials – started making up tales of abuse. Suddenly, hundreds of similar cases were cropping up, on both sides of the Atlantic, frequently based on similarly hypnosis- or psychotherapy-derived memories.

At its height, there were claims that thousands of people had been killed by a global conspiracy-cult. But it all transpired to be imaginary: no evidence of actual Satanic murders or torture was ever uncovered, and the techniques used to glean the “memories” have since been thoroughly discredited. By 1995 the panic had by-and-large died down: Gary Clapton, a University of Edinburgh social-work academic, writes that the furore drew attention away from real child abuse issues, by pushing imaginary Satanic abuse to the top of the seriousness pile, relegating very real physical and sexual abuse down the order. The staff of the California school, incidentally, were all acquitted after a seven-year court case, then the most expensive in US legal history.

Nice work from Mr. Chivers in spotting that similarity. I’m sorry that religious mania seems to be the only thing we Americans can seem to export these days.

The Wild Hunt blog has been covering the New Apostolic Reformation as well as most of the news commentators. With good reason; the NAR have a special message on Facebook for Pagans, “We release perfect Blood-covered love into the core of your being!”

*shudder*

One of the NAR efforts that the Pagan community has been tracking is called “DC40,” the goal of which is to create “eternal change in our nation’s capitol so our elected officials can govern from a new position of uncompromising light and understanding as we change the spiritual atmosphere over Washington DC forever.”

How will this work? One of the Wild Hunt contributors describes it:

DC40 plans to have teams in the capital cities of all 50 states and Washington DC linking state capitals to the nation’s capital to help harness the intents and wills of thousands of Christians for this working. [...]

The 51 day events start in Hawaii on October 3rd and moves to each state in reverse order of its entry into the union and continues until November 22. Christians in the state for the day are to “take point” in praying for the District of Christ, the repudiation of Columbia and other non-Christian deities and religions, and the election of Christian God-fearing candidates.

That last bit is one of the symbolic goals of the movement, to remove the “pagan goddess” Columbia from Washington D.C. and replace her with Christ.

Honestly, I don’t know what to think. Every time I think I’ve got the NAR figured out, they turn the weirdness up another notch.