SRA fallacy loses again.

[Havoc]

The tragedy of the fallacy of SRA has ruined many an innocent person accused of the most heinous crimes that never happened, perpetrated by "Satanists" that never existed. Nice to see that at least one family has gotten some justice.

Author: Canadian Press Source: The Toronto Star (Canada)

Title: Prosecution was malicious, judge rules
Twelve people falsely accused of ritualistically abusing foster children


Twelve people who were accused of the ritual sex abuse of foster children were the victims of a malicious prosecution, a Court of Queen's Bench judge ruled today.

Richard Klassen and 11 others were accused more than 12 years ago of ritualistically abusing foster kids - forcing them to eat eyeballs, drink blood, participate in orgies and watch newborn babies get skinned and buried.

"The case was labelled by the media as the 'scandal of the century'," said Justice George Baynton in his ruling.

"The real scandal however, is the travesty of justice that was visited upon 12 of those individuals, the plaintiffs in the civil action, by branding them as pedophiles, even though each of them was innocent of the horrendous allegations and criminal offences charged against them."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1072782126511&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

 

[CryptoKnight]

Pardon my ignorance...What's "SRA"?

 

[Havoc]

Satanic Ritual Abuse.

Back in the 80's there was a rather ridiculous conspiracy theory that Stanist Cults were overrunning America, killing 60,000 people a year and sacrificing babies and torturing children. People like Mike Warnke, Bill SChnoebelen, Rebecca Brown, Michelle Padzer, etc all made scads of money with books and public appearances where they related their fabricated stories, the more heinous the better. After the work of some very diligent Christians exposed them as frauds, and after thorough investigations by state authorities and the FBI revealed that the whole SRA concept was a fabrication, the fallacy pretty much collapsed under it's own weight.

Unfortunatly some Christians gave enough Creedence to the story that they used their professional positions in law enforcement and social/psychological work to go on a religious crusade against "the forces of Satan". As a result there were a number of prosecutions whose only evidence was the stories of children who were later found to have been abused... by the therapists intent on making them victoms of fictitious crimes.

The real tragedy of SRA, the modern day "Witch burnings", is the hundreds of innocent people whose lives were ruined by false witness, and the children who were used and manipulated instead of getting the real professional help they needed.

The really frightening thing is that there are still people out there that believe in this stuff, and are willing to wage "spiritual warfare" to combat those they choose to insist are doing it.

 

[CryptoKnight]

Interesting. Someone formerly of my acquaintence was diagnosed with MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder), which was frequently linked with SRA at that time (about 10 - 15 years ago). Although I no longer have contact with this person, I've long though that the SRA, and even MPD to an extent, was just an "excuse" for her being the way she was.

Of course, I don't KNOW what the deal is, so I look for news surrounding MPD occasionally to see if my thoughts prove founded, but just like with the Health Food/Diet industries, no one really knows what is going on yet.

(ooh, was that a jab at the supplement industry? I think so!)

I would, however, caution against the opposit extreme of the original post. There ARE real rituals that are harmful to people. Here in my state we recently (a few years ago) had a death from "rebirthing". I think what it comes down to is that some people will try anything. AND, some people will blow it out of proportion.

 

[USincognito]

I would, however, caution against the opposit extreme of the original post. There ARE real rituals that are harmful to people. Here in my state we recently (a few years ago) had a death from "rebirthing". I think what it comes down to is that some people will try anything. AND, some people will blow it out of proportion.

You're right, there are real rituals that are harmful to people such as the "healing service" that killed an 8 year old autistic boy in Wisconsin. Also, as you mentioned, the "rebirthing" exercises and other New Agey non-sense. Plus there's a whole range of conspiracy kooks who do stupid things like not get their children vaccinated or use homeopathic remedies.

What we do not find evidence of is SRA activities like babies being sacrificed to Satan and other such hysterical non-sense.

Interesting and tragic side note. In what looked like a classic SRA case of a woman being murdered and having her baby cut out of her womb, now appears to be a case of lying about being pregnant leading to a horrific crime.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Southwest/12/29/woman.slain.ap/index.html