RELIGIOUS BOOK FRAUDS

Religion is a deeply personal and subjective topic. Any author who is deeply committed to one religion finds it profoundly difficult to write accurately about another religion. Even writing about another denomination or movement within her/his own religion is fraught with problems.

The vast bulk of such inter-religious books are exposes written by Evangelical or Fundamentalist(conservative) Christian authors about what they consider dangerous sects and cults: Christian Science, Islam, Mormons, New Age, Pagans, Satanists, Wiccans (Witches) etc. The quantity of such books about other religions is so huge, that authors are tempted to quote each other's writings as sources, rather than search out original material. As a result, the contents of many of these books becomes increasingly divorced from reality with time.

Many readers assume that because the authors are devout Christians, that they will have a very high standard of personal ethics, and will take great pains to be accurate in their writing. This is not necessarily true.

Most followers of all religions are reasonably decent folk. Hindus love their spouses and children, just as do Christians. If you find a book that demonizes all believers in a particular religion, by stating that they abuse children, engage in criminal acts, are unethical, etc, then you can safely assume that the book is filled with misinformation and can be ignored. You might consider writing a letter of complaint to the author, care of Author Relations Dept. of the publisher, with a copy to the publisher themselves. We have done this dozens of times. We have never received a response, or even an acknowledgment that the author or publisher received our letter. But at least they become aware of our opinions.

Some Evangelicals have become concerned about the amount of fraud, misuse of money and misinformation within their movement, and are conducting investigations of authors and ministries. According to Hertenstein & Trott of Cornerstone Magazine, "Crying Wind, Alberto Rivera, John Todd, Micheal Esses, Jowey LaVey, Lauren Stratford, Mike Warnke, Bob Larson and dozens of others have come under temporary Church scrutiny for their ministerial and moral lapses". Other groups, including Neo-Pagan agencies who are often victimized, are also searching for frauds. Chief among the investigators are:

• Cornerstone Magazine+, 939 W. Wilson, Chicago IL 60640, USA
• CultWatch Response Inc*., PO Box 1842, Colorado Springs, CO 80901-1842
• Personal Freedom Outreach+, PO Box 26062, St. Louis, Missouri 63136, USA
• Wiccan Information Network*, PO Box 2422, Main PO, Vancouver BC V6B 3W7, Canada

RECENTLY EXPOSED BOOK FRAUDS

• Michelle Smith & Dr. Lawrence Pazder Michelle Remembers (1980). This is the first and probably the most important of the Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) books. It allegedly documents horrendous abuse suffered by Michelle at the hands of a Satanic cult. This single book gave a kick start to the entire SRA movement in the early 1980's. The Wiccan Information Network and other groups have found that much of the book content was derived from Dr. Pazder's personal studies of African native rituals, rather than from Michelle's memories. When the accuracy of his book was questioned during a seminar, Dr. Pazder stated that he and Michelle had never claimed that the events in the book actually happened! He is now promoting "Sadistic Ritual Abuse" as the new definition of SRA. He believes that the Satanic conspiracy does not exist. He believes that recovered memories of SRA during childhood are often based on real memories of incest to which a false overlay of Satanic ritual has been added.

  See the WIN INTELLIGENCE REPORT, SAMHAIN 1993 published by the Wiccan Information Network.

• Lauren Stratford (aka Willson) Satan's Underground (1988). This book describes Lauren's experiences as a victim of a Satanic group. She was repeatedly raped, and gave birth to babies which were ritually sacrificed. Investigators were able to locate Lauren's mother (who had allegedly died), her allegedly non-existent sister, her ex-husband, cousins and teachers. Their stories revealed that the book was a fraud. Cornerstone Magazine published an expose in their Dec/Jan 1989/90 issue. Harvest House, who published Lauren's book withdrew the book. They later released the rights to the book to another publisher.
• Mike Warnke The Satan Seller. This book describes how Mike joined a Satanic group during college, rose quickly to a position of great power, and became converted to Christianity. Mike Hertenstein and Jon Trott of Cornerstone Magazine conducted a detailed investigation of Warnke, and published their findings in their June/July 1992 issue. They show that Warnke's only contact with Satanism was a library literature search. Their book Selling Satan outlines their investigation in detail.
• Dr. Rebecca Brown He Came to Set the Captives Free. This book relates the rise to power of Elaine within an international Satanic organization. The book contains many strange references:
  • she uses terms like covens, Warlocks, and Witches", to describe Satanists and their groups. These are not Satanic terms.
  • she talks about countless local Satanic groups of up to 1000 members each. This conflicts with the general consensus that there are only a few thousand Satanists in North America (teenage dabblers excluded).
  • she describes the most important Satanic days as Christmas, Easter, Halloween and Thanksgiving. In fact, they are Walpurgis Nacht, Halloween and the Satanist's own birthday.
  • She describes a ritual killing in which a crown was placed on the victim's head and its long thorns were driven through his skull. One wonders how thorns could penetrate bone - particularly long thorns which would tend to bend easily.

  Richard Fisher, Paul Blizard and Kurt Goedelman of Personal Freedom Outreach exposed Dr. Brown in their Quarterly Journal and have since published their fascinating articles in booklet form: Drugs, Demons and Delusions.

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