Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 54
It is important to remember that those whose lives straddle the worlds of satanic fashion,
heavy metal music, and predatory violence listen to a collection of such records. The
messages are driven home by repeated exposure, and merge with each other. The
screaming sounds, relentless beat, and appeal to excitement do not encourage discernment.
When combined with a need to exert power for power, per se, and with a more direct and
local authorization for violence, this music contributes to the eventual outcome. It may not
be the cause, but it is a factor in the cause even if that factor is limited to its being the
anthem of satanically inspired anarchy.
The attraction of violence and its visceral pleasures is not solely a contemporary issue. Saint
Augustine‟s Confessions includes a vivid account of the power exerted by the gory
spectacles in the local circus. The cruel killings provoked among the spectators a lust for
more killings, even among those previously opposed. “We feel we are masters over life and
death when we hold the fate of others in our hands,” wrote Ernest Becker in Escape From
Evil, dealing with the same period. He pointed out that “the highest form of pure excitement
is to watch another‟s death while you remain invulnerable.”45 But this sense of power does
not need to be the product of its personal exercise. Being a part of a group or community
can provide the same sense via identification with acceptable sadistic agents. The Roman
spectacles of orchestrated mass murders allowed the individual the same sense of power he
would normally experience in war. In his Confessions, St. Augustine recalls the experience
of his young student, Alypius, who had gone to Rome to study law. Literally dragged along
by his friends to view the gladiatorial shows, Alypius intended to demonstrate that, as a
good Christian, he was immune to such influences. But such was not his experience.
When they arrived at the arena, the place was seething with the lust for
cruelty ...and Alypius shut his eyes tightly, determined to have nothing to do
with these atrocities. If only he had closed his cars as well! For an incident in
the fight drew a great roar from the crowd, and this thrilled him so deeply
that he could not contain his curiosity ...So he opened his eyes ...When he
saw the blood, it was as though he had drunk a deep draught of savage
passion. Instead of turning away, he fixed his eyes upon the scene and drank
in all its frenzy, unaware of what he was doing. He reveled in the wickedness
of the fighting, and was drunk with the fascination of bloodshed. He was no
longer the man who had come to the arena, but simply one of the crowd
which he had joined, a fit companion for the friends who had brought him ...
and when he left the arena, he carried away with him a diseased mind which
would leave him no peace until he came back again, no longer simply
together with friends who had first dragged him there, but at their head ...46
As Becker observes, “for man, maximum excitement is the confrontation of death and the
skillful defiance of it by watching others fed to it as he survives transfixed with rapture.”47
While this is certainly not a universal response, it is common enough to have implications in
regard to heavy metal music and satanic doctrine.
Are these lessons suddenly inapplicable? Are our youth immune to the thrills so many
sources carefully describe? Or are we justified in our concerns that this form of predatory
pleasure is being encouraged? The report would have us believe we are not. The report
emphatically states that, “there is no compelling evidence that heavy metal music compels
teens to vandalize.”48 This flies in the face of heavy metal being a presence in every such
incident we have examined. The report does acknowledge that heavy metal bands use a
combination of acts, costumes, and lyrics which reflect ideas about “Satan, sex and drugs” -
then, as we have already noted, adds its vacuous observation that “the symbols seem
intended more to shock dm to convert.”49,50 To shock whom? Do the reports‟ authors really
believe that heavy metal music has no raison d’etre other than to scandalize Mom and Dad?

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 55
Teenage “Mischief”
In their chapter on “Satanic Vandalism,” under “Desecration of Religious Property,” the
authors of the report try to make light of the malicious vandalism of churches, synagogues
and cemeteries by minimizing -using terms such as “occasionally” and “fewer than 100” -
and trivializing the issue. Statements such as: “Law enforcement agencies have no evidence
that any of these occurrences are coordinated in any way,” and “It seems odd that a
clandestine murderous Devil-worshipping cult that has maintained its secrecy for years
would go about advertising its existence in such a public fashion,” employ the conspiracy
red herring in an effort to divert attention from the real issue, which is the malicious
desecration of religious sites using satanic symbols.51 “It‟s mischief,” Gerald Larue told an
Illinois reporter. “They kind of want to shock the older generation by writing 666 on
tombstones.”52
The report somewhat cryptically adds, “It is interesting to note that all of the reports
obtained by CSER are desecrations of Christian sites which, of course, are more numerous
than any other type of religious setting in this country.”53 What does this state4rnent imply?
That the vandals wished to wreck cemeteries -any cemeteries -but because they could
only find Christian ones they are being unjustly labeled satanic? Surely a desecration that
includes satanic graffiti can be recognized as more specifically focused than one that merely
involves the breaking or overturning of headstones. Or do the authors mean to suggest that
because Christian sites are so numerous, the vandals couldn‟t find the sites they really
wanted to desecrate? What else are Satanists going to attack, if not Christian sites -or
Jewish ones, if the Satanists involved are of the growing neo-Nazi contingent? (When Jewish
cemeteries were vandalized in Europe several months ago, the French authorities saw fit to
question members of a satanic cult. And an ominous fusion of Satanists with Nazi Skinheads
is a growing trend in this country.) Assuming that the authors of the report would agree
that desecration of Jewish sacred sites by neo-Nazis is a vicious hate crime, why is such
action suddenly downgraded to “mischief” when committed by Satanists against Christians?
A related issue is grave robbing. Again, CSER‟s assertions are not backed up by facts:
“Grave robbing allegations are common, although most are not corroborated by
independent police investigation.”54 This is patently false. Consider, for example, the
following account of a grave-robbing incident reported in the February 1987 issue of Police:
Special Investigations Bureau Prison Gang Unit, Los Angeles County Sheriff‟s
Department, deputies were thrust into occult investigation after two Los
Angeles mausoleums were broken into and 10 bodies were cut up and
desecrated ...Deputies investigating the mausoleum desecration discovered
the bodies had been lifted out of their coffins, bones and hands had been
removed, and several heads had been placed outside the mausoleum.
The vandals, who had not been apprehended at the time the article was written, had
removed a crucifix and altar candles and left occult graffiti at the scene. They were first
believed to be members of Los Angeles “stoner” gangs, but gang informants told police to
look instead for “these weird people who hang around the graveyard, play records
backwards, and do what the devil tells them to do.”55 This is only one of many cases in
which this repulsive crime has been accompanied by satanic “calling cards.” The CSER
reports authors don‟t seem to care about the anguish suffered by the families of those
whose graves are robbed or desecrated and the parishioners whose churches are
vandalized. Their attitude appears to be that these people should realize that it is all done in
fun by high-spirited kids protesting their parents‟ “hypocrisy.”
The report devotes four short paragraphs to the issue of animal mutilation and sacrifice.
After reluctantly conceding that there are “some documented cases of willful mutilation,”
the authors portentously caution their readers that “whenever animal bodies are found...