Current Events > Did your family buy into the 80s/90s Satanic Panic?

(+) Yeah! (+)

My mother had a few Nurse co-workers and their families who didn't celebrate Halloween because of it. I had schoolmates who couldn't watch stuff like He-Man or The Smurfs because of magic.

Kind of, but Halloween was ok.

Yes, definitely.

I went to one of those "We don't have a Halloween party, we have a Hallelujah party" churches.

No but my dad bought into the "murder simulator" nonsense for a short time

For a little while, when my aunt had a phase of witchcraft/Satanism, and my mom lost her shit.

My mom couldn't be further from the church now

I had a friend whose mom was like that, took away his MTG cards because she said they were Satanic. She was also an abusive alcoholic with anger and control issues.

Other than a few sensationalist "reports" on local news, I don't remember there being any panic.

My parents aren't christian, so no.

My dad DMed D&D for my friends and I throughout middle school.

Man, all I remember is that god awful Tom Hanks movie Mazes and Monsters. That was born out of that shit.

No but I knew kids whose parents did. No D&D, no to most music and no to most comic books. They couldn't even watch Star Wars because 'the force' was supposedly a euphemism for Satan.

mustachedmystic posted...

Other than a few sensationalist "reports" on local news, I don't remember there being any panic.

Don't forget the McMartin School case where innocents were locked up for years.

My parents became Jehovah's Witnesses in the 80s so yeah. They'd read Awake and Watchtower magazines and it had stuff about how demons will inhabit things like Ouija boards.

One of the things going around was how some kid brought a Smurf doll to the kingdom hall and during prayer it got up and walked out. A dude we'd knock on doors with claimed he saw it happen.

No. My parents weren't religious and never cared about what music or games I was into.

They also let me decorate my room however I wanted too. So I always had punk and metal stuff up on my walls.

I remember I had some friends over near Halloween and we watched Hocus Pocus and when the parents found out they freaked out because it could lead their children to Satan. Nut jobs.

ExtremeLuchador posted...

Don't forget the McMartin School case where innocents were locked up for years.

Never heard of it, so, off to Wikipedia!

Witches, children being flushed down toilets, Chuck Norris? WTF is this?

Uh somewhat but not much.

Mostly anything 'magic' was a no-go.

Like I wasn't allowed to play Runescape after my mom found out you could cast magic, lol

but that only lasted a few years

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Sweet. My parents actually used to make us go to church, but they didnt buy into all that Harry Potter is the Devil stuff. They didnt really care what I watched/played/listened to as long as it didnt influence my behavior.

ExtremeLuchador posted...

Don't forget the McMartin School case where innocents were locked up for years.

Some other daycare center folks got into trouble during that whole hysteria too.

Those cases are also textbook examples of how not to interview kids.

"You were touched here, right?"
Kid says "no"
Interviewer exhales loudly and frowns. Sips coffee then tries again.

"He touched your privates, right?"
Kid says, "uh, yes?"
"GOOD boy! Now tell us all about those satanic rituals..."

yeah, but they mostly half-assed it. just another convenient excuse to use when they wanted to exert control.

Somewhat. It didn't get to the no Halloween extent, but I remember a police officer talking to our church youth group about the prevalence and dangers of Satanism.

Not really, no.

wackyteen posted...

Uh somewhat but not much.

Mostly anything 'magic' was a no-go.

Like I wasn't allowed to play Runescape after my mom found out you could cast magic, lol

but that only lasted a few years

My parents didn't give a shit about me playing games with magic for some reason despite being religious.