Despite fears of American indulgence in satanist...

Despite fears of American indulgence in satanist rituals, a prominent researcher of American religious movements says “there is no real evidence of growth in satanic activities over the last 20 years.”

In fact, aside from two groups in San Francisco and one in New Haven, Conn., Gordon Melton, author of the Encyclopedia of American Religions, said, “it is hard to find real-life satanic groups.”

Melton is a United Methodist minister who works full-time in research through his Santa Barbara-based Institute for the Study of American Religion. He described his current findings at a meeting of the Religion Newswriters Assn. last weekend in Las Vegas.

Melton charged that “misinformation” about satanic activities has been “floating around police departments.” But, he said, satanic cults are rarely found behind reports of church break-ins, graveyard desecrations and animal mutilations.

When a fascination with satanic symbols is discovered it tends to be from “ephemeral teen groups or drug cults.” Melton said he has traced several stories of ritual child abuse back to the influence of one book. He dismissed satanic imagery in rock lyrics as devices intended to shock parents.

“What has happened since the mid-1980s,” Melton said, “is that people have been mobilized to share satanic fears.”

Any manifestation of satanism is short-lived because it “is not a true religion, but a parody of religion, based on a reaction to Christianity,” he said. To that extent, he added, “Christian literature is a carrier of satanism.”

PEOPLE

The Rev. Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, preached his gospel of self-esteem at an auxiliary meeting of Southern Baptists on Monday in Las Vegas. He has always been a Reformed Church in America minister but he credited a Southern Baptist with influencing his notion of an ideal pastorate. Schuller said he wrote a term paper in the seminary about George W. Truett, who was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas from 1897 to 1944. Since then, Schuller said he looked for “a church where I could spend my whole life.” He began his present congregation from scratch at a drive-in movie theater in 1955.

EVENT

A “Gospel Freedom Fest” today will feature six choirs and speakers marking the 13th anniversary of the Soweto uprising in South Africa. It is part of a campaign to pressure South Africa to end its policy of apartheid, said spokeswoman Norma Foster. Among speakers will be the Rev. Pierre van den Heever, a representative of the South African Council of Churches. “The churches in South Africa are feeling threatened” and are seeking support in the United States against apartheid, Foster said. South African singer Letta Mbulu will join the musical program. The event will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the First A.M.E. Church, 2270 S. Harvard Blvd. in Los Angeles.