What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word "satanism"? Is it the band Rammstein? A group of black-clothed youths gathering at the cemetery at the dawn of light? Or maybe it's a witch, throwing animals into a pot to make a possession potion?
The 1980s Satanic Panic saw Christian fundamentalists push the idea that evil cults were systematically abusing children in rituals and committing widespread murder, and successfully convince the general public through sensational news coverage.
While religion can be a beautiful thing, those Christian groups typically misrepresented the Church's beliefs and practices in order to fabricate a real-world villain behind the conspiracy for the media. And we can still see leftovers from this time.
They're especially evident in a recent Reddit post where the user Dreammare56 asked others, "What's the stupidest thing [you've] ever seen a religious person call 'satanic'?"
From Coca-Cola to a microscope, here are some of the most ridiculous answers.
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The same teacher who taught abstinence only sex-ED class took away my deck of Magic cards because they were satanic.
How am i supposed to keep my virginity without my Magic cards!?
Rocks. I’m a rock hound, and collect rocks, gems, and stones. The link between crystals and spirituality has gotten me called a devil worshipper…for liking rocks. I don’t even use them spiritually, I just like shiny s**t.
Dreammare56 said the thought of making this post was quite a spontaneous one. "I was watching TV and the question came into my head when I saw something about the Satanic Panic," the Redditor told Bored Panda.
It was a time when preachers like Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority, founded in 1979, gained prominence across the country, passing along a literal fire-and-brimstone style of Christianity.
Anti-occult crusaders like Pat Pulling, who believed her son's death by suicide was actually the result of a Dungeons and Dragons curse, campaigned against role-playing games as something dangerous and demonic, backed by occult fearmongering from Chick and his Chick Tracts.
Being left handed...a church I visited wouldn't let me play music bc of it.
"There are none so blind as those who will not see.” –attributed to John Heywood, 1546
I was maybe 8 years old at most. Evangelical church my parents forced us to attend convinced my family that the following were satanic: Disney, dragons, music that wasn’t for God, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, all gaming consoles. Basically anything enjoyable for a kid.
My mom preceded to cut the tapes from our original cassette Disney collection. PlayStation was taken apart since the chip had the number “666” engraved in it. (It did not.) they tried driving over my gameboy with a truck and it didn’t break surprisingly. Then a lady from church flipped it open and she twisted it and bam there went my gameboy. Funny thing is the following week both her kids got gameboys.
To this day I’m still upset about that.
Washing machine. Apparently if you watched the swirling motion for too long, you would get hypnotized and the devil could enter your head. So be warned.
Nothing made sense. But as Vox pointed out, even though the most damaging effects of Satanic Panic were felt within the legal system, there were broader ramifications, too — and many of them linger today.
Fans of Dungeons and Dragons and other allegedly "occult" games were demonized for years. Strange conspiracy theories flourished, including rumors of subliminal messages in rock music, a conspiracy about Procter & Gamble that won the company a $19.25 million settlement, the creepy clown hoax of 2016, and concern over one guy’s weird Airbnb decor.
"In my opinion, these people and their absurd claims do kinda bring down the reputation of religion as a whole, especially Christianity," Dreammare56 said.
Back in the 90's my family had a home pc. We didn't have much so this computer was a big deal to my brothers and I. For school work and some good old fashioned DOS games. My dad managed to figure out how to get a screen saver with sound onto the computer, was quite proud of himself too. He failed to mention this screensaver to my mother who is VERY religious.
So one day I am sitting in highschool and get called to the principals office mid 2nd period. Now I am a darn near straight A student, who didn't get in trouble ever. So this isn't something that has ever happened to me. I get to the office, and I was told my mother called and was very very distraught and I needed to head home to be with her. I hear the secretary telling another office staff that she was losing her mind, and a few variations to that effect.
I rush home to find the pastor from church, performing an exorcism on our computer. My mother praying fervently through gasping sobs. The pastor and my mother prayed for sometime, before my dad came home. My dad gets home mad he was called home then he just starts laughing hysterically. Calls my mom a few variations of dumb, goes and wiggles the mouse to bring the computer up and plays the darth vader screen saver he added to the computer. "Give in to your anger. With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant" “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” "You underestimate the power of the Dark Side. If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny." You know all the come to the darkside quotes. With a picture of darth vaders face. Of course my mother couldn't get the computer to do it again because she kept messing with it, and it never went back to sleep mode. So of course her first thought was we had a evil satanic computer possessed by the devil himself. The pastor just quietly snuck out with me during my dads laughing and my moms sobs.
Tampons.
I'm not joking or lying. When I was a kid, early 90's, there was a "God Botherer" protesting outside a Superdrug (UK Pharmacy chain) screaming about the Satanism of feminine hygiene products corrupting women into sin. This God Botherer was a woman.
So many things, but this one’s my favorite. Ready? Paleontologists. The idea is that the dinosaurs never actually existed and paleontologists just plant the fossils and bones to steer people away from “The Truth”. Clearly the work of the devil! Eek!
My eyes rolled so far back in my head they almost got stuck.
Yes! My parents' church also taught that scientists sneak around in the dead of night planting fake bones in the ground to try to stop people from going to heaven.
An injured bat. The person I knew smashed the poor thing to death because it was "satanic." F**king awful.
My father was a Baptist pastor and had no issue with me playing D&D (3.5 at the time). When he married my step mother, she was a religious zealot and kept at my dad to stop me. One day I came home from school and they were both sitting in the living room and had all my D&D books in a plastic bag, SM having convinced my father they should trash them. I challenged them saying, how could they know they were bad. SM pulled out the players handbook and started reading the description of the cleric spell Chant. "If two clerics of the same religion are chanting, the bonuses are whatever (she didn't know the word cumulative)". I turned to my dad and said, how can you say these are bad if you don't even know what the words mean. He agreed and gave me my books back.
TL,DR: My step mother's limited vocabulary saved my D&D books
Sporks.
I once heard someone say, "The spork is 'the devil's utensil' because it is the amalgamation of the masculine fork and the feminine spoon and is trying to blur gender lines in society."
I knew this Christian lady that refused to eat deviled eggs.
Edit: my wife said her cousins weren't allowed to eat candy on Halloween when they were kids because their mom didn't want to celebrate the "devils birthday".
That's rich coming from a religion that drinks the blood of Christ and eats the body of Christ
That dog who got abandoned by his Christian owners bc he was ‘gay’.
(He was then adopted by a lesbian couple)
How the hell do you know if your dog is gay? Were they the sexuality police or what?
Dark brown eyes. There was this batshit lady at my old church who worked in the youth ministry. She accused my sister of devil worship saying that she had "shark eyes".
"Godzilla" because god's name shouldn't be used like that. Told his kids there was a spelling error and it's actually called "Goodzilla".
My grandma bought this cute bunny hat to wear. She loves hats because her head gets cold. This bunny ear hat was her favorite. She wore it to church and the pastor told her it was a demonic hat, grabbed it from her head, and threw it into the trash (so I'm told, i wasn't there).
She came home without her hat and was pissed. The church people came over to perform an EXORCISM because she was possessed by the devil.
I remember going upstairs hearing a group of church people sign hymns loudly while the pastor was forcing his hand on my grandma's head.
I was a kid when this happened and remembered feeling angry and confused. My mom told me to go downstairs. I wish those b***hes would come back and try that same shit. I'll personally throw them out the house.
The Lord of the Rings works and The Chronicles of Narnia. Both Tolkien and Lewis were devout Christians.
Frank Zappa's album "Jazz From Hell" was required to have an "Explicit lyrics" sticker.
It is instrumental.
Thank you, Tipper (with full support from Al) Gore!!! This is specifically and solely why my uncles and dozens of their friends in Broward County, Florida voted for Nader. Yes, because of Tipper Gore & her PMRC, George W. Bush became president of the USA.
Hard rock.
My idiot aunt thought that AC/DC stood for "Anti-Christ, Devil Child." F**kin' idiot.
She is also the most obviously in-the-closet person I've ever met in my life. I have a gaydar that barely functions, but she's super duper mega ultra gay. Perhaps she'd have had a happier life if she'd spent less time poring over "Balls to the Wall" like it was a Satanic verse and kissed a girl instead.
Without a shred of sarcasm I once heard an evangelical describe hot cheetos as a product of the devil.
I remember a lady saying she refused to eat mushrooms, they were satanic because they grew in the dark.
Star Trek. Mostly, I think, because my racist uncle couldn't stomach a black woman and an asian dude being functional members of a spaceship crew.
Unicorns. Their horns are the sign of satan. I wish I was making this up.
Wifi. Because they didn't understand how it could work without wires.
A microscope. An acquaintance of mine called a microscope a “gift from the devil” because it makes people question the divine plan.
ugh, crap like that burns me a*se. how many kids die because their parents chose prayer over ACTUAL medicine. sad
A toothache. "The devil is trying to enter my body." Was the quote. Initially i thought they were making a weird joke. They were serious.
Slap the person who says this and shout, "THE DEVIL IS MAKING YOU SPREAD HIS LIES TO CAUSE SUFFERING!" Sometimes you have to fight stupid with stupid
My very religious aunt once referred to Hooters as “satan's snack shop”.
Her husband was a frequent visitor and she found the receipts in his truck lol
Back in the 70s it was a lot of stupid: bar codes. The little symbol on Proctor & Gamble products. Yoga and/or meditation. Lots of different music by different artists. My small town Christian private school had a particular teacher who was absolutely dying mad about his students' fondness for Michael Jackson, AC/DC, and other bands of the time.
The funniest one of all was dancing. The joke around my (conservative Christian) college in the 80s was that sex was outlawed because it could lead to dancing... for some bizarre reason the administration thought dancing was totally evil.
My mom called my art satanic because I drew dragons and wolves with horns when I was a kid.
My mom was terrified I'd accidentally summon a demon playing yugioh.
Who cares about the devil? Does she realise how rich u will be if u manage to summon blue eyes white dragon into the world?
I wanted to learn to play the violin as a child but was told I couldn’t because it was the devil’s instrument.
“Masters of the Universe”. It was back in the 80’s. My crazy, over the top, religious aunt said ,” it’s satanic! There is only ONE master of the universe and it’s god!!!” 6 yo me rolled my eyes so hard, I’m sure you could hear the noise it made.
Wow! I haven't seen this film since I was 11yo when I re-watched it multiple times per day. I was going through some particularly awful medical crap and it got me through. Humans are weird. Maybe I'm now possessed by the devil.
My mom called my pants satanic (there was a chain on them).
My dad wouldn't let me watch anything that had magic or monsters because he thought it would let demons into the house. This included power rangers, Ben 10, H20 just add water, harry potter, scooby doo and more.
The most ridiculous one was not letting me watch Jessie on Disney channel. This had no magic or monsters but he thought that the pet lizard one of the characters had represented the snake that deceived Eve into eating the apple.
F**king Hello Kitty. Some religious f**ktards from my sister-in-law's family, took away all the Hello Kitty toys from my niece and burnt them because... sigh... there is a demon in the sumerian mythology who, just like the famous cartoon cat, has no mouth, so Hello Kitty is obviously daemonic.
Hello Kitty doesn't have a mouth because they wanted her to have the same emotion as the person looking at her. Like, if you're sad, then she's sad, if you're happy, then she's happy
Oh man.
A paperback copy of Frankenstein's monster with an illustration of the monster on the front.
The experience of feeling desire for black men.
Pokémon.
Yoga.
Source: grew up in a fundamentalist Christian community rampant with ignorance and bigotry of all kinds.
i was once wearing my hat backwards and got called a devil worshipper.
People like that are dealt with by saying things like, "You're wearing nylon and polyester. They are artificial creations and not natural. You are wearing the devil's clothing as god provides natural materials for clothing" Yes, I have done this and caused a bit of an argument between a bunch of religious nutters. It was fun
My wife's mother pulled her out of the carebears movie when she was a kid because the bears were casting satanic spells out of their stomachs. My wife still holds a grudge.
I saw a sign yesterday that called fat people who eat excessively, satanic.
The guy holding the sign was at least 100lbs heavier than I am, and I'm 230lbs. Also, the sign didn't make any sense to begin with...
Are you sure that was religious intolerance and not an advertisement?
Acting - the entire profession.
Backwards satanic messages in the "Mr. Ed" theme song.
Liberalism - everything liberal is satanic.
I've heard all three.
I've heard someone say black people were demons because their skin is burnt from being in hell so long.
For awhile I wasn't allowed to use the word "weird" because it was associated with witchcraft. Apparently because Shakespeare wrote about the witches of "weird".
Being born in March. My father's mother told my mom she was birthing the anti christ because my sister was due in March. Just so happened to also fall around my aunt's wedding. Which is probably why. Aside from her hating my mother. Jokes on her. My parents have been married for almost 30 years and are very happy.
The movie Jumanji. Couldn’t watch it until I was like 12 because my mom thought it was about a ouija board because the pieces moved by themselves.
I have a sunflower tattoo on my forearm, when I worked at ingles during college a man said it “was of the devil” and that I “defiled the body lovingly gifted by god” and god would be mad I disrespected his gift when I had to return “his” body when I returned to heaven.
Your body is a temple. Your body.. Your temple.. Decorate it however you like.
The peace symbol.
My HS biology teacher saw me wearing one & explained the peace symbol.
It's a inverted cross... The sides have been bent down & away from God....
The peace symbol was designed by Gerald Holtom for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958. The vertical line in the center represents the flag semaphore signal for the letter D, and the downward lines on either side represent the semaphore signal for the letter N. “N” and “D”, for nuclear disarmament, enclosed in a circle.
Twisted Sister. Dee Snider is a very well spoken, interesting man. Satan has nothing to do with it.
Vegetarianism.
A friends wife once got into some religious thing where anything of beauty was satanic. Flowers, scenery, anything beautiful. Satan was luring you with its beauty.
I’ve heard that when your eye twitches it means you are possessed by a demon and he is looking out your eye.
In my case, it twitches when a religious nutter just won't shut the f*ck up
1. Coca Cola because the red supposedly represented the devil
2. A deck of playing cards
Doom, you literally kill evil demons and send them back to hell in order to save humanity. I used to argue about this a lot growing up in Catholic schools and my teachers were not having it. Ironically I've heard it's a popular video game among priests.
An energy drink.
EDIT: yes I was talking about Monster.
I saw a nutbar 'explain' why Monster drink is evil some time ago. It was hysterical.
Hot chocolate. “I don’t drink hot liquids of any kind, that’s the devils temperature.”
The 80's country music song 'Elvira' by the Oak Ridge Boys.
They were convinced they were singing 'Hell Fire Up' instead of 'Elvira'.
Any and all snakes. “They’re of the devil” is the actual quote.
My old a** antisemitic neighbor who kept shouting that the synagogue down the block was satan's temple.
Oh yes I've heard plenty of these. My late father,who was born a jew, used to help out some Christian neighbors when the husband had a stroke.doing their shopping, gardening ect. He was talking to the wife one day and she was talking about good deeds and the path to heaven, and my dad, jokingly, said " well I'll be ok with everything I've been doing for you" and she looked him in the eye with a stern expression on he face and said " oh no, you're going to hell.....cause you're a jew! " what a fkn evil cnt
I've seen evangelicals call Mormons satanic. A few called the Pope the anti-Christ.
Decorative owls (owl-themed home decor).
My friend's mom cut the tail off his Nightcrawler action figure cause it was pointed like the devil's tail. She didn't appreciate the Medieval Spawn figure I gave him for his birthday when we were 9, either.
Black hair ties were banned at my friends Christian school because they were the devil's colour.
Oh, the color the priests wear? And nuns? And, in many countries, the color of mourning.
When I was a kid, someone said I was a devil worshipper for wearing a D.A.R.E t shirt. A lot of people also tried telling my mom that I was doing drugs because of the same shirt. I was 11 and apparently a lot of people didn't understand what D.A.R.E was about lmao
Once I heard a radio preacher going on about Barney, the purple dinosaur, calling him "Barney, the Purple Demon". The same guy had it in for The Smurfs as well.
I have an Aunt that has called every election the one with Satan. Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden all of them. She hasn't missed a beat since I've been old enough to listen to her. she has found everyone of them lacking any "godlyness" at all. Every single election year she says it's the end of times mark her words. What's stupid is she just moves on to the next one with the prophecy isn't fulfilled
Eh, I can at least respect the consistency. If someone's only one party and not the other, or jst Obama, or - most mind-boggling - everyone *but* the philandering con artist serial sexual assailant, then that's some nonsense. The position "All politicians are immoral and sinful and lacking in righteousness"? That can at least be defended. ;)
Crazy religious grandpa told me I'd go to hell for eating a ham sandwich lmao
Video games.
well duh they are fun and distract one from reading the bore-ble.
Every single kid's show that wasn't VeggieTales. Quite a few Pentecostal families I know will only allow their kids to watch that cartoon. Talk about indoctrination at a young age.
Shorts. I had a friend who walked into a church during summer wearing shorts and they kicked him out saying shorts on Sunday were an abomination to God. What a joke.
Movie theaters. My dad couldn't go to movie theaters as a kid, because his parents are so obsessively religious.
The sound of an electric guitar. Mental gymnastics.
I was told drums are bad. Any song with a beat (which is pretty much all of them), because it induces the listener into a primal state, and I guess evil spirits can... I don't know, sneak into your head, or something?
Frickin hell, professional basketball…
Edit: for those asking, it has to do with the NBA supporting BLM. Although the majority of my church supports the purpose of BLM, they don’t follow it because of the violence they’ve caused in my town. However, this crazy woman said that BLM was the work of satan, and I just think she’s completely wrong.
I used to go to a Christian private school and I argued to all of my classmates that Korn was satanic. I hadn't heard any of their music or seen them, but someone on the internet said it and that was legit enough for me. I still cringe.
The teachers in my Catholic high school were convinced I was a devil worshiper because of the bands I listened to, all metal and rock. Korn was one of them.
Catholicism.
Evangelicals are weird.
Birthdays. The Bible mentions a couple and they ended badly. Hence birthday's must be "satanic"... one more reason to celebrate!!
DnD, but strangely enough not the Lord of the Rings.
Once I had a classmate and she had a cartilage piercing. We had an assembly and this group of people with puppets came and told the story of easter, at the end we were walking out and one of the people from the group walked over to my classmate and said "what is that thing on your ear?" She said its a cartilage piercing and the person from the group walked over to where the group was packing their stuff and said "She has definitely got to have worshipped the devil. That disgusting ear piercing she's got."
When I was young around 5-7 years old my mom threw away a Hobgoblin toy because Radio Vision Christiana said to rid your home of satanic images.
I remember it because it was the first time my Mom lied to me because she told me she didn't know what happened to it.
The Little Mermaid.
Ursula was the devil and she tempted Ariel into giving up her voice for pleasures of the flesh. In the end, Ariel enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh so much that she abandoned her family in Christ to walk amongst the sinners. Yep. Totally satanic.
One time my wife’s cousin was watching Seinfeld. Their Grandma, bless her heart, comes into the room, sees Seinfeld on the tv and says, “Turn this off right now. How could you watch this p**nography?!”
everything they don't like don't want to exist don't know don't WANT to know...
And those that say it can't explain what commuism is
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My friend was called demon possessed because of her medical necklace - she had a caduceus pendant with her medical info on it. Not because of her having allergies or any of her medical issues, but because it was a caduceus. Apparently, the caduceus is the symbol of Enki, and Enki is apparently the leviathan, so carrying his symbol means he's possessing her or something such like that. It was weird.
In the Christian Bible, the book of Job, God talks about his great work making the Leviathan. He was incredibly proud of that creature and it was just that, a sea beast.
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everything they don't like don't want to exist don't know don't WANT to know...
And those that say it can't explain what commuism is
Load More Replies... My friend was called demon possessed because of her medical necklace - she had a caduceus pendant with her medical info on it. Not because of her having allergies or any of her medical issues, but because it was a caduceus. Apparently, the caduceus is the symbol of Enki, and Enki is apparently the leviathan, so carrying his symbol means he's possessing her or something such like that. It was weird.
In the Christian Bible, the book of Job, God talks about his great work making the Leviathan. He was incredibly proud of that creature and it was just that, a sea beast.
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