In post #87, you wrote “ritual abuse is real in many places”
In post #88, in response to my post #86, you wrote “No one is saying that there isn’t child abuse and that there shouldn’t be a law against it.” We are not talking about child abuse, we are talking about RITUAL abuse, which is the specific subject of the state statutes.
In post #90, when pressed to give an example, you wrote “The only actual cases of ritual abuse that I know of involve psychotic parents who were convinced that their children were possessed.”, a position which is diametrically opposed to the one stated in post #87.
So you blame the parents. That is consistent with the position taken by cult members and Satanists themselves.
I ask again: if there is no such thing as ritual abuse, why are there state statutes on the books in California, Illinois and Idaho which deal very specifically with ritual abuse?
“So you blame the parents. That is consistent with the position taken by cult members and Satanists themselves.”
So name some of these Satanists and cult members who have done that. Surely you can provide some examples of this claim of yours. Unless you are just making it up to bolster your claim.
“I ask again: if there is no such thing as ritual abuse, why are there state statutes on the books in California, Illinois and Idaho which deal very specifically with ritual abuse?”
Well that’s a good question, since there is no such California law on the books.
There was a sentencing enhancement for ritual abuse passed in 1995, penal code 667.83, but even that was repealed in 1997. Whatever source you are using for your information is 20 years behind the times.
But as to your question about why those laws were passed, the laws were passed in response to the same ritual abuse hysteria that had generated the McMartin case shortly before. Politicians respond to current events, they aren’t philosophers.
A question you should answer is why did only 3 states pass such laws? How come the other 47 didn’t?