NEWS FEATURE: Religious rumors remarkably enduring

c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Some religious rumors are fly-by-night. Chances are if you missed the bogus”Associated Press”wire story on the Internet about Microsoft acquiring the Roman Catholic Church, you won’t be hearing any more about on-line absolution. But many religious rumors, from reports of satanic corporate symbols to devil worshipers who sacrifice […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Some religious rumors are fly-by-night. Chances are if you missed the bogus”Associated Press”wire story on the Internet about Microsoft acquiring the Roman Catholic Church, you won’t be hearing any more about on-line absolution.

But many religious rumors, from reports of satanic corporate symbols to devil worshipers who sacrifice children, have remarkable staying power despite the evidence debunking them.


During the past 15 years, for example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has received hundreds of thousands of calls and letters about a fake petition allegedly circulated by atheist-activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair pressuring the FCC to ban religious programming.

Procter & Gamble has been fending off charges for 15 years that its logo is satanic _ rumors the company claims have been spread by business rivals.

Religious themes, experts say, provide grist for rumors, because they are deeply embedded in our culture and rely on faith rather than reason.

Some people find rumors alluring because of their mystery. For others, they help alleviate the tension stemming from uncertainty. And religious rumormongers use stories to mobilize people against perceived enemies of the faith, whether a corporate competitor or the devil incarnate.

People rely on rumors to explain people and situations they know little about, whether it’s a new religion or a mystical phenomenon, says anthropologist Daniel Rothenberg, who studies rumors in Latin America. The subjects may be complex and contradictory, but most rumors are short and simple.”The longer and more complicated a story the less likely it is to be told and retold,”says Rothenberg.”What makes a narrative a rumor is its ability to be passed along from person to person. You can’t have your own rumor.” A hoax is concocted deliberately to deceive, such as the”news story”that Microsoft had acquired the Catholic Church. The item was posted on the Internet, a perfect vehicle for spreading rumors to people of like mind, says Robert R. Butterworth, a Los Angeles-based psychologist.

A rumor, on the other hand, may have a kernel of truth. A story that Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy was buried with a telephone is false, but its genesis may have some basis in fact.

In 1910, Eddy’s”body was brought to the general receiving tomb at Mt. Auburn Cemetery (in Cambridge, Mass.) before burial,”says Michael Davis of the church history department of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston.”Church watchmen were on duty 24 hours a day and a telephone was installed for their use.”The phone was disconnected, however, when her body was transferred.


The telephone rumor is still”very active”86 years after Eddy’s death, says Meg Winslow, curator of historical collections at Mt. Auburn Cemetery. That’s ironic, says Davis,”because Mrs. Eddy was very opposed to the idea that the living could communicate with the dead.” Determining whether a religious claim has merit is difficult even for experts who study the phenomenon.”What you make of (a story) depends on where you’re coming from,”says Peter Kivisto, sociology professor at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.

Some people, he says, would be quick to dismiss all the recent sightings of crying Madonnas in Italy. The Catholic Church, however, believes in the possibility of miracles as manifestations of divine power. Believers in Satan often take seriously allegations of devil worship, and may be more susceptible to rumors about demonic behavior.

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But belief in demonic forces, evangelical Christian leaders say, does not mean all rumors about enemies of the faith are true, such as widely circulated stories about Satanic cults abducting children. Although there is little evidence to substantiate such claims, says Kivisto, the rumors are often fueled by disturbed individuals, unaffiliated with any group, who invoke satanic symbols and rhetoric.

Such rumors help people alleviate the tension that comes with fear and uncertainty, says Tom Saunders of Baltimore’s Rumor Control Center. Some, he says, would rather have a negative answer than no answer.”The mind tries to eliminate chaos and uncertainty,”he says,”and when answers aren’t forthcoming we piece together information giving rise to rumors. … They explain things and relieve tension and uncertainty temporarily.”But tensions can increase, he says, when stories get out of hand.

When rumors circulated in California, for example, that the 16th-century seer Nostradamus had predicted a devastating earthquake would take place in May 1988, some people fled the region, says Butterworth.

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But Rothenberg says that not all rumors forecast doom.”What makes rumors so interesting is that they’re fun,”he says.”People like to tell stories. Why do people tell the story of Mary Baker Eddy and the telephone? Because it’s weird.” Rumors, says Rothenberg,”lend themselves to a loose creativity and allow people to hint of a possibility without taking responsibly for it as a fact.” Rumors can also be used to rally the troops.”O’Hair has been sufficiently demonized so the Christian right can use the name of an ungodly atheist to mobilize the opposition,”says Kivisto. The fake petition is used to encourage church members to oppose issues upholding the separation of church and state.


The only way to stop rumors, says Saunders, is to disseminate information about specific charges, citing studies, company responses, and other data. Still, some rumors have a life of their own. The fact that Madalyn Murray O’Hair has been missing since September 1995 has not stopped her infamous petition from circulating in churches.

Her disappearance has even fueled competing rumors. Some say that the 77-year-old atheist, in declining health, has gone off to die in private. Others believe she absconded with funds from her organization, American Atheist Inc., and headed for cover in New Zealand.

O’Hair cannot be reached to confirm or deny. But if history is any indication, it hardly matters.

MJP END LIEBLICH

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