666: Lessons from the Satanic Panic with Mike Cosper
- Phil Vischer
- Apr 23
- 2 min read

Pope Francis died on Monday. Will the Catholic Church continue to move in the direction of inclusion and reform, or will it elect a more traditional leader in reaction to the last papacy? Mike Cosper is back to talk about his new podcast from Christianity Today about the Satanic Panic, “Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.” In the 1980s and 90s, the FBI investigated 11,000 reports of satanic ritual abuse, but did not uncover a single credible story. So, why were parents throughout the country worried that heavy metal music, board games, and the Smurfs would lead their kids into devil-worshipping cults? Cosper explains how hucksters leveraged fears over cultural change to create mass hysteria, and why lessons from the Satanic Panic are still relevant today. Also this week, Medieval art reveals the sounds and smells of hell.
oly Post Plus:
Bonus Interview with Mike Cosper:
Ad-Free Version of this Episode:
0:00 - Show Starts
3:50 - Theme Song
4:12 - Sponsor - Our Place - Go to https://www.fromourplace.com and use code HOLYPOST to get 10% off site wide on beautiful cookware!
5:22 - Sponsor - Rocket Money - Find and cancel your old subscriptions with Rocket Money at https://www.rocketmoney.com/HOLYPOST
12:12 - News of the Butt, Medieval Art Edition
18:46 - Bosch Painting Translated into Music
24:24 - The Legacy of the Pope
32:35 - America vs. The Pope
41:30 - Sponsor - BetterHelp - This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/HOLYPOST and get 10% off your first month
42:38 - Sponsor - Policy Genius - Secure your family’s tomorrow so you have peace of mind today. Go to https://www.policygenius.com/HOLYPOST to find the right life insurance for you
45:00 - Interview
46:23 - Why’s the Satanic Panic Relevant?
53:00 - What is the Satanic Panic?
1:01:03 - Hucksters Behind It
1:11:09 - Did People Want it to Be True?
1:28:45 - End Credits
Links from News Segment:
Reddit Discusses Medieval Face-Butts:
Bosch Painting Translated to Music
Other Resources:
Devil and the Deep Blue Sea from Christianity Today:
Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/
Holy Post Plus: www.holypost.com/plus
Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost
Holy Post Merch Store: https://www.holypost.com/shop
The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
I was disappointed that the interview never got serious about the clear modern parallel to the Satanic Panic, namely QAnon and various aspects of the MAGA movement (including the NAR folks). It came up in passing, but every time I thought they were going to connect modern panic-mongers and hucksters (say, Michael Flynn or the MyPillow nut or MTG) to their predecessors they managed to skirt around it. I might hope Cosper would be a little prophetic and be willing to go there on the podcast.
And Cosper is too optimistic if he thinks that frauds like Mike Warnke would get no support today when it is easy to fact-check The large followings of David Barton and Ken Ham beli…
Evangelicalism is susceptible to being permeated by weirdness because of its subcultural roots: It's primarily Southern and Midwestern, two subcultures distinguished, in part, by their desperate need for conformity that's so normalized, most aren't even aware of it. The South is a direct descendant of Old World British conformist culture and the Midwest is directly descended from German and Scandinavian conformist cultures. Because of this, they're far too slow to consider, question, and reject cultural norms, including foolish and toxic cultural norms. Westward expansion into the Mountain and Coastal Wests was accomplished by people from those conformist loving areas who normalized values such as rugged individualism, questioning authority, innovation, etc.
I should point out that people don't necessarily secretly/subconsciously "want" to believe things like the Satanic Panic, or Mike Warnke's claims, or the like. Some of us just assume that what we're told, especially if a lot of other people in our group seem to believe it, must be true. It doesn't have to have anything to do with a desire to believe it. There might be some people who do, sure, but I would not accuse anyone of intellectual dishonesty without due cause. People can just be wrong about stuff, being as honest as they can be.
I'm genuinely surprised--though I'm not through the whole episode yet, and there was a reference to the notion of Democrats, LGBTQ people, and such being satanic--there wasn't a specific reference to QAnon, which has been part of the whole Trump thing, connected to January 6 (see below), and is a conspiracy that pushes those ideas (up to and including child sexual abuse, drinking baby blood, and so on). Wikipedia says "Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic,[3][4][5] cannibalistic child molesters in league with the deep state is operating a global child sex trafficking ring and that Donald Trump is secretly leading the fight against them.[9] QAnon has direct roots in Pizzagate, another conspiracy theory that appeared on th…
As a Catholic, it’s fascinating hearing what non-Catholics think about the workings of the Church. Thank you for talking about Catholic Social Teaching and for talking about Pope Francis!