This past summer, the LDS church updated several sections of its General Handbook, which serves to “present doctrine and principles fundamental to serving in the Church” and to “provide instructions for stake presidencies and bishoprics, priesthood quorum leaders, stake and ward organization leaders, and others who serve in the Church.” An interesting change was the addition of a section on the occult (§ 38.6.12) and specific mention of Satan worship. It reads:

“That which is of God is light” (Doctrine and Covenants 50:24). The occult focuses on darkness and leads to deception. It destroys faith in Christ.

The occult includes Satan worship. It also includes mystical activities that are not in harmony with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Such activities include (but are not limited to) fortune-telling, curses, and healing practices that are imitations of the priesthood power of God (see Moroni 7:11–17).

Church members should not engage in any form of Satan worship or participate in any way with the occult. They should not focus on such darkness in conversations or in Church meetings.

2020 General Handbook § 38.6.12, The Occult

This little tidbit reminds me of one of the most interesting stories of Mormon history that occurred during my own lifetime—the Pace Memorandum and the church’s investigation into Satanic ritual abuse among its ranks.

DISCLAIMER: This is a controversial and sensitive subject within modern Mormonism. This is in part because it deals with episodes of real abuse that many have personally endured, or that people they know have endured. As such, please be considerate of others’ experiences when you consider how you share this information.

In 1991, a 12-page church memorandum addressed to the Strengthening Church Members Committee was leaked to the press. The subject was on clandestine Satanic ritual abuse within the ranks of the church—written by presiding bishopric 2nd counselor, Glenn L. Pace. The memo detailed Pace’s interviews with 60 church members who recalled memories of ritualistic abuse as children. The reported details of these episodes are incredible today, but the US was in the midst of a moral panic over hidden Satanic influences in society. Incidentally, prior to this leaked internal memo, the public was unaware of the existence of the Strengthening Church Members Committee, which would again become a prominent topic in the context of the church discipline of the September Six.

Pace’s report detailed that children were being “instructed in Satanic doctrine” and “baptized by blood into the Satanic order, which is meant to cancel out their baptism in the Church.” Pace’s report also spoke of human sacrifice, including the killing of babies. Today, the skeptical among us would probably chalk these up to conspiracy theories—much like the current QAnon movement—but it wasn’t so easy to dismiss at the time. Pace wrote that “when sixty witnesses testify to the same type of torture and murder, it becomes impossible for me, personally, not to believe them.”

In 1991, the Utah legislature appropriated $250K to investigate Satanic ritual abuse in the state. Over 30 months, investigators interviewed hundreds of victims, but concluded there was insufficient evidence of the Satanic elements of these incidents. Importantly, these cases likely represent real cases of abuse, but the details of Satanic ritual incorporated in those episodes of abuse that could not be corroborated. That said, it is not impossible that ritualistic religious elements may have been a feature of some of these cases. We know that ritualized abuse has definitely occurred in fundamentalist Mormon contexts. Notably, Pace suggested in his report that abusers were using and corrupting the oaths and rituals of the temple endowment ceremony, and that many victims had flashbacks of abuse when attending the temple endowment for the first time. It is feasible that abusive Mormon men would mix their faith into their abuse like this. Conspicuously, the endowment ceremony was substantially revised around this time, and the penalty oaths and gestures pantomiming the taking of one’s own life were removed from the ritual.

Some have said that the witnesses to this type of treatment cannot be trusted because of the victim's unstable condition and because practically all of them have some kind of dissociative disorder; in fact, the stories are so bizarre as to raise serious credibility questions. The irony is that one of the objectives of the occult is to create multiple personalities within the children in order to keep the "secrets." They live in society without society having any idea that something is wrong since the children and teenagers don't even realize there is another life occurring in darkness and in secret. However, when sixty witnesses testify to the same type of torture and murder, it becomes impossible for me, personally, not to believe them.

Bishop Glenn L. Pace, Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric

It is unclear what influence Elder Pace’s investigations had on the changes to the endowment. General dissatisfaction among the membership surrounding the temple is often cited as the primary reason for the changes, which also featured then revision of a lot of sexist language. Yet the timing of these changes—which included the removal of some of the most controversial elements of the endowment ritual—coinciding with a rampant moral panic across America over Satanic ritual abuse is hard to ignore.

Perhaps what fascinates me most about this history is how it demonstrates the propensity for Mormon culture to amplify other conspiracy cultures. Mormonism is already teeming with conspiracy themes: Gadianton robbers, Master Mahan, Danites, the Council of Fifty, and many more. In many ways, narratives of conspiracy and “secret combinations” are baked into Mormon doctrine and culture through Mormon scriptures and the movement’s history. How does growing up with so many ideas featuring conspiracy affect one’s worldview? How does it feed off or feed into America’s unique conspiracy culture? Is it any wonder that Mormons have produced stridently vocal conspiracy theorists like Cleon Skousen, Ezra Taft Benson, Glenn Beck, Ammon Bundy, and others?