A dark cult in America

This is based off of the "Lovecraft founds a religion" thread, and on all of those crazy rumors that proclaimed that there was an evil Satanic cult that was going around sacrificing people. How does one get a religious group - not necessarily Satanic or evil, but still very dark - that has a noticeable impact on life in America? For example, a Cthulhu-worshipping cult, a more influential Church of Satan (which, despite its name, does not actually worship the devil - yes, I know it's weird), or a criminal organization that causes violence and chaos in order to appease the dark god/gods that it worships. It has to be a very large cult, with at least a million followers in the United States and, preferably, an out-of-proportion number of celebrity followers (sort of like Scientology).

My hypothesis: I believe that such a cult could've sprung up in the sixties and seventies, when the old institutions found themselves being challenged from all sides. Make the counterculture more cynical (a longer Vietnam, perhaps?), so that they're less inclined to flock to peaceful, "white-light" New Age groups like the Hare Krishna and Transcendental Meditation. At the same time, undermine the mainstream churches through various means - have Vatican II fail and leave a more conservative Catholicism, set off a series of embezzlement and sex scandals, etc. That way, you've got a wide-open playing field for the Church of Satan and other, like-minded groups.
 
Even in a country which claims freedom of religion, a group claiming to be a religion that promotes crime wouldn't be tolerated for long. Assuming such a group started in the late-60s, By the mid-70's there would have been a major moral outrage over it, perhaps culminating in the cult being declared a terrorist organization, its temples raided, and its leaders arrested. The cult itself would be no more by the end of the next decade, or at least be alive only in a few, isolated people.

What's interesting are the political ramifications of this. While probably not enough to elect a Republican after Watergate, the moral panic would forge an even more right-wing, religious America. Come the Republican Primaries for the 1980 election, a candidate (probably someone who's not famous OTL) beats out Regan to win the nomination and chooses Ronnie as his VP. The result is a more socially right-wing presidency and society in the 1980s.

Alternatively it could result in a major schism in the Republican party. On one hand you've got the social conservatives and on the other the fiscal conservatives/civil libertarians, the type who would vote Libertarian if they had a chance of winning. The former would remain in the Republican Party while the latter would form their own party or back Ed Clark for president. Either way, the result would be Carter winning reelection by a plurality.
 
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You mean something like the Republicans. (It had to be made.)

I think it is most likely something assosiated somehow to the mainstream religion, ie some doomsday christianity.
 

King Thomas

Banned
To not be declared terroists quickly, the cult has to have two sides-an open side that people think of as good or ok, maybe a bit rowdy but not evil, and a secret evil side. Sort of how the outlaw biker gangs operate in OTL.
 
Mass outrage, I'd guess. The cult gets labeled a terrorist organization and the Department of Homeland Security gets founded earlier, though with a different name and organization. I guess angry mobs burn the cult's temples and lynch the leaders. If they kept the evil side secret I think the evil side would sooner or later be revealed either by a disgruntled former cultist or an undercover reporter.
 
What's interesting are the political ramifications of this. While probably not enough to elect a Republican after Watergate, the moral panic would forge an even more right-wing, religious America. Come the Republican Primaries for the 1980 election, a candidate (probably someone who's not famous OTL) beats out Regan to win the nomination and chooses Ronnie as his VP. The result is a more socially right-wing presidency and society in the 1980s.

Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson maybe ?
 
The Process

Actually a little bit of this did happen. There was a sort of loose connection between the Manson and the Processean Church of the Final Judgement which had a convoluted theology which included a Godhead composed of Jehovah, Lucifer, Satan (considered misidentified with Lucifer) and Christ. Add to that de Grimstom (nee Moore) had a bit of theology I must admit is kinda cute.

Premise: Jesus commanded us to love our enemy.
Premise: Satan is Christ's enemy.
Premise: Jesus is not a hypocrite
Conclusion: Jesus loved Satan.

Anyway so much was made of the Manson/Process connection that the Church booted de Grimston and reinvented itself completely.
 
The Children of the Blood. During the social experimentations of the 1960's, the idea of vampire cults not only takes root, but takes off and becomes fashionable among the more-trendy-less-political set. This group, naturally secretive, swells, ebbs, settles down and spins off splinter-groups; some more, some less, serious about blood play and drinking. I could see a small cult breaking away from the main body, one that does believe in and sometimes practices, human sacrifices. While the main body of this movement is all about "empowerment" and "soul-sharing" and the voluntery giving of ones blood, this splinter group (that attracts a lot of psycopaths) believes that the "vampire" should dominate his victim and take the blood. Every time law-enforcement stamps out one of these deadly splinter groups, another one gets spun off of the main organization, composed of people who go way too far into the "dark side" of this belief.
 
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