hennafairy
don't be scared of a word. ;o)
also, wikipedia is user based, so it's not the most reliable source either - not bad to read it but keep that in mind!! but from my understanding, satanism is not what the christian church would lead you to believe, but almost holding humans up as "gods"? i'm not all that clear on it... i do recall the book Paganism by Joyce Higginbotham had a pretty good explanation.
mostly satanism has the gut-reaction of evil, which is reinforced by movies and media. similar to pagans and witches (and often all viewed as the same thing). while - according to most church standards - it may still be viewed as wrong/evil, it's not the devil worshipping animal sacrificing scene that the common images portray. and people who do that are just sick twisted individuals, usually kids looking for attention. (in modern times anyway. i know the issue of animal sacrifice in history is a question that most neopagans like to think didn't happen, but could have.)
(i'm no expert and not all that well read on the topics, these are just my understandings, and i could be wrong. but i still say you should never let a word scare you!
also, wikipedia is user based, so it's not the most reliable source either - not bad to read it but keep that in mind!! but from my understanding, satanism is not what the christian church would lead you to believe, but almost holding humans up as "gods"? i'm not all that clear on it... i do recall the book Paganism by Joyce Higginbotham had a pretty good explanation.
mostly satanism has the gut-reaction of evil, which is reinforced by movies and media. similar to pagans and witches (and often all viewed as the same thing). while - according to most church standards - it may still be viewed as wrong/evil, it's not the devil worshipping animal sacrificing scene that the common images portray. and people who do that are just sick twisted individuals, usually kids looking for attention. (in modern times anyway. i know the issue of animal sacrifice in history is a question that most neopagans like to think didn't happen, but could have.)
(i'm no expert and not all that well read on the topics, these are just my understandings, and i could be wrong. but i still say you should never let a word scare you!