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LONDON - The Devil gave the apple to Eve and offered Jesus the world. He's Lucifer or Satan - or Shaitan to Muslims, created out of smokeless fire.
He made a pact with Faust, struck a heroic pose in Paradise Lost and went down to the crossroads to give Robert Johnson the blues. He rode a tank and held a general's rank while the Blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank, if you believe the Rolling Stones. But what he absolutely does not do is make money from Pringles.
That is official now, after a court in the United States ordered four men to pay US$19 million ($26.7 million) in damages for spreading the notion that Procter & Gamble - which makes the crisps, as well as a range of other household products - gave its profits to Satan.
The ruling was made in Salt Lake City after a 12-year legal battle that saw the company trying to save its reputation in the face of mass boycotts by Christians.
"We incurred hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales over the years because of this rumour," Terry Loftus of P&G said, denying accusations that the lawsuit was a vindictive overreaction. "It was absolutely necessary for us to take aggressive action."
If you're thinking "only in America", then consider this: some of the Christians who stopped buying Pampers nappies and Pringles over the years were British. There are 1.2 million evangelicals in Britain, most of whom believe the Devil is a real creature intent on destroying humanity, and a few thought he might be trying to do it through the contents of their cupboards. And the Church of Satan, which was said to be getting the money, has British members, including a sailor in the Royal Navy.
"It's amazing how many people believe in the Devil," said Church of Satan member Mark Bickley, a friendly 39-year-old locksmith from Uttoxeter.
Rumours about P&G started in the sixties, when American Christians began to take exception to a company logo showing a bearded and horned man surrounded by 13 stars. This was said to be a perversion of the passage in the Book of Revelations that describes "a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 12 stars". The stars supposedly spelled out 666, the number of the beast.
Despite denying it all, P&G dropped the logo in 1985. But a second story emerged in 1994 - that the P&G president had told a live TV show the company gave money to Satanists.
Randy Hauger, agent for a rival firm, recorded a message on his business voicemail repeating this rumour and it was forwarded by three colleagues. P&G started legal action, but it took until last week for a court to order the men to pay up.
The number of people who registered as Satanists at the last United Kingdom census was 1500, but belief in the Devil is far more widespread than that. Surveys repeatedly show that one in three thinks he exists in some form.
Police regularly deal with cases where adults abuse children because they believe they have been possessed by the Devil.
Typically the child had something different about them: epilepsy, autism, deafness or a stammer; even sleepwalking or bed-wetting. In three cases the victims were just exceptionally bright.
But does he exist? The Church of England is not quite sure. Most members see him as a myth or symbol of evil, but a policy document says "others believe in Satan as a personal devil and, although accepting Christ's victory on the cross, think that Satan has not yet been finally banished and that the church therefore has a duty to confront his activity". There are still official exorcists in the Church of England, but they won't talk about it.
The Vatican is more sure. The Pope's chief exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth, is said to have cast out 30,000 demons.
"Of course the Devil exists, and he cannot only possess a single person but also groups and entire populations," he said last year. "That's why we need to defend society from demons."
- INDEPENDENT
