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A moral panic is a feeling of fear spread among a large number of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=https://sites.google.com/site/formsofcollectivebehavior/panics-and-mass-hysteria )〕〔 see also: Jones, M, and E. Jones. (1999). ''Mass Media.'' London: Macmillan Press〕 ''A Dictionary of Sociology'' defines a moral panic as "the process of arousing social concern over an issue - usually the work of moral entrepreneurs and the mass media."〔 (Book preview. )〕 The media are key players in the dissemination of moral indignation, even when they do not appear to be consciously engaged in crusading or muckraking. Simply reporting the facts can be enough to generate concern, anxiety or panic.〔 Examples include the belief in widespread abduction of children by predatory pedophiles,〔 belief in ritual abuse by satanic cults of women and children,〔 scaremongering of the spread of AIDS,〔 the War on Drugs.〔 The term first appeared in the English language in 1830 in a number of Christian journals. ==Historic use of the term== In 1830 in the religious magazine, ''The Millennial Harbinger'', an article was published〔 (Preview. )〕 regarding a sermon entitled ''Regeneration, and the Manner of its Occurence'' given at the Synod of New York, by the Presbyterian minister Samuel H. Cox.〔 (Preview. )〕 ''The Harbinger's'' article remarked on the how differently the sermon was received by contrasting two reviews, one in ''The New Princeton Review'',〔 and the other in the ''New Haven Christian Spectator''.〔 (Original page numbers:44-47.) (Preview, reprint page numbers: 201-384. )〕 "()or", stated the ''Harbinger'' "there always has, and must continue to be, a variety of sentiments on religious subjects in the same body."〔 First, the ''Harbinger'' printed a transcript of Dr. Cox's speech, in which he states that regeneration of the soul should be an active process: * "...if it be a fact that the soul is just as ''active'' in regeneration as in any other thing ... then, what shall we call that kind of orthodoxy that proposes to make men better by teaching them the reverse? To paralyze the soul, or to strike it through with a moral panic is not regeneration.",〔 and, * "After quoting such scriptures as these, "''Seek'' and you shall find," "''Come'' unto me, and I will give you rest," they ask, ...is it not the natural language of these expressions that the mind is as far as possible from stagnation, or torpor, or "moral panic?""〔 Next, the ''Harbinger'' reproduced an abridged version of the review by ''The New Princeton Review''.〔〔 In opposition to Dr. Cox's sermon, they quoted the Presbyterian clergyman Stephen Charnock: * "He ()... states... first, that there is "an immediate and supernatural work on the will:""〔 * "His second proposition is, that "this work, though immediate, is not compulsive and by force""〔 * "His third position is, that this immediate work, "is free and gentle." "A constraint not by force, ''but love''.""〔 Criticising Dr. Cox, ''The New Princeton Review'' asks, "Is this (views ) "to paralize the soul, or to strike it though with a moral panic?""〔 They go on to say, "... there are some metaphysical opinions utterly inconsistent with it (Cox's sermon ); that indifference is necessary to the freedom of the will, is one, and that morality consists in acts only we fear, is another."〔 The ''Harbinger'' then contrasted the ''Princeton Review'' with a review of the same sermon published in ''The Quarterly Christian Spectator'',〔〔 which, according to the ''Harbinger'', "speak of Dr. Cox's sermon in very different terms."〔 They supported Dr. Cox saying: * "Perhaps the solution of this single question, whether the souls is active or passive, may be the pivot on which shall turn whole systems of divinity..."〔 * "When saints of old speak of the actual process of regeneration, they speak as all other moral agents speak, when they are active."〔 * "There is not a single point relating to the application of christianity to the soul; not a single statement recognizing the actual contact of any part of that system with the heart and producing effect, in which they do not employ language denoting activity. ...no department of the moral man in which christianity obtains a lodgment, that is not expressed by language describing man's own agency."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「moral panic」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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