A few days ago, a friend sent me this link: http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/stop-black-mass-oklahoma-city.html with the request that I sign the petition at the other end. It seems that a satanic group has secured the use of public property to hold a Black Mass ceremony . The ceremony has been publicized as an attempt to "help educate the public about Religious Satanism. Enjoy the delights of the Devil” (TFP Student Action) and also to "continue the Satanic movement -- to keep fighting for our rights for religious freedom" (patheos.com).
I signed the petition right away. I tend to do that; urgent language has a way of getting to me. (Therefore any and all email requests for money are deleted immediately as policy.) But in this case, I don't want a black mass to be held anywhere. The fact that the devil's days are numbered doesn't mean Satanism isn't a bad thing. But when I thought about putting the petition out to my friends and family, I had to pause for a moment. How should I phrase this request? How do I justify it?
The difficulty that I keep running into is that the Oklahoma City Civic Center is public property, and per First Amendment rights, public property that is open to some religious and civic groups must be open to all religious and civic groups. Attempting to deny some crackpot in Oklahoma the use of this facility runs directly counter to the many lawsuits that Christians have filed to use school gyms or civic centers for worship services or conferences. Secularly, civicly, both Christianity and Satanism are religions, so neither of them can be excluded from places of public function.
One could argue that Satanism doesn't really count as a religion because it exists primarily to derail another religion. Organized sacrilege might be a more valid term. Satanism is not the same thing as paganism or atheism, which have their own belief structures. It actively opposes the Christian God by doing despicable things to earn the blessing of the Christian archdemon, Satan. The understanding is Christian; it's just that Satanists don't like the Christian deity or the Christian result (i.e. new creation without pain or tears, reunion with God, the elimination of all evil), and so they support the devil. By that argument, I'm not sure that Satanism would be open to protection under the religious clause in the First Amendment, but I can't see any court in the land wanting to be the one to rule on what is a religion.
My conundrum is this: Of course I don't want to see this sacrilege gain traction in the public arena. "The insults of those who insult you have fallen upon me." Jesus is my savior; He suffered unspeakable torment to give me a life I don't deserve. In the eyes of any right-minded person, that is honorable and should be respected, even if it isn't believed. Not only does it hurt to see Jesus denigrated, it also hurts to see someone so completely screwed up that he would make a point of trying to spread this kind of behavior. However, if this public activity does anything, it shows the perpetrator for what he is: a spiteful, small minded lunatic who is systematically shriveling his own soul by trying to degrade something holy that is inexpressibly beyond his reach.
Another concern is that regardless of the state's responsibility to be unbiased, religious activity does have spiritual repercussions. You can't just invite the devil in, and then expect him to leave when it's convenient for you. The spiritual world is at war, and when you cede ground, you have to win it back.
But at the same time, a Satanic ritual doesn't hurt the church or Christ. The devil's power, even when consciously invoked, does not rival God's power under any circumstances. The Black Mass is perpetrated by stealing a communion wafer from a Catholic Church and doing things to degrade and insult it. From the Protestant perspective, it's as if someone stole a picture of someone who saved your life and walked around spitting and shitting on it. Of course, you'd be upset, you'd want the picture back, and you'd have to suppress a primal instinct to knock the perpetrator's teeth in (we are Christians, after all, and we have an established protocol for dealing with insults), but in no way is your friend and benefactor actually injured. Christ's body is in the members of the Church, and it is open to injury and insult all around the world as our brothers and sisters suffer for his name. I respectfully submit that our Lord feels more grief over the state of the soul of this Satanic priest than He does over what happens to a piece of the host.
Apparently this mass has been held for several years, and according to a public response by Oklahoma State Representative Rebecca Hamilton, nobody (literally nobody) attendeds. But say people were attending this event in droves. Say it was an actual rival to the Gospel in Oklahoma City and an active destroyer of moral values in the public sphere. Would petitions to exclude Satanists from public property really be the most effective way of countering its influence? Simply put, spiritual battles are fought in the heavenlies; the legal system is merely one of the places that we see results. If the Christians of Oklahoma City want to see this ritual stop, I suggest that they stand outside the Civic Center and fast and pray for the soul of this Satanic priest until he walks out and asks for Jesus.
