Lee Moses
At a city council meeting in San Marcos, Texas, an invocation was being given. But it was not being led by a Baptist pastor, a Methodist minister, or even a Roman Catholic priest. Much less was it being led by a faithful Gospel preacher. It was being led by a leader of the Satanic Temple. He concluded with the words, “Hail Satan.”
Similar scenes have happened elsewhere throughout the country. Last April, a county board meeting in Ottawa County, Michigan also began with an invocation led by a member of the Satanic Temple of Western Michigan. When a monument to the Ten Commandments was placed on Oklahoma’s state capitol grounds, a satanic group insisted that a satanic statue be placed alongside it. In places such as Cordova, Tenn, “After School Satan Clubs” have been meeting in elementary schools.
Perhaps one should not be surprised at such events, considering the observation of Scripture, “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness” (I John 5:19). The New King James Version renders the last portion, “and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one”; that is, of Satan.
Some have offered opposition to the overt satanic agenda. At the aforementioned city council meeting in San Marcos, Texas, one organization gathered to pray. “We do not plan to protest the satanic invocation itself,” said Tristen Cleve, director of Citizens Defending Freedom in Hays County. “Just like all Americans, satanists have a right to speak and worship as they choose, though we certainly disagree with them.” This is a weak and misleading statement. His is attributing equal validity to Christianity and Satanism.
One must first understand that much of what presently marches under the banner of “Satanism” is a blatant hoax. Most of these public satanic events have happened at the direction of The Satanic Temple, which bills itself as a “non-theistic new religious movement.” That’s right, “non-theistic”—as in, they do not believe in God at all. They do not believe that Satan actually exists, either. But they call what they believe and practice a “religion” to appropriate the Constitutional rights granted religion, and to undermine those seeking to practice Christianity. Thus, when they proposed the satanic shrine be placed on the Oklahoma state capitol grounds, it was not that they necessarily wanted to honor Satan. They simply wanted to make people uncomfortable and to force the removal of the monument to the Ten Commandments.
Somehow, the IRS has recognized this organization as a religion. However, this neither meets the historical definition or the Constitutional understand of “religion,” much less the Biblical definition. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defined it this way:
Religion, in its most comprehensive sense, includes a belief in the being and perfections of God, in the revelation of his will to man, in man’s obligation to obey his commands, in a state of reward and punishment, and in man’s accountableness to God; and also true godliness or piety of life, with the practice of all moral duties.
Even a modern dictionary defines religion as “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power.” The Satanic Temple neither believes in nor professes to worship any such entity.
The framers of the Constitution were not seeking to give protected status to anything that called itself a “religion.” Governeur Morris, a signer of the Constitution said, “There must be religion. When that ligament is torn, society is disjointed and its members perish…But the most important of all lessons is the denunciation of ruin to every State that rejects the precepts of religion.” Notice that he observed religion as having “precepts”; that is, authoritative instructions. Such objective and uniting authority ultimately has to come from God and the Bible. John Hancock stated, “Manners, by which not only the freedom, but the very existence of the republics, are greatly affected, depend much upon the public institutions of religion and the good education of youth.” Again, he clearly had in view Biblical teachings. This is what all the founding fathers had in mind when they ensured that Americans would enjoy their God granted freedom of religion. They certainly were not trying to protect Satanism or a hoax “Satanism.”
New Testament Christians will disagree firmly with various religions posing under the guise of “Christianity.” But we can oppose their unscriptural practices and expose their errors, while at the same time affirming the legal rights of adherents to practice those religions. We might even be willing to die on the battlefield to protect those rights. But this is because they at least seek to serve God. This is because they at least believe they are doing what is right in the sight of God. No Satanist of any kind is under any such delusion.
It is alarming that some would pretend to be Satan worshippers in order to undermine Christianity, or what they perceive as Christianity. But one should be aware that if Christians merely respond with outrage, they are giving this organization exactly what they seek. They want a reaction. Peter warned “that there shall come in the last days scoffers” or “mockers” (2 Pet. 3:3). Yes, they imperil souls, and we as Christians should speak out against their efforts, especially when they enter our communities and target children: “Neither give place to the devil” (Eph. 4:27). But no souls are as in much peril as their own. It is our sincere hope “that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (2 Tim. 2:26). And we certainly hope that our nation would come to its senses and cease giving place to the devil.
