To: The newsletter of some random parish.

I figured the only way to have any credibility with the close-minded Christians I'm aiming this to, I'd have to be one of them. lol

Hello Good People, Praise be to His Name!

While I may not be bringing you any Good News, I am, in fact, bringing you some Helpful News, or even Interesting News. Now, I understand that we are all busy people, going to work, raising our good Christian families, and we don’t have time to know what’s really going on in the word, nor are we able to actually look into the claims of our humble leaders. This is not to say that we should not trust them, but that we should help them by learning more of what they speak of so that we may learn more about the world around us and hence, ourselves and God Himself. Today I bring to you something I know all of you have heard about. We all speak of it, instantly our conditioned minds place blame upon all evil as the work of Satanists. Yet, what really is Satanism? Do these people really eat children? Do they really rape and murder the innocent? Surprisingly, the answer is NO!

Now, now, stay with me, I don’t mean to say that anyone is lying to us, but merely that we are misunderstanding what is going on. I am a devout Christian myself, full of fear of the LORD and all that is Holy and I would not dare to speak any such possible blasphemy unless I knew of actual and true facts. Does not the Bible say that the sword is made stronger as you put it through the fire? Indeed it does. However, through research, I came to the startling conclusion that they are merely normal people, just as you and me!

So, what is Satanism anyway? This question is actually very loaded. In reality there are multiple organizations that refer to themselves as Satanists. I will speak of the three main ones; these are the Church of Satan (CoS), the First Church of Satan (FCoS), and the Temple of Set (also called Setianism). I will also speak briefly of Theistic Satanism and Luciferianism. Towards the end of my article, I will compare them to the Wiccans and the Pagans. While we often couple them all together, they are actually very much separate and want nothing to do with one another. Yet, before we go on, let us look into our Bibles and learn who Satan is. Although, we all do know that Jesus was not English, but in fact Hebrew, so let us consider the original word says, not our translation. The name Satan comes from the Hebrew word shatana, which simply means "to be adverse to". (Ibid. p. 213). Does this mean that Satan is not necessarily an all-compassing evil being? It seems so. Well, you ask, what about the name Lucifer? While we do tie it to the name Satan, the name Lucifer is non-existent in most versions of the Bible. “Lucifer does appear once in the King James version in Isaiah 14:12, in which the King of Babylon is referenced as "Son of the Morning" {"Luci-Fer" in latin} (translated from the Hebrew "Helel ben Shahar," or "Praise! Son of the Dawn"). This is because Lucifer was originally the Latin term for the planet Venus, also known as the morning star.”(1). Stranger still, in the early Church, the name Lucifer was seen as “being synonymous with Christ, not Satan. Early Christian parents often named their children Lucifer, as with Lucifer Calaritanus.”(2) This has to do with the name Lucifer meaning “Light Bringer.” Now, how could the people who lived in the time of our Lord and Savoir Jesus Christ, do something like this if it was evil? It was a common name such as John or Dan! We couldn’t possibly dismiss our ancient brethren, seeing as it is they who made sure our Faith passed through the ages!

Now, the most popular group of Satanists is the Church of Satan (CoS). I’ve come to find out that they actually do no devil worship at all! They are actually atheists! “Satan in their usage {refers to} a symbol and metaphor rather than a literal {man-like} deity.”(3) Also, they speak of becoming the “gods of {their} own subjective universe.” (4) Crazy, I know. Not to mention, they have nothing to do with anarchy. In fact, they champion law and order. Illegal activity is strongly opposed and not tolerated in the slightest and they have kicked out members of their organization for doing such. Also, in all radio and television broadcasts they speak of seeing that all criminals are brought to justice swiftly and appropriately.(5) They do speak of indulging yourself in physical pleasures from time to time, but there is no baby eating here! Also in a television interview on that took place on CBC: The Hour on 6/6/06, High Priest & Magus Peter H. Gilmore states that the rituals they perform are nothing more than stage acts. He follows with the comment that “all religions are for show, we’re just the only ones who admit to it.”(6) Which only goes to show that this whole thing is just play for them, they except nothing to ever happen and perform these rituals as an actor would in a play.

So what about the First Church of Satan (FCoS)? Well, let us go into what Theistic Satanism is first. Unlike the CoS, members of the FCoS consider Satan an actual deity. From the wikipedia definition: “{Theistic} Satanists claim that they experience a "dark" divinity or powerful entity behind the forces of darkness, knowledge, animal energy and freedom in their lives. He (or She) is sometimes perceived as the Muse and the Bestower of knowledge (Gnosis). Satanists may place a great emphasis on the Serpent in the Biblical tale of Genesis, whom they perceive to be one of the many emanations or incarnations of Lucifer/Satan. According to such teachings, Satan blessed mankind with the "forbidden" fruit of knowledge of good and evil. From this perspective, knowing good is a good thing, but knowing evil is even better, for someone who knows and recognizes evil is better-armed and equipped to fight evil. It is for this reason that {Theistic} Satanists perceive Satan not as a Force of evil but rather a Force of good.”(7) So, these people do think Satan is a real person, but that he is not evil at all. Going back to the FCoS, the main difference between them and the CoS is that there is no real hierarchy in their organization. They also encourage individuality and “promote personal godhood while maintaining an attitude of sovereignty for all.”(8) Again, there is no raping and pillaging here.

Well, the Temple of Set sounds ominous doesn’t it? Surely here is where the vile evil people we hear of in stories come from! These were my thoughts as I began to look into The Temple of Set, I found that they were also…wrong. The name Set refers to an Egyptian God of the Desert. He was at first a hero, and the chief deity of Lower Egypt. However, due to political reasons long after the union of Northern and Southern Egypt, Set was then pictured as being evil due to a very disliked pharaoh championing him as the chief God.(9) That doesn’t really sound like a good reason to make someone evil all of a sudden. Think about it like this, it would be like those atheist liberals calling Jesus evil because of their distaste for George Bush. We wouldn’t like that now would we? Now, the Temple of Set preaches of “enlightened individualism.” Setians, as they call themselves, “even though they believe in a literal deity, do not worship Set in the same way that {we Christians} worship God. Rather, they honor Set for representing a deeper consciousness and individual strength -- thus, worshipping Set is analogous to worshipping the individual. The ultimate goal of Setians is to reach this higher spiritual consciousness and understanding of the self -- the process of self- actualization is called Xeper (pronounced "keffer"), the Egyptian term meaning, "to come into being."”(10) Almost sounds like Buddhism, whose practices some of us use as another form of prayer.

We’ve gone through the 3 major organizations that refer to themselves as “Devil Worshipers”; there was no mention of rape, murder, incest, or any other unholy and unspeakable act. Well, how about those Pagans and Witches? (For simplicity’s sake, I will refer to them all as Pagans from here.) As it turns out, these people often reject the very idea of Satanism as Satanists reject their ideals. For starters, Pagans do in fact worship multiple Gods and Goddesses, unlike the atheistic Satanists they are compared to. Also, many Pagans have distaste for anything containing “dark energy” or having a “dark vibe” and are extremely nature orientated. There’s nothing wrong with liking nature is there? These people who avoid all things “dark” are sometimes referred to as White Lighters. (In the Satanic Bible itself, the Satanists outright reject “White Light occultism.”(11)) However, this rule doesn’t always apply for people who call themselves “Dark Pagans,” but even good portions of them don’t suggest fiddling around with anything inherently “evil.” Also, many Pagans often perform “magickal rituals” and believe that they do in fact, have an effect on the outside world. Note how many Satanists say that theirs are just for show. Most Pagans go by the rule that you should not do any sort of magickal working to hurt someone, unless you want it to come back to you three times as hard.

As it turns out, Paganism has been around longer than Christianity, or even Judaism. While the Christian missionaries were converting the Pagans to their particular sects, they would often take the Pagan Gods and call them demons, devils, or even Satan himself. In fact, it turns out the Pagan God Pan, who is the God who watches over shepherds and their flocks, was later turned into a evil demon later associated with Satan himself through this. The image of the Devil being a creature with horns on his head and hooves for feet is exactly how Pan is described. If you think about it, if we stretch our imaginations for a bit, if Pan is the God of shepherds and Jesus is “The Good Shepherd” it seems as if they would have been friends if Pan had existed. It is also worthy to note, that some Pagans often refer to the Gods and Goddesses they worship as being part of a “Divine Source” or something called “the Spirit of the Universe” which could be referred to as a genderless God that cannot be truly described. Keeping this in mind, in some sense, they are monotheistic. Some Pagan Gnostics go on to refer to these Pagan Gods and Goddesses as “mere emanations” of the Divine Source, which, they claim, is what Jesus was talking about in their texts. (It is also good to note that many consider Jesus to be a very high emanation.) In fact, most Pagans respect all religions, and some even think that the teachings of Jesus are a good way to live; they just merely do their sort of worship in a very very unorthodox (from our perspective) way.

All right, so where in the name of our Lord do we come up with the idea that Satanists eat our young and kill the innocent? Peter H. Gillmore, High Priest of the CoS, has been quoted to have said that these terrible acts that are done “in the name of Satan” are done by deranged individuals who have no affiliation with any religious organization.(12) He also points out that the FBI has proven that any “ritualistic killings” done in the name of Satan have never ever been tied to any actual group.(13) I suggest we use a much more appropriate phrase for this: Demon Worship. This would still refer to our Christian idea of the devil and no religion that believes in demons would consider them a good thing to have around. While this is not one-in-the-same as Theistic Satanism, it would be part of it. Demon Worshipers would be the ones who “see themselves as enemies of "Good" and servants of "Evil" in the name of Satan, who they see as the God of all that is Evil.”(14) These tend to be the evil people in our society today who are bringing about terror and destruction for “the hell of it.”

It is not the atheistic members of the Church of Satan, nor the almost Buddhist-like members of the Temple of Set, nor the members of the First Church of Satan that would commit horrible acts. It is also most assuredly not the Pagans who would either! These groups are all full of everyday people, striving for the good of humanity through their own ways. Isn’t that what we Christians are supposed to do? Isn’t that what Jesus would’ve wanted? Perhaps we should all work together to create a harmonious society, so that no one would dare commit any of these horrendous acts anymore. However, it is only once we start understanding one another and stop treating one another with bias and hatred out of fear that this goal could possibly be achieved.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciferianism

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciferianism

(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Satan

(4) http://youtube.com/watch?v=RM0kOdM9KT8

(5) http://youtube.com/watch?v=RM0kOdM9KT8 (okay, it might not be this one cause it’s a 3 part video and I don’t want to watch all 3 again)

(6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4SraX4inJw

(7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theistic_Satanism

(8) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theistic_Satanism

(9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Set

(10) http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/satanism/tempset.html

(11) LaVey, Anton Szandor . The Satanic Bible. n/a. n/a: University Press, 1969.

(12) http://youtube.com/watch?v=RM0kOdM9KT8 (okay, it might not be this one cause it’s a 3 part video and I don’t want to watch all 3 again)

(13) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4SraX4inJw

(14) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_worship