Satanism
What’s the deal with Satanism? Recently, Satanists have been in the news quite a bit lately. In Boston, there was a sold-out Satanism convention in April. Other news outlets report that there is an increase in the number of Satanic clubs in public schools. In Florida, Satanists did the opening invocation at the beginning of a 2019 city council meeting.
If you check out one of the few Satanic research monographs, Satanism: A Social History by Massimo Introvigne, you discover that organized Satanism is a pretty tiny thing. Introvigne admits as much: “Admittedly, Satanism is small. The proto-Satanist groups or early Satanist groups … were tiny” (page 2). Despite that, Introvigne, and other Satanic studies scholars, make two solid points. First, the overwhelming majority of Satanists do not “glorify evil” (page 4). Rather, they worship a character named Satan or Lucifer who embodies certain ideas that Satanists belief deserve more attention. A sociologist might say that Satanists are a sub-culture who are “in tension” with the mainstream religion, to use Max Weber’s phraseology.
Second, these scholars note that Satanism has successfully institutionalized. There are now pockets of Satanic or Luciferian worshippers in the US and Europe and, most importantly, they are now in public. They have churches, school clubs, and some legal protections.
One factor that helps Satanism is that most Satanic sects don’t condone murder or mayhem. Rather, they seem to espouse an ideology that mixes individualism, hedonism, and Epicureanism. Also, they are anti-Christian in the sense that they think Christian culture promotes the opposite view and there is no reason to believe that you are in moral good standing because you say you worship Jesus. I would add one factor that gets downplayed - theatricality, contrarianism, and sensationalism. In theory, you could just make a club where people promote, say, free love. Instead, they choose the most feared character in Christian cosmology and hype it up. They also like wearing black hoods. Satanists love putting on a good show.
In other words, once you get past the costumes and make up, Satanism is a coordinating framework for people who are in some way frustrated, or highly critical, of mainstream Christianity. A great example comes from that 2019 Florida council meeting. Here’s the link to the invocation and I’ll transcribe a few key sentences (starts at 2:24 in the video):
Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions, not their fealty to arbitrary social norms and illusory categorizations [Satanist points at Christian protesters]. It is done in HEEEEEEEEEELLL …. SAAAAAATAAAAAN!!
While some Satanists may actually believe in a literal spirit who was cast from Heaven, I suspect that for many, Satanism is a cultural practice that promotes a different, anti-Christian ethos based in physical enjoyment of life, some sort of individualism or egoism, and a rejection of tribalism derived from loyalty to a church. Many Satanists are pursue the political cause of separation of church and state and downplaying traditional religion in life. In an important sense, many Satanists are just secularists in robes.
Bottom line: You may cast him from Heaven, but you can’t keep an angel down.
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