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| Baphomet |
The mundanity of a local council meeting in Alaska was astonishingly broken when a decision to open up the forum to all religions resulted in a Satanist presenting the opening prayer – to Lucifer.
When the local government of Kenai Borough decided to welcome other faiths to their assemblies they probably didn’t envisage opening up their doors to the Lord of Darkness.
On Tuesday, Iris Fontana – reportedly a member of the Satanic Temple organization that views Satan as a symbol for rebellion and rational inquiry – gave the assembly invocation usually reserved for pastors.
Meeting attendees were reminded that they did not have to participate in the opening ritual.
And look, there's a video.
You know I was somewhat less than thrilled when the Satanic Temple first came along in 2014.
I thought they might negatively impact Atheism, and just be kind of silly.
However I have to admit that many of their public events have been inspired, and they have done a great job of demonstrating how intrusive certain religious rituals and religious icons are in the public arena.
I know you probably read the title and thought this had something to do with Sarah Palin.
But I think we can all agree that the Satanic Temple is a force for good, while Sarah Palin is an evil sorceress who practices the dark arts, sacrifices children, and feeds on hate and negativity.
Perhaps somebody should erect a statue of Baphomet somewhere near her property.
I've been reading here regularly for some 4+ yrs. I'm a lifelong agnostic. I don't see this idea or concept of honoring "Satan" doing a lot of good in persuading religious people to respect an agnostic's or atheist's views. I have seen both Gryphen and numerous anon posters ridicule or attack another's beliefs as silly, superstitous or lacking critical thought. That doesn't help improve understanding either, but hey, I'll be reminded "it's Gryphen's blog". To honor a figure that Christians consider the polar opposite of holy just worsens the situation. It reminds me of Pamela Gellar and the way she tries to bait Muslims. It's too early and I haven't had my coffee, so not sure where I'm going with this. I just don't see this as a way to promote tolerance when it seems to me that it's going about that by being deliberately antagonistic.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree, and the statement "I think we can all agree that the Satanic Temple is a force for good" is proof of that antagonism.
DeleteYeah, you might want to actually research what the Satanic Temple is, and what it is that they do.
DeleteGryphen -
DeleteYou just emphasized the point that the other commenters were making! Your as thinskinned & sensitive as Trump is.
Something I've always wondered; why are all Twoo Kwistyuns so pants-soilingly terrified of Satan? It's like they have no faith (see what I did there?) that their so-called all-powerfull (all-petty and all-pissy more like) deity can protect them!
DeleteThanks, Gryphen, for pointing out that the pants-soilers actually have no idea what the Satanic Temple is all about. They're just calling attention to giving *all* faith equal time in the public square, not just fundagelical Christianity. All or none; can't favor just one faith--that's not Constitutional.
DeleteI'm a lifelong Atheist but in all fairness some churches do some good, be they Satanic, Christian, Muslim or Spaghetti.
DeleteSome feed the hungry and clothe the poor without sharing their beliefs or proselytizing
to the needy that seek their services. Some serve heaping portions of their dogma along with their succor. The latter is what gives organized religion a black eye.
The Satanic church is just another example of organized religion, and I'm sure there are good Satanists just as there are bad ones, same as any any organized religion.
As an Atheist it's the entire concept of organized religion that turns me off, but people flock to it because they are seeking some relief from the existential dead-end that is our lives, some hope that it's not eternal darkness when our consciousness succumbs to the death of the body and use religion to bargain for a second chance. Some people also need regular social contact with a group. Some of us are happier without either of those things.
If a person's god leads him towards helping others without trying to convert him, then good for him.
Many of us don't find it necessary to have to be prompted by a supreme being in order to help people, it just comes naturally.
Lucifer is a fallen angel, but still an angel. His punishment is to be banished from heaven and the presence of God.
DeleteThe horns, tail, fire and brimstone all came later.
I'm no scholar but I'm sure it was all borrowed from some other, probably extinct, religion just like the flood. I am sure it has been warped and twisted by subsequent "Christians" of power to suit their personal beliefs and agendas just as the books of the bible were cherry picked and Mary Magdalene was turned into a whore.
Why is it we can only tolerate the major religions?
Satanism is now what Wicca was decades ago.
The Viking religion is being resurrected and I believe one of their "pastors" has been recognized as a chaplain in the military of Norway or Sweden or Finland, I can't remember.
Christianity is as valid as what our Native American populations still believe and practice.
Reporting on Satanism, and even giving it a compliment (which is rare for an atheist so against organized religion) doesn't diminish or reflect on Christianity.
Blowing someone else's candle out isn't going to make yours burn brighter.
I agree with the above poster that Christians seem to be the most thin-skinned of any religion. I guess their hubris, elitism and feeling of superiority makes tolerance difficult. Either that, or their "faith" is so weak they perceive everything as a threat.
I'm not as worried about Muslim Jihadists as I am about Christian Crusaders. Two sides of the same extremist coin.
The poorly thought out means to this stuff undermine the good that its ends would accomplish. People seeing of hearing "Satan" or some variation thereof will immediately stop listening or opening their minds about the harmful consequences if organized religion. So no, the Satanic Temple ultimately will not be a force for good.
DeleteYou had me until you brought up Palin. This is an important issue and to make light of that by referencing her only looks childish and petty. Thus you become what you profess to hate. No, I'm not a troll or a Palin fan, at all.
ReplyDeleteSuck it up and deal - or post at the pee pond. Political correctness is way over rated.
DeleteAnon @ 8:37. You're Gryphen's equivalent of Virginia Gentleman, Anyone that doesn't keep to your script must be insulted and banished. Hypocrite!
Delete"...that all men are endowed ...by THEIR creator..."
ReplyDeleteNot your creator - THEIR creator.
Keep that in mind when you start advocating for "religious displays in the public square" you fools.
Sad, sad, sad, your blog has come down to inserting Palin into articles that have nothing to do with her. Then there are the cut and paste political posts that you just parrot in your comments. What's next posting the weather report and predicting it in your following comments.
ReplyDeleteLame, lame, lane... no one if holding a gun to your head and making you read. Leave if you don't like what you see and take your idiotic negativity with you.
DeleteImmoral Minority should be awarded the Nobel Peace prize for outstanding contributions in peace.
DeleteAmericans and the world appreciates how Immoral Minority brought down Sarah and her family.
7:31
DeleteThe fact that Gryphen's blog makes your head explode is a plus for the rest of us.
@7:31 you took the words out of my mouth. Gryphen just uses this blog to pump up his flaccid little progressive credentials. Instead of posting 5-6 anti-Trump or anti-Palin pieces every day, he should try to br a bit more intellectually curious. The defense of his lackeys here is hilarious. He gets off to their idolatry though.
DeleteAnon @ 8:16 In what world has this blog made contributions to world peace. Holy crap, there have been some seriously asnine comments made on here over the last 8 years but yours wins the dumbest of all time.
DeleteAnon @ 7:31 8:16 is a perfect example of one of those lackeys. Although with Gryphen's raging narcissism he might have posted that himself.
I thought I smelled fire and brimstone coming out of Wasilla.
ReplyDeleteIn Genesis 19, God destroys Sarah Sodom and Todd Gomorrah with a rain of fire and brimstone.
"Perhaps somebody should erect a statue of Baphomet somewhere near her (Sarah Palin) property."
ReplyDelete-Immoral Minority
Gryph didn't they already ERECT something like that in Wasilla?
Do you remember the commotion about Sarah's or Bristol's Vagina Statue in Wasilla?
Google: Wasilla High School Vagina
Internet:
The Great Stone Vagina of Wasilla High
Wasilla High School, the alma mater of Sarah and Todd Palin, the school that Bristol was attending when she got knocked up, and the school that the younger Palin’s presumably still attend if they’re not being home schooled or some such nonsense, recently put up a new statue on their front lawn.
The artists, Jim Dault and Shala Dobson, say it isn’t actually meant to look like a vagina. “Emerging from the powerful stone form are two warrior shields encircled by glowing feathers. The bronze shield has a hand impression showing good deeds. The aluminum shield has a flame symbol representing the spark of inspiration. The stone form represents the strong material from which a warrior is made,” is the description they gave of the piece, which is entitled “The Warrior Within.” Wasilla High’s sports teams are The Warriors.
Nonetheless, it looks like a vagina and all of the students saw that right away.
Perhaps the Satanists wouldn't be necessary if Domionists weren't trying to make the USA into a theocracy.
ReplyDeleteThe Christian holy book dwells a lot on the power of Satan - the Prince of lies. Easy fix for folks - don't lie.
Wasilla, Home of the Palins
ReplyDeleteSatanism comes out of the closet in Alaska
Wasilla Smells like Fire and Brimstone
Vagina statue erected in front of Wasilla High School
No wonder Wasilla doesn't like the Palins
Is that you Levi, Ben, Dylan, Gino, Joey or the Kentucky Meyers family?
DeleteThere is some odd huffy trollery popping up lately...You're the lively pebble in Palin's ever restless shoe and yet they gripe when you so much as mention her. She remains a cancerous presence and should be treated as such lest she think her nastiness has been forgotten.
ReplyDeleteAnd those of you freaking out about this new Temple: look them up. They are doing all of us fans of separation of church and state a huge favor.
M from MD
I think it is less trollery and more freedom to be vocally intolerant post primary due to some of the behavior Gryphen allowed by example.
DeleteSomething not too many people know:
ReplyDeleteDuring the time when a small boy went missing and a cop disappeared, there was a bloody 'alter' found in the woods surrounding Willow, AK. It was quietly attributed to Satanists who were known to be in the area.
It was in the late '80's, before DNA was being used for identification on a routine basis.
Some say Wasilla, home of the Palins, smells like fire and brimstone.
ReplyDeleteIs that meth they smell?
Is that why Lake Lucille is called Dead Lake Lucille? No one swims or fish in Dead Lake Lucille because they say that chemicals were dumped or seeped into the lake and contaminated it? Was it chemicals used to cook meth that killed our lake?
Meth is the No. 1 drug in the Valley, according to Sgt. Robert Langendorfer, an investigator with the Mat-Su Narcotics Unit.
The Mat-Su Narcotics Unit has five law-enforcement officers - three troopers and one officer each from the Palmer and Wasilla police departments. Thorough November, they busted 27 labs, according to trooper statistics, and arrested 123 people.
At each lab busted, Langendorfer said, they typically find weapons easily accessible to the paranoid, violent people inside the lab. No one can say definitively why 2004 saw 15 more labs busted than in 2005.
http://www.frontiersman.com/news/meth-related-crimes-filling-court-dockets/article_55172807-3dd4-5d18-a8bf-c58c926c287d.html
We've moved on from meth, we now have an opioid and heroin crisis.
DeleteWhat the hell does that have to do with this post. I swear 95% of Gryphen's little cult are mentally challenged or have severe ADHD.
DeleteAnon 8:45, Interesting that Sarah Palin calls Dead Lake Lucille the Palin family swimming hole.
ReplyDeleteHas anybody ever seen any Palin swimming in that toxic lake?
Hey! Isn't that the Cub Scout salute?
ReplyDeleteOkay, so that explains it.
Internet:
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin discovered that the house next door to her lakeside mansion in Wasilla had been rented to writer Joe McGinniss--an investigative journalist working on a book about Alaska that was unlikely to be sympathetic to her world view--she quickly put up a tall fence to block off his side windows.
"Wonder what kind of material he'll gather," mused Palin, "while overlooking Piper's bedroom, my little garden, and the family's swimming hole?"
The family's swimming hole?
×××××××××
$arah isn't your family swimming hole toxic? You have posted pictures on Facebook of your family jumping off of a rented houseboat in a lake in another state and pictures of you and your family jumping into your Arizona pool you can't sell but you have never posted any pictures of you or your family swimming or jumping into Lake Lucille. Why is that Sarah? Why do you call Lake Lucille your family swimming hole if you guys don't swim in it?
ReplyDeleteSarah you retard, who in their right mind would spy on you wearing shorts and a tank top? As far as your other words, you have a sick fantasy.
1. From what we can see you have no breasts.
2. Chicken legs are not attractive.
3. Your children play area? What are you talking about? You don't even have pictures of your children playing in your yard.
4. You are full of shit. You're going to bring over your homemade blueberry pie to show him how friendly Alaskans are. What makes you think he's not an Alaskan? Sarah your are just being a Drama Queen as usual.
Internet:
Palin made it sound like she is living in typical small town America, “Yes, that Joe McGinniss. Here he is – about 15 feet away on the neighbor’s rented deck overlooking my children’s play area and my kitchen window. Maybe we’ll welcome him with a homemade blueberry pie tomorrow so he’ll know how friendly Alaskans are.”
She continued, “We found out the good news today. Upon my family’s return this morning from endorsement rallies and speeches in the Lower 48 states, I finally got the chance to tackle my garden and lawn this evening! So, putting on the shorts and tank top to catch that too-brief northern summer sun and placing a giddy Trig in his toddler backpack for a lawn-mowing adventure, I looked up in surprise to see a “new neighbor” overlooking my property just a stone’s throw away. Needless to say, our outdoor adventure ended quickly after Todd went to introduce himself to the stranger who was peering in…I wonder what kind of material he’ll gather while overlooking Piper’s bedroom, my little garden, and the family’s swimming hole?”
.... Palin the millionaire who lives in a compound is selling a Middle American fantasy that about as real as her description of the family swimming hole. Unless only millionaires are real Americans, Palin has as much in common with real America as her family swimming hole does with a backyard swimming pool. As usual, those pesky facts get in the way of what Sarah is selling.
Holy shit!!!! You're every bit as hateful as any Palin and Gryphen is basically your version of Briebart.
DeletePeople believe in what they want to believe in. That's a given. But to surrender our government to imaginary powers doesn't balance budgets, nor fix anything here on earth. Humans tend to have a ceiling in their power solving thinking system and when there is no where to go they surrender to the supernatural. The ancients sacrificed plenty of women and children in the name of that god and this god. Geez, pretty soon, that assembly will be doing that and no one will blink an eye. You know, just do the work if you're in government. Stop trying to hand it off to gods of your imagination, and or get the effing off that seat, and let a thinking person take your seat. Work needs to be done. Especially here in Alaska. Tinker Bell and Peter Pan cannot solve our problems.
ReplyDeleteOT?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3738575/Reality-mom-62-appears-court-manslaughter-charges-six-year-old-son-beat-13-DAY-old-baby-sister-death-left-car-38-minutes-went-shopping.html
It was god's will ;-)
Deletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/nyregion/after-lawsuit-new-jersey-allows-driver-to-get-8theist-license-plate.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=1
ReplyDeleteBilly Graham Cult:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.christianpost.com/news/billy-graham-3-warning-signs-that-a-church-is-actually-a-cult-167786/
I thought someone ripped of my avatar
ReplyDelete