Alaska officials walk out of session after Satanist Gives Invocation, ‘Hail Satan’

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Which might cause one to scratch their head at the idea of the government considering them a religion (and giving them all the legal and tax benefits that come with it) despite this admission.

I thought there was some sort of penalty for lying on government forms, but I must’ve been mistaken.
 
I guess I was under the impression that a religious nonprofit had to actually be religious. Again, maybe I’m wrong. We seem to be living in a world where anything can mean anything.
 
The shock is how they make their political points.

I’ll just say as Catholics we don’t need to subscribe to enlightenment or classical liberal philosophies which have been hammered into put heads since birth.
 
ILoveYeshua said:
Their belief in Satan is probably insincere anyway, so their invocation was probably trivial and not worthy of respect in my opinion
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At least some Satanists have restyled themselves as run of the mill SJW leftist activists. We must all make of that what we will.
 
Thom18 said:
I guess I was under the impression that a religious nonprofit had to actually be religious.
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They have religious tenets, which they no doubt sincerely believe in. Here’s the list from their website:

Tenets​

There are seven fundamental tenets.
  • One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
  • The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
  • One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
  • The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own.
  • Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.
  • People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
  • Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
 
Wesrock said:
The shock is how they make their political points.
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It’s a totally legitimate political tool.
Wesrock said:
I’ll just say as Catholics we don’t need to subscribe to enlightenment or classical liberal philosophies which have been hammered into put heads since birth.
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Even a conservative Catholic can agree that the government has no business deciding which religions are acceptable, and which are not.
 
GordonP said:
Even a conservative Catholic can agree that the government has no business deciding which religions are acceptable, and which are not.
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Yeah, I don’t really want somebody from outside the Church defining Christianity for me. No thanks, unless it is a gathering of people who freely gather for the purpose of praying together, just let the invocation go. If it is a gathering of people who are freely praying together, they can decide their own common ground together. (If, for example, some other denomination’s Christian school was having an athetic contest with a Catholic school, common theological ground for an invocation could most likely be found.) If it is a gathering of people gathering to do business for a secular government, then this is an example of what can be eventually expected to happen.
 
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I thought that the purpose of an invocation is to invoke the blessings of the Deity upon a gathering. If someone does not believe in a Deity, how can he or she offer an invocation? For example, an atheist who rejects the notion of a Deity or a Satanist who does not believe in Satan? And if a Satanist does believe in Satan, would it be proper to ask Satan for a blessing?
 
JimG said:
I thought that the purpose of an invocation is to invoke the blessings of the Deity upon a gathering.
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What business does the government have in invoking the blessing of a deity upon a government meeting?

And you are missing the point about her actions. She is not offering an invocation. She is making a legal point. Rather effectively, I might add.
 
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If she doesn’t believe in Satan, then I think she is missing a much larger point.
 
GordonP said:
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Wesrock:
I’ll just say as Catholics we don’t need to subscribe to enlightenment or classical liberal philosophies which have been hammered into put heads since birth.
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Even a conservative Catholic can agree that the government has no business deciding which religions are acceptable, and which are not.
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American Conservatism is based on enlightenment and classically liberal philosophy so I’m not surprised.
 
The concepts that she is mockingly using to score political points may be in fact very real and very much in existence.
 
JimG said:
I thought that the purpose of an invocation is to invoke the blessings of the Deity upon a gathering. If someone does not believe in a Deity, how can he or she offer an invocation? For example, an atheist who rejects the notion of a Deity or a Satanist who does not believe in Satan? And if a Satanist does believe in Satan, would it be proper to ask Satan for a blessing?
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The purpose of an invocation is whatever the one giving the invocation believes is spiritually beneficial for the gathering. Apparently, this one thought what would be spiritually beneficial would be to smack the theists upside the head with the realization that their invocations were irking the confirmed atheists. (Keeping in mind that two non-Christian deists had been denied the opportunity to deliver the invocation, that might have been a fair point, even if it wasn’t the least bit “spiritual.”)

I would say the intended message was lost on the intended audience, who believe instead that a supernaturally-powered reign of evil was being called down on the gathering.

I think those of us who are irked by Christmas being turned into a Love-Means-Santa-Brings-Stuff-fest can identify with the feeling that the actual effect and the proposed effect of something have become two very different things.
 
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In other words, it may be dangerous to invoke Satan even if one does not believe in him. He believes in himself. Invoking the Spaghetti Monster may be less problematic, except in so far as it can be taken as mocking God, which is not a good thing to do.
 
PetraG said:
Apparently, this one thought what would be spiritually beneficial would be to smacking the theists upside the head with the realization that their invocations were irking the confirmed atheists.
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Almost. She was smacking religious believer with the realization that their invocations were irking those that don’t share their particular religious beliefs. Those irked might be atheists, or members of other religious groups. Or even Catholics like me who would feel creeped out if the invocation were given even by a Catholic priest. Sorry, but there is a time and a place, and during a government meeting is neither.
 
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