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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Kinder, Gentler, Church of |
| 2006-11-02 |
| Some might argue the life of a mortgage broker is a living hell. For Mike Grace, of Birmingham, Mich., it's not too far from the truth. By day, he studies to be a loan officer. By night, he is High Magus Noxaura, the founder of the Reformed Church of Satan. Reformed? Do I want to know how "reformed?" But this is a kinder, gentler Satanist, the Metro Times of Detroit reports. The church doesn't worship Beelzebub, it believes in taking responsibility for your own actions and being your own god. "I don't care how much fun killing people is," Grace joked to the paper, "that sort of thing is just not acceptable." He's even got a Web site, positivesatanism.org Sadly, Grace fell from grace grace? himself a few days after speaking with the weekly newspaper. He was fired from his promising brokerage position. "You cannot be a religious leader without your faith being tested," he told the paper. Conflict of interest: the company wanted the fools' souls for itself. Then again, I haven't heard of many Satanists crashing airplanes into buildings or blowing children. In fact, those who do claim to be fighting The Great Satan. Maybe this is worth a look. |
| Posted by:Jackal |
| #3 the kind of people that buy copies of The Necronomicon and actually try the spells. I'm reading Crytonomicon*, does that count? *A DAMN GOOD BOOK ABOUT CRYPTOGRAPHY PAST AND PRESENT INCLUDING ALL SORTS OF HISTORICALLY BASED WORLD WAR FICTION WRITTEN WITH A DECIDEDLY BENT-AXLE SENSE OF HUMOR. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-11-02 23:49 |
| #2 Someone made great use of a sermon given by the late Anton LaVey, leader of the California Church of Satan. They mixed his sermon with The Flight of the Valkyries, by Wagner, and burned it to cassette tape. Then they put the tape in a Teddy Ruxpin as a party novelty. He said the effect was amazing. Especially after everybody had had a lot to drink. They were utterly hypnotized by the Wagnerian LaVey teddy bear spewing off about Satan. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-11-02 23:16 |
| #1 ... it believes in taking responsibility for your own actions and being your own god. There's my issue with real satanists. The Black Mass stuff and other accoutrements are shtick for PR purposes and to get a rise out of excitable Christians and media. Genuine crimes done for "satanic" reasons are almost always committed by dabblers and wannabes - the kind of people that buy copies of The Necronomicon and actually try the spells. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2006-11-02 22:19 |