On the weekend of April 28, 2023, “SatanCon,” the largest Satanic gathering in history, took place in Boston, Massachusetts. The weekend-long event sold out and featured satanic rituals, entertainment, a ‘satanic marketplace’ and a satanic wedding chapel, in case anyone wanted to get married under the presence of Satan.
In order to prove that SatanCon is a religious event, and therefore a righteous event, it could be said that the event was practicing Atheism. Atheism is its own religion, and the law agrees.
But, the name “SatanCon” itself proves that this was an anti-Christian event, rather than an atheist event. And the fact that hundreds of Satanists clapped and cheered as pages from the Bible were ripped to shreds and thrown on the ground.
Many of the attendees of SatanCon were interviewed by various news sources outside of the event. “It’s about supporting human rights. It’s about supporting women’s bodily autonomy. It’s about freedom of religion, freedom from religion,” SatanCon attendee Richard-Lael Lillard told WBZ-TV. “Most don’t believe in Satan, not a literal Satan. It’s not some 1980s horror film.”
“Satanism is a very misunderstood religion,” said Dex Desjardins of The Satanic Temple. “A lot of people think we just picked the name Satan out of a hat to troll Christians or something, but we honestly don’t really care what anyone else thinks about us. So, we’re not doing anything to troll anybody.”
Although some of these people at SatanCon might believe in these values, why did they hold a Bible destruction ceremony? Why did they have Satanic rituals and yell “Hail Satan” if they don’t actually believe in Satan? If it’s about freedom of religion, why did they destroy the Bible? If this event wasn’t made to ‘troll’ Christians, why did they destroy the Bible? If ‘most don’t believe in Satan,’ why was there a need for a Satanic wedding chapel for the event goers to get married in?
On “The View,” actress Patti LuPone stated “…I’ve said this before and I’m going to get in trouble. I’ve said this before, and it’s been in print. I don’t know what the difference between our Christian Right and the Taliban is. I have no idea what the difference is.”
This is not LuPone’s first time making this remark. In 2018, she made a similar statement, but instead compared Christians to Al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for carrying out the deadliest attack on American soil.
This response came after Governor Ronald DeSantis’s push to expand the “Don’t Say Gay” laws, blocking public schools from teaching about sexuality and gender identity. She was also upset by other ‘attacks’ against the trans community, criticizing Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney campaign.
Although this statement was made to cause a stir, the statement holds many fallacies and an unfair comparison. The Taliban have been terrorizing Afghanistan since 1996. They are known for their violations of human rights, including denying women and girls the right to work and have an education, performing extrajudicial executions, torture, unlawful arrests, etc.
So, it is viable that someone could compare Chrisitians and the Taliban in the fact that they are violating human rights, but even that argument is still faulty. The “Don’t Say Gay” laws are still a heavily controversial topic with some claiming that they are a violation of human rights. Although this case is still being debated, there is no clear evidence of a major human rights violation as there is in Afghaistan under the Taliban control.
Under Taliban rule, the LGBT+ community face harsher human rights violations than other citizens. They are the targets of intentional attacks, sexual assault and unlawful arrests.
None of these things happen to LGBT+ citizens in the United States without proper repercussions. The United States provides legal protections for all citizens including LGBT+ individuals because it is illegal to commit such acts.
Regardless, incidents of discrimination and violence do occur in the country. However, unlike in places like Afghanistan under Taliban rule, the U.S. justice system responds appropriately to any crime that were to take place in order to protect the LGBT+ citizens. This is what makes LuPone’s comparison of the “Christain Right” and the vigorous insurgent group in the Middle East that performs public executions and flogs their citizens is a completely illogical statement.
Similarly, Al-Qaeda is a Salafi militant organization based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but commonly referred to as a terrorist organization here in the United States. Al-Qaeda was the terrorist organization responsible for 2,996 deaths after they hijacked four planes on Sept. 11, 2001. Al-Qaeda was also responsible for the deaths of thousands more through suicide bombings and targeted attacks.
Imagine if LuPone compared Al-Qaeda to Jews or Muslims instead of the “Christian Right.” Would she ever be granted another acting gig? Celebrities were canceled because of their anti-religious statements in the past–when Kanye West made anti-semitc comments, he lost sponsors, fans and he got backlash for his statements, and rightfully so.
So why isn’t there backlash for LuPone’s statements? How can she actively compare a religious group to the terrorist organization that was responsible for 9/11? Is that not an insult to 9/11 survivors and their families? How could the co-stars on the show just nod their heads in agreement?Why is Christian hate acceptable in today’s society?
A viral TikTok, later taken down, demonstrated how society is open to anti-Christian views through a couple of searches. The creator of the TikTok searched these terms in the TikTok search bar: “anti christian,” “anti jewish” and “anti muslim’.” Anti-jewish and anti-muslim were blocked by TikTok’s community guidelines, stating “This phrase may be associated with hateful behavior.” Anti-Christian was the only search that wasn’t blocked by community guidelines. Why is that? Is hateful behavior OK on TikTok when it’s towards Christians?
Rainn Wilson, an actor from “The Office,” tweeted about how he sees anti-Christian bias in Hollywood. He commented on how one of the villains, David, from the popular show “The Last of Us” on HBO is demonstrated as a loving pastor that reads from the Bible. His whole villain arc relies on the fact that he used Christianity to take advantage of the characters. But, in the adapted video game, David isn’t a pastor. Why make him a Christian pastor or even involve Christianity in the first place? Is it to help fabricate a stigma around Christians and pastors?
According to a study done from 2007-2018 by the Pew Research Center, Christianity was the religious group that experienced the most harassment because of their beliefs. ‘Harassment’ includes a wide variety “verbal abuse to physical violence and killings, motivated at least in part by the target’s religious identity.”
These are only a handful of examples of how Christians are facing persecution and scrutiny. Christians are statistically the most hated religious group in the world. It seems that there is a tolerance for different belief systems, but when it comes to Christianity, it is mocked and hated.
