Satanists in Kansas are planning to hold a “Black Mass” ritual at the state capitol in Topeka later this month to dedicate the grounds to the “glory of Satan.”
A “Black Mass” is a ritual performed as a parody of a Catholic Mass that religious groups criticize as sacrilegious, according to a report.
“We are going to observe certain rules than what we would do in private,” President of The Satanic Grotto Michael Stewart said. “Ours tend to be a little more body, a little more ruckus, smoke and mirrors, and fun. We can’t make any messes here. We can’t do a lot of things, so what we’re going to do is heavily lean into the four blasphemies, kind of representing an alternate to the stations of the cross.”
The ritual will protest “oppression” and the imposition of religion in the United States government, according to Stewart, who founded The Satanic Grotto.
“I’m hoping that our legislature remembers that Kansas is a diverse group of people with diverse needs and wants and stops placating to the largest demographic of religious people,” Stewart said.
Gov. Laura Kelly (D-KS) announced Wednesday that the ritual would be moved outside, but The Satanic Grotto remains adamant that the “Black Mass” will take place inside the state Capitol despite the possibility of arrest, the report noted.
Tradition, Family, and Property Student Action launched a petition that has over 35,000 signatures to stop the ritual.
“Please spread the word to all your friends so we can stop this sacrilege,” the petition reads. “Your voice and prayers were decisive at Harvard University where a similar Black Mass was stopped and canceled. Saint Michael won a great victory that day. And God can win again now.”
Drew Bowling, the congressional co-chair for the International Religious Freedom Summit, labeled the ritual as “gratuitously offensive.”
“As a Catholic convert, I find this provocative degradation of my faith gratuitously offensive, with no reason,” Bowling told the Washington Examiner. “Argue against Catholicism, by all means, but I ask that you don’t desecrate my reverential beliefs.”
“What I and millions of Americans hold sacred should not be subverted, especially when the hostility is undeserved and either political, or worse, genuinely malevolent.”
The Satanic Grotto alleges that religion has been the center of debates at the Kansas State Capitol surrounding issues including abortion, and the ritual is their response.
“The overall theme in it is expressing the hurt and anger and some of the feelings that come from being oppressed by a religion you didn’t ask for and didn’t consent to,” Stewart said, according to a report.
AMERICA IS EXPERIENCING A CHRISTIAN AWAKENING
“This is a specific response to our legislatures continuing to pander to groups like the Kansas Catholic Conference and to Kansans For Life, where they keep trying to come back and attack abortion rights, much less other rights.”
The “Black Mass” is set to take place March 28.