Satan

Thursday

Amelia Butler-Gallie

Devil in the detail

When I was offered the chance to review two new books about the Devil, I thought, “what fun!” I wouldn’t describe myself as a particularly diabolical person, but as someone whose deep love of Paradise Lost has made me, as good old William Blake didn’t quite put it, “of the devil’s party while very much knowing it,” I rubbed my hands together in glee at the prospect of getting down and dirty with Old Nick. Not, you understand, that my purely literary interest can begin to compare to the “Satanic Panic” outbreak that gripped the imaginations of middle America in the late 1980s and 1990s. “Satanic cults! Every hour, every day, their ranks are growing!

devil

Friday

The Spectator

Lawmakers debate milk in school lunches

The stakes were high this week as Congress’s dairy big cow-culation to allow whole milk back in cafeterias loomed. When push came to shove, Republicans and Democrats set aside their beef to allow kids the freedom to drink as they please. The broadly bipartisan bill, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, passed the House by a 330-99 vote — reversing Michelle Obama’s crazy push to ban whole milk from school lunches. “I am udderly in favor of whole milk,” Nebraska congressman Don Bacon told me, milking this vote for all it’s worth.

milk

Thursday

Amber Duke

Spooky season’s religious revival

One of the most anticipated films to hit theaters this October is The Exorcist: Believer, a direct sequel to one of the greatest horror movies of all time, The Exorcist, which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year. Coincidentally, the original film’s director, William Friedkin, passed away just a couple of months ago. In the wake of Friedkin’s death, Matthew Walther reexamined The Exorcist in a guest essay for the New York Times. He posited that the film hinges on the acknowledgment of supernatural evil and the use of longstanding Catholic theology and tradition in defeating it.

Thursday

Amber Duke

After School Satan Club loses sponsor, then finds a new one

The After School Satan Club being hosted at a Virginia elementary school faced a temporary setback Tuesday when its unnamed sponsor decided to no longer host the event. However, according to the Satanic Temple, which hosts the ASSC around the country, a new sponsor has resubmitted the group’s application. Chesapeake Public Schools Superintendent Jared A. Cotton sent an email to parents on Tuesday indicating that the initial application had been withdrawn. “Today, the Chesapeake citizen requesting to use the facility on behalf of the ASSC has officially withdrawn their request,” Cotton wrote. “As such, the application no longer meets the requirements of School Board Policy. At this point, the approval for building use has been canceled.

satan

Friday

Amber Duke

Virginia elementary school to host Satanic after-school program

An elementary school in Chesapeake, Virginia, will allow an "After School Satan Club" hosted by the Satanic Temple, according to a flyer for the program. B.M. Williams Primary School will hold the monthly event starting December 15 in its library. The flyer states that children will work on science and community service projects, puzzles and games, nature activities, and crafts. It includes a cartoon of Satan dressed as a professor and claims that Lucifer is merely a literary figure who represents the human mind and spirit. Children who attend the program, the group says, will learn "critical thinking" skills.

Friday

Michael Warren Davis

Why do so many Americans believe in the Devil?

Early in our marriage, my wife vetoed the idea of celebrating Christmas in the Alpine tradition: by having Santa Claus accompanied by Krampus, your friendly neighborhood ice-demon. Of course, Mrs. Davis was amenable to the idea of a horned monster beating our children with birch rods. At least when they’re naughty. Then she realized that, since neither of us are Swiss, it would technically be cultural appropriation. That was the end of that. Speaking of demons, here’s a little Christmas meditation for you: more Americans believe in the Devil than in God. According to a recent survey, 56 percent of us believe that “Satan is not merely a symbol of evil but is a real spiritual being and influences human lives.” That’s compared to 51 percent who believe in an all-powerful Creator.

Thursday

Grayson Quay

Travis Scott, satanist?

Last weekend, eight people were killed and over 300 were injured at rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival in Houston, as the crowd surged toward the stage. If a nine-year-old boy who fell from his father’s shoulders fails to emerge from his medically induced coma, the death toll could increase to nine. Scott took the stage at 9 p.m. By 9:38, authorities had deemed it a “mass casualty” situation. Instead of stopping the performance and attempting to defuse the situation, as musicians often do, Scott continued performing for another 37 minutes. An ambulance entered the throng. The crowd chanted “STOP THE SHOW!” Two concertgoers climbed on stage screaming “People are dead!” at a camera crew.

satan