Evensong - 26th September 2004
Every now and then two things happen that forge interesting connections in my mind. This happened last week. A new film of the Exorcist has been released. I think it might be one of those prequels, where the film maker goes back in time to before the first one was set and makes a film that fills in the background to lead up to where the other started. They did this with Star Wars, which when I was younger I thought started with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, but it turns out didn’t.
I overheard a conversation the other day in a canteen where one person was saying how they wouldn’t go to see the Exorcist because they didn’t like that sort of scary stuff. Then on the news came a report about a Satanist being allowed to practice his religion or at least register it on board HMS Cumberland. In one of my more obtuse moments I wondered if Chaplains in the Royal Navy are now banned from carrying out exorcisms! What does this say about blessing ships before they sail only to find that devil worshippers are allowed free reign?
Now I decided to do a bit of research on the internet into Satanism, to find out what they believe. How could any Commander in the Navy allow someone to sacrifice cockerels and goats on board ship summoning up the The Evil One? It turns out that modern Satanism is not quite what we all expect. Gone are the sacrifices and the cosmic war between good and evil. In fact gone is Satan himself. Their website announces:
In Satanism only the self is sacred. Stupidity is the cardinal ‘sin’, well I have a bit of sympathy with that one. Its law talks about respecting people, but then goes on to say that ‘when they fail to respect themselves do whatever you want to them: destroy them’. Satanism seems to make a god out of yourself, here and now being the only places that matter.
It seems that the hell has been taken out of Satanism, though it still turns the tenets of the Christian faith on their head along with the upturned crosses. Modern Satanism seems to be a bit like the non-realist Christians who have removed God and the eternal from their faith, so much so that I rather wondered if they haven’t reinvented themselves into something else.
It sounds rather pagan and nature worshipping; very earth bound and almost humanistic. Modern Satanists almost sound just the sort of people you would want to baby sit!
The worship of the self and the here and now is not new. It is really rather prevalent today. Since it has all been demythologised, perhaps we can start using the language of Satan again to talk about the sharp contrast between the Christian approach to living and the assumptions we often see around us. Perhaps the sharp contrasts in the baptism service have a new relevance after all.
Our New Testament reading this evening (Romans 8:31-39) placed God firmly at the centre of all things.
In the ancient myth, Satan is the one who tried to usurp the place of God, who tried to organise a rebellion against God. That part of the symbolism still stands, even if the cockerels, goats and virgins are out of danger.
© Ian Black 2004