Under Pressure, Harvard Satanists Move "Black Mass" Off-Campus

Attention-Getting Status: Attention Gotten.

They rolled a Critical Hit on publicity.

It was held at a place called the Hong Kong lounge in Harvard Square.

A reenactment of satanic rituals known as a “black mass” that had been scheduled for Monday evening on the Harvard campus was abruptly canceled amid a chorus of condemnation from Catholic groups and university officials and students.

However, a scaled-down version of the event, without the original sponsorship of the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club, was apparently held late Monday by members of the New York-based Satanic Temple off campus, at the Hong Kong lounge in Harvard Square.

Everyone must pause to take note that the Satanic Temple spokesman is named, in his own mind, "Lucien Greaves."

Lucien Greaves, a temple spokesman, said in an e-mail at 10:35 p.m. that the mass was “happening now” at the Hong Kong. He did not say how many people were participating or provide specifics on what was happening.

A lounge employee, who would only identify himself as Fred, said in a phone interview that temple members were drinking at the bar, but he did not believe they were performing any rituals.

....

“Everyone involved, outside of the Satanic Temple, got really scared,” [Lucien] Greaves said. “And I don’t necessarily blame them, because I understand that they were getting a lot of vitriolic hate mail, and I don’t think they expected it.”

This just in: Satan Worshippers were surprised their proposed staging of a Black Mass was controversial.

I guess Satan isn't exactly recruiting the Best and the Brightest these days.

Meanwhile, via Twitchy:

I don't think that Outrage is the best response to this. They're going to keep on trying at a big splashy well-publicized event, of course. People don't become Satanists because they want to live quiet lives like regular people. They want attention, and they'll keep attempting these stunts until (for example) a court compels a university venue to host them.

I don't think shutting them down and shutting them up is either workable or productive. It tends to give them more attention than a person who calls himself "Lucien Greaves" really deserves.

They're silly, marginal people, and silly, marginal pose little threat to the world. To some extent silly, marginal people have to be indulged, if only because they are silly and marginal, and therefore weak, and strong people should abide a little acting-up by the weak.

The standing-room-only attendance at a church is much more of an effective answer, I think.

Some people may object that this "ceremony" actually has real-world consequences, to wit, actually conjuring or at least feeding Satan.

But I would counter-object:

First, what the Satanists are doing actually is not illegal, and no bearable law would make it illegal. They're conducting these alleged "black masses" anyway. The only thing that they were doing in this case was staging the "black mass" in a public venue, rather than in their mom's basement.

Second, if you've ever paged through any alleged book of "real magic," you will know that this stuff tends to be... ridiculous. I mean, eye-rollingly chuckle-worthy.

To some extent, I think, it would tend to remove whatever mystique the "Satanic Black Mass" has by letting people see exactly what time-wasting, attention-seeking, deeper-psychological-issue nonsense shenanigans these guys are routinely up to.

posted by Ace at 03:38 PM

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