{"id":123108,"date":"2014-05-25T22:16:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T02:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=123108"},"modified":"2014-08-29T13:32:03","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T17:32:03","slug":"epater-le-bourgeois-catholique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2014\/05\/epater-le-bourgeois-catholique\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c9pater le bourgeois catholique"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Stories about religion seem to do odd things to otherwise sensible reporters. Some news articles ignore the religious element of a story, or they suspend judgment (and belief) and accept without question or examination the claims of religions.<\/p>\n

In my most recent GetReligion podcast<\/a> with host Todd Wilken of Lutheran Public Radio I argued the fracas at Harvard University over a Black Mass was a fake story. By saying it was fake, I do not mean that it did not happen. Rather the press went along for the ride in a story about Satanic claims that set off a massive over reaction by the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

What we had was a student club seeking to shock bourgeois<\/a> Catholic sensitivities with a faux outrage \u2014 and the leadership of the Catholic Church responded by using a bazooka to swat a fly.<\/p>\n

How did this happen? Because reporters did not do their job and ask the hard questions at the start of the controversy. Once the hysteria began, it was too late to do anything. What we had was a Catholic version of the Terry Jones Koran burning story \u2014 this time with people involved in planning the event making conflicting claims about whether this rite would take place with a consecrated host.<\/p>\n

After the story broke I posted an essay at GetReligion entitled \u201cWhy should the devil<\/a> have all the best press?\u201d that discussed the then planned Harvard Black Mass along with the annual academic conference at the\u00a0Pontifical Athenaeum<\/a>\u00a0Regina Apostolorum on exorcism. I argued that the newspapers should have asked some hard questions of Harvard and the Satanists who were supposed to be putting on the Black Mass.<\/p>\n

Questions like: \u201cIs this a real religion or are you recreating a scene from a 19th Century French horror novel and calling that a religion?\u201d Or, \u201cWhen you say you are Satanists what do you mean by that? Are you devil worshipers? Followers of Anton LaVey\u2019s Church of Satan?\u201d<\/p>\n

Which leads to the question is the \u201960s Satanism of LaVey a bona fida religion or a scam?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

LaVey has been accused of being a conman who attracted nuts (Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez the night stalker) while pursuing celebrities to join his cult: Sammy Davis Jr. and Jayne Mansfield, for example.<\/p>\n

An apocryphal<\/a> story about Sammy\u2019s dalliance with Satanism was that it was part of a plug for his 1973 film, Poor Devil<\/a>. And that he was briefly into the scene, man, for the chicks.<\/p>\n

My second post on the Black Mass entitled \u201cSome new facts<\/a> on Harvard\u2019s Satanists from Daily News\u201d noted that newspaper\u2019s reporting on the group and their claims. I applauded The Daily News<\/em> for not taking at face value the claims of some members of the student club.<\/p>\n

Though I did not mention it in the podcast, a commentary piece by Kathy Shaidle entitled \u201cPick your demons<\/a>\u201d offered the best overview of this contretemps, from my point of view. Discussing the reaction of the Catholic Church and Catholic commentators, Shaidle wrote:<\/p>\n

So now Catholics are congratulating themselves for preventing a handful of dingbats from giggling their way through an hour of masturbatory \u201cshock the bourgeoisie (of the 19th century)\u201d performance art.<\/p>\n

If only they\u2019d shifted themselves so decisively when something truly evil was going on inside the Church itself. Did Eucharistic processions encircle courthouses where gay \u201cmarriage\u201d was being declared law? With the exception of abortion, the last issue the Church seemed to be on the right, very public, side of was\u00a0Solidarno??<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the Catholics are taking their cues from the culture at large instead of the other way around. The Harvard Black Mass diversion was simply more\u00a0no-risk, too-little-too-late activism of the #BringBackOurGirls<\/a>\u00a0variety. Because Satanists aren\u2019t a protected identity group (yet), the protesters didn\u2019t have to worry about being called homophobic or misogynist.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let me say at the close that I am not discussing the reality or non-reality of Satan, the demonic or the occult. My concern is with reporters willing to suspend their critical judgment in order to sex up a story.<\/p>\n

Well, that was what I had hoped to say in my interview. To listen to my latest rant click on the link.<\/a><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> The short podcast to which George Conger is linking here was meant to be part of this week\u2019s larger Crossroads podcast (click here for that podcast<\/a>), in a twin-bill with Bobby Ross, Jr. At this point the main podcast link does not include Conger\u2019s material. We hope to get this fixed as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stories about religion seem to do odd things to otherwise sensible reporters. Some news articles ignore the religious element of a story, or they suspend judgment (and belief) and accept without question or examination the claims of religions. In my most recent GetReligion podcast with host Todd Wilken of Lutheran Public Radio I argued the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,7,68,11],"tags":[3293,1402,3314,3313,1660],"class_list":["post-123108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheists","category-journalism","category-getreligion-podcasts","category-pop-culture","tag-black-mass","tag-daily-mail","tag-kathy-shaidle","tag-sammy-davis-jr","tag-satanism"],"yoast_head":"\n\u00c9pater le bourgeois catholique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stories about religion seem to do odd things to otherwise sensible reporters. 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