A Battle With Baphomet

Couldn’t help clicking on this clearly baiting headline, Satanic Temple Statue Unveiled at the Arkansas State Capital. As further evidence of a depraved mind, I went ahead and read the whole thing and watched all the videos. Turns out the legislature of Arkansas has not given equal time to the Satanists by letting them have their statue permanently along side the 10 Commandments. Baphomet was only there for the day. The article notes that “dozens” turned out for the unveiling and then went home again, taking the statue with them. The 10 Commandments stayed put, in stone as it were.

Couldn’t stop myself from clicking over to the facebook page of Sen. Jason Rapert, who, getting into the spirit of the thing, employed a clever turn of phrase, “… it will be a very cold day in hell before an offensive statue will be forced upon us to be permanently erected on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol.”

If you go digging around for anything about the church of Satan, which, of course, I’m not suggesting you do, you’ll find they have a lot of rules, and to be an official member, you have to give money. It’s not so much about the religion, apparently, as about the magic. Even so, there are sins, proper ways to conduct yourself, and tenets, two of which are,
People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and remediate any harm that may have been caused.
and
Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

It’s all very open-minded, very tolerant of everybody and everything. The only reason to drag along an enormous statue in the middle of a hot day, besides protesting the installation of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the capital, is because of how committed you are to religious inclusivity. Many people held signs of a big wall in between the church on one side, and the state on the other. And the statue, of course, was meant to be ridiculous and to push the boundaries of socially acceptable public “discourse.” The horns, the tale, the two adoring children—nobody thinks there is such a creature. It’s absurd, and therefore, harmless.

Meanwhile, across the road, a knot of ordinary Christians held hand made signs of things like John 3:16 and “Righteousness heals a nation but sin is a disgrace to any people.” When interviewed, one woman said they were just there to spread God’s love.

And so, one might say, in spite of the shouty headline, it was a tempest in a teapot, a little religious scuffle on a bright, sunny day in the American heartland. The statanists will move on, and everybody else, hopefully, will manage to get out of bed and go to church this morning.

Because if you’re interested in some kind of religious war, that’s the ground you’re best equipped to wield your weapons of battle. You don’t need a sign, and you don’t need to remember to vote, and you don’t need call your representative at the state, local, and federal levels. Their offices aren’t even open today. You just need to grapple against every single inclination that draws you away from the weekly gathering of God’s faithful people.

Indeed, you who struggle out of bed and collapse, disconsolate, into the hard pew or the padded chair—who pour the coffee and contend with the infants in the nursery, who sit and try to keep your mind focused and your will inclined toward God’s holy law, who spend a few minutes talking to somebody you don’t know very well, who square the jaw and admit not just to fallibility and failure, but to sin and rebellion, who look at the law and repentantly plead for the forgiveness and restoration of a loving savior—you are living stones. You are a true and breathing monument to God’s redeeming work in the world. You are not absurd to look at. You are not ridiculous. You are not harmless. You are the very members incorporate of the mystical body of the Lord Jesus. By your ordinary humility, by your persistent repentance, and by your ever increasing love, you overturn the darkness and despair of the powers and principalities of this world.

On Monday, sure, go head and enter back into the political fray. Go back out into the world and do what God is calling you to do. But today, crush Satan under your heel, go to church.