In yet another sign of their inability to understand the modern era, let alone cope with it, one of the Vatican universities is putting together a course for priests on Satanism and exorcism. It’s supposed to be in response to what the Church sees as a growing and “troubling” interest in the occult. Also, they bandy about some statistic that says half a million Italians have had contact with Satanic groups. I don’t know where they are getting that figure from. Probably from movie ticket or rock album sales or something totally fucking retarded like that.

I’m not saying that like evil spirits don’t exist or whatever, cause who the fuck knows, but this just seems so typical of the kind of nonsense and disinformation the Church is notorious for spreading.

Exorcists will be warned that the Devil tries to deceive his adversaries by persuading his victims that their problems can be cured by an ordinary doctor. Satanists are dismayed at the prospect of a Vatican campaign against them and maintain that Satan embodies human characteristics which the Church is mistaken to try to repress, including pride, individuality, indulgence, ambition, carnal desire and self-interest.

Which is basically true. The average Satanist isn’t murdering anybody or doing anything weird to anybody that isn’t generally consensual. I actually found a very good article one time which was saying that the reason Satanism as a religion employs gory or graphic imagery is to draw people to it of a certain mindset who would most benefit from the deeper teachings. It’s a strategy employed by many religions, which have certain symbols and teaching available to everyone (exoteric, outer mysteries) and then deeper meanings that are revealed to the initiated (esoteric, inner mysteries). It’s pretty interesting, whether or not you “agree” with them or their goals.

“The Vatican has been masters of media manipulation for millennia, suppressing art which it cannot control, perverting into propaganda that which has the misfortune to fall beneath its shadow,” he said. “Many teen-agers are drawn towards Satanism because they despise religion… for the rational reasons that it is mindlessly authoritarian, deeply sexually dysfunctional, and has the blood of countless millions on its bejewelled fingers.”

One other relevant item: I wrote a post before about how “evil” acts as a point of expansion within religions. Since young people rebel against authority, etc, the idea of learning new and “evil” ideas becomes alluring during that phase of rebellion. Later on, when they get older and become more conservative, the lessons they learned during their time of rebellion then become incorporated into the mainstream doctrine.

Really, the biggest thing though in my opinion that the Church needs to recognize is that Satanism, Neo-Paganism and contemporary Wicca all pretty much arose as a reaction against Christianity, rather than its own thing. I know lots of people in those groups will argue this isn’t the case, but I think that’s more or less complete bunk. What the Church needs to recognize is that this is the shadow that it has cast, and these are the groups that have grown in that shadow. They have way more points in common than any of them realize, and ultimately they are all chasing after the same things. Realizing that will help a lot more to understanding and interacting with them than will any kind of devisive medieval mumbo-jumbo.