The new millennium marks for many teens and young adults a renewed interest in spirituality.
What type of spirituality? Christian? No. Islamic? No. How about an Eastern spirituality like Taoism? Wrong again.
Try Satanism.
That’s right. The occult movement of Satanism ranks number one among teens and young adults as their preferred spirituality.
We could dismiss the ascendancy of Satanism in the United States as a fad of the young; something they will grow out of with time. In others words, it’s nothing to worry about.
In my judgment, that’s the wrong approach to the spiritual and cultural phenomenon of Satanism. People need to understand that Satanic spirituality leaves deep spiritual and psychological scars on its victims. Christians should know how to recognize and combat satanic spirituality. Where do we begin?
“The occult movement of Satanism ranks number one among teens and young adults as their preferred spirituality.”
Really? I’d like to see where he gets that figure. I would have guessed that a cheerful, watery, tolerant postmodernism with occasional vaguely-Christian rhetoric would be the preferred “spirituality” for my generation, at least in America. . . unless, of course, he really is equating the reading of a Harry Potter book with the practice of the worship of Satan, in which case his numbers might stand but his definitions could use clarification.
McNair is equating Wicca and various forms of Neo-Paganism and Pagan Reconstructionism, with Satanic spirituality. Not sure how those things equate.
I too would like to see the source of his “statistics.” They sound very doubtful indeed. Besides, this essay is nonsense. The assumption seems to be that magic is real – that Harry Potter isn’t just fiction – and so the essay starts by being wholly unconnected to reality. LM
Incidentally let me ask while I have the chance. Where di the notion that Satan is a fallen angel, once high in God’s administration, come from? Certainly not from Genesis. The snake in Genesis is never identified as satanic. So….? LM
From the article:
[blockquote]The origin of all occult powers is the demonic realm. Consequently, all magic involving the use of occult powers is intrinsically evil.[/blockquote]
Except, of course, that this “magic” is either fictional (TV shows, books) or completely ineffectual. The “occult powers” referred to don’t actually seem to exist; debating the origin of a fiction is a pointless task.
One can believe Satan exists while observing that those who call on Satan get no actual response that can be perceived in the real world. So saying that there are “powers” derived from calling on Satan stretches the definition of the word “power”.
By “satanism” he seems to mean any religion which claims to practice magic. The practitioners themselves would hardly label themselves Satan worshipers, most would claim to not actually worship anything at all, but merely to manipulate “forces” and “energies” (I seem to remember Screwtape hoping for the advent of the “materialist magician”) to bring about desired outcomes. I’ve met a few who even go so far as to say that the magic they practice is nothing more than a form of self-hypnosis, reinforcing the will through repetitious ritual. Such people would certainly argue with the author of this article against the label “Satan worshipers”.
Regardless, witchcraft is on the rise, but no more than the worship of Molech and Ashtoreth. Sick and degenerate cultures always show these symptoms toward the end.
NewTrollObserver,
I would actually have to agree with you on that. I was once had extensive dealings with a Satanist on an online discussion board. While I can’t remember specifics anymore, the person was quite eloquent in describing Satanism as a kind of moral and philosophical system, rather than a religion. This “moral” system had as its highest value the principle of always acting in one’s best self-interest. The person explained in depth how this did not exclude civility or helping other people in certain situations. As I recall, I don’t think this person believed there really was a Devil or any supernatural beings besides. Satan was, for them, a metaphor of a system antithetical to Christianity, a system which they believed was actually, in practice, morally superior in that it symbolized and spiritualized rebellion against the oppressive, conformist mainstream.
If the statistics are correct. I would imagine that the above would be the true appeal of Satanism for a lot of otherwise bright but disenfranchised teens.
BTW, I also knew someone in a class of mine, who I suspected was a Satanist. He wouldnt admit it outright to me, someone he considered a fundamentalist Christian, but all the clues seemed to point in that direction. He was extremely bright and very against the Church and yet he seemed very concerned with living a moral life. (Unfortunately, he also had a giant superiority complex) There was something of a Wiccan or pagan element in his life that expressed itself in his wedding. From this I got the impression that Satanism may be closely akin to the attempts by some atheists to incorporate into atheism the rituals of spirituality without the corresponding belief. I think the two groups may see a hardwired human need for ritual, prayer, meditation etc and try to account for this mechanistically. In other words, going through the motions to satisfy the psychological need much like one would change the oil in one’s car to keep it running smoothly. In this, Wicca & Paganism with their particular reverence for nature combined with a easy-going hedonism, offer a convenient kind of human maintenance program which atheists or Satanists then adapt to their own needs.
If this is the case, this approachment between these groups might explain why the author of the article gets confused. He probably doesn’t know very many Satanists personally.
I wish it was just about magic and playing D & D in real life. If it was that, kids would probably grow out of it. But there is something more serious involved.
I have worked with a man damaged by Satanism and had brushes with others. One of the key damaging factors is that a person who has participated in Satanic ritual often believes (wrongly) that there is now no further hope for them with God; that is, they have committed the unforgivable sin. The man who came to me felt that he was ‘owned’ by Satan. Playing around with Wiccan ritual can be a stepping stone to actual Satanism; this was the direction this man had been heading. Pray for Eddie; when he left he was no longer convinced that he was hopelessly owned by Satan, but he had not yet given his life to Christ.
Larry,
“I watched Satan fall from the sky like lightning.”
I think this a good time to recall the admonishments of C.S. Lewis about Satan.
He reflected that most of us suffer from two equal and opposite errors regarding Satan. Either 1) We completely denied or ignored his existence, which gave him great power and freedom to ensnare us in our daily lives or 2) We were obsessed with his existence, which led to unhealthy and unholy afflictions as we attributed more and more of our experiences to his influence.
Truth and right action is, as with most things, somewhere in between. As he often said, the War is Won, we just have many battles left to fight between here and there. So we must remember that our adversary cannot win when we chose our Allies carefully. And of course…
KTF!….mrb
Larry in Scripture we also find”..How are thou fallen O Lucifer son of the morning…” Revelations has some interesting statements regarding the “..fallen one..” Satan was and continues to be alive and well. I’m trusting Jesus to let Him fight the evil one for me. Martin Luther also considered him as a foe “..armed with cruel hate. Jesus also spoke of Satan as a falling star.
There are different categories of Satanism: Symbolic Satanists (LaVeyan, CoS), Theistic Satanists, Luciferians, Setians(ToS). The list goes on and on. And within those categories they are broken down further. There is no real structure of course, because we believe Satan reveals himself to people in his own way.
Theistic Satanists revere Satan as a deity. Many theistic Satanists are polytheistic, some are not. Further – most theistic Satanists reject the Christian ideology completely.
I’m what theistic Satanists view as a reverse Christian Satanist, abet I don’t view God as all good, nor do I view Satan as all bad. ‘Spiritually immature’ they call it. However, I’ve been a practicing Satanist for a long time and I’m content with my beliefs. I’m most certainly not a teenager and unfortunately I don’t fall into the ‘young adult’ category anymore.
Even those of us take an adversarial approach to Satanism aren’t the fanatical, murderous, antisocial sociopaths that popular cinema has portrayed us to be. We have children, friends, family and jobs. We don’t wear all black, and we don’t encourage criminal activity or stupidity.
Certainly, if you desire to worship God… then you should be weary of my type. The rest are benign in the sense that they aren’t actively trying to manipulate encounters and events for the same purposes I might.
Hope that makes it a bit clearer.
Although – if anyone is willing to present a strong argument as to why someone like myself ought not worship Satan I’m always willing to sit down and listen.
The First Commandment of Satan:
[i]Do what thou wilt.[/i]
…and the reply, the unspoken Covenant of Satan:
[i]…and I will do what I will.[/i]
When you meet your taskmaster face to face, all the lies and the treacheries will be revealed.
Larry Morse (#3):
In addition to the excellent replies by Ed the Roman (#9) and Harvey (#11), I would refer you to [url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=73&chapter=12&verse=8&end_verse=10&version=47&context=context]this passage[/url], which tells us that: “…the great dragon was thrown down,that [b]ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan[/b], the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
Ephesians 6:12