Satan Goes to Harvard

Yesterday’s blog was about my weekend Chicago seminar which was attended by Satanists. The seminar was in a hotel and was a public meeting. I welcomed the Satanist as a way to reach them with the message of Christ. They weren’t using my money or my property to dispense their message. Such is not the case with Harvard University. Word leaked over the weekend that Harvard, one of America’s most esteemed educational institutions, originally founded to train ministers of the Gospel, was going to permit a campus group to hold a satanic black mass, a perversion of the Christian Eucharist. The Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club was behind the event, which it planned to hold in a local bar. The ensuing outrage proved even too much for this liberal institution. The controversy also bothered the bar and they refused to hold the event But, the Club says it will go ahead with the offending ritual at an undisclosed location in an effort to “reaffirm their respect for the Satanic faith and to demonstrate that the most powerful response to offensive speech is to shame those who marginalize others by letting their own words and actions speak for themselves.”

While we may celebrate the temporary shutting down of this demonic event, the fact it could even be considered by a legitimately recognized campus organization is beyond the pall. Undeterred, Club representatives argued, “The flawed assumption seems to be that because Satan is the representation of evil incarnate for some faiths, that Satanists are part of a hate group and their practice devoted toward denigrating Catholicism.” It’s hard to believe that someone said that balderdash with a straight face. That this debate took place is a commentary on how far our nation has fallen spiritually. Whatever the supposed motive of the Satanic Mass organizers, and whatever their intellection justifications, this entire episode was not about academic freedom. It was about giving undo attention to demonic bondage.