Am I a Satanist? Part 2, or Are Jewish Satanists an Oxy-Moron?

OK, continuing on…

An issue of my own that I have with TST is regarding exactly who is this institution for?

One of the fascinating elements of TST is their rite of “Unbaptism”: effectively, for those members who were baptised (in a Christian denomination) either without their expressed (read adult) consent or those who have renounced their Christian identity are offered a ritual of “unbaptism” in The Satanic Temple. Cool. I have listened to a number of testimonies from TST members and clergy (more about that in a minute) that TST has been instrumental in their journeys of healing as a result of religious trauma in one form or another. TST in general, and “unbaptism” in particular, has played a key role in their abilities to accept and love themselves unconditionally. I’m not being facetious when I say that is truly lovely and clearly TST (and Satanism more generally) has a real role to play in modern religious discourse. But here’s my particular issue with this aspect: I have not heard of any contemporary Satanist who grew up in a Jewish or Muslim family. Nor Hindu nor Buddhist nor Shintoist nor Zoroastrian. I am not denying that religious trauma effects faiths other than Christianity, but is there a need for them to join Satanism? Every, and I mean every, Satanist I have listened to regarding their journeys have all been from some kind of Christian upbringing. The only exception is TST founder Malcolm Jarry, who, according to Laycock, grew up in a secular Jewish home. Is contemporary Satanism a religion only for former Christians? Is this a manifestation of post-Christianity?

I was raised Jewish. Or rather, I was born into a Jewish family. While my mother diligently sent me to synagogue and I was Bar-Mitzvah at 13, my Jewishness was always ambivalent at best. While most of my family are observant Jews (that is, they conform to various denominations of Jewish religious practice), my mother and I were mostly atheist. What attracted both of us to remain in Judaism was entirely cultural and secular, as well as familial. Later in life, my mother found acceptance in a relatively new denomination of Judaism known as Humanistic Judaism which celebrates Jewish culture and secular learning, in particular the role Jews have played in the last 150 years or so with fighting for social issues, and not just Jewish ones. Good old Jewish lefties, like Bernie. And God is no where in sight. God is irrelevant to our existence, but what unites us as Jews is the fight for social justice, equality and equity, and a commitment to leaving the planet to our children a little better off than when we received it. Tikkun Olum. Some are Zionist, many (like me) are not. I really like Humanistic Judaism for all those reasons. My son self-identifies as Jewish (despite a non-Jewish mother) and was Bar-Mitzvah as an adult in my mother’s Humanistic Judaism congregation. I wear a star of David (under my shirt), but one that is made out of black painted enamel on some kind of metal. I like to refer to myself as a Black Metal Jew. The tenets of Humanistic Judaism are not terribly different (at least in spirit) to the Seven Tenets of TST.

So, if there is Humanistic Judaism, why would I need Satanism? To be honest, I don’t know enough about Humanistic Judaism to say for certain, but there is just something too light and inoffensive about HJ: “no God, all guilt” as it were. I like the iconography and general “fuck you” attitude of Satanism. If Humanistic Judaism were to confront the public display of Christian iconography on government land as TST did in Oklahoma with their proposed statue of Baphomet, what would we do? Erect a statue to Bernie? Barbara Streisand? I won’t lie, I rather like the theatre of TST. But I have never met a Satanist recovering from Jewish religious trauma (although I assure you it is there). As a Jew, atheist/secular/humanist Jew, do I have a place within contemporary Satanism?

Of course, there is a real problem just linking the words “Jew” and “Satanist”: Euro-North American history is filled with the vilification of Jews as emissaries of Satan, at least that’s the history of Christendom. Same goes for Muslims, I would suppose. I don’t know enough about contemporary practices in Islam to say whether or not there is a Muslim equivalent to Humanistic Judaism, but I would love to find out (how ironic if it turns out to be the Palestinian Authority). So, the very concept of “Jewish Satanists” is too rife with associations of pogroms and genocides since St. Paul started to make shit up about Jesus. Where does that leave me? I think of my Jewishness as a tribal affiliation (and as the “Twelve Tribes of Israel” is a thing, I hope I’m safe from accusations of cultural appropriation); I was born into this tribe and raised – culturally – as a member. Satanism, then, is my religion. The belief tradition I have chosen to follow.

I know this is entirely (but maybe not exclusively) a “me-problem”, but this is my blog.

[EDIT: I found these two images online which illustrate the historic association of Jews with Satanism. The image on the right is apparently from a Qatari newspaper in 2002 (details in link). The image on the left appears to be more historical, however it, and dozens of images like this conflating Judaism with Satanism, are rife on the Internet. This was not a rabbit hole I should have gone down as it made for truly unpleasant research.]

My second issue with The Satanic Temple is much less flattering (on me, that is). The podcast produced by The Satanic Temple, that I mentioned in my last blog post, is called Satanic Religious Services. What they mean by that is not the scary ritual based “religious services” of traditional faiths, but an hour-long discussion, usually by Zoom (it sounds like), of TST ordained ministers on a relevant topic. TST run an ordination programme to build their ministry. Applicants must complete a series of courses, and of course (ha!), there is a fee to be paid. Only by being an ordained minister of TST are you allowed to participate in these discussions. Fair enough; if you don’t judge me by my house rules, I won’t judge you by yours. I’ve listened to a few of these. I also listened to a discussion on Discord by the (now disbanded) TST UK group, again only ordained TST ministers were allowed to speak (and I understand why that is). And here is where I don’t paint myself in a particularly good light: I don’t suffer fools gladly. I am an academic snob. My ex-wife always made me feel bad about that, but since the split (talk about your religious-based trauma!), I can choose with whom I associate, or not, as the case may be. I can also learn how to do this without being a dick. Sometimes. The discussions on Discord and the Satanic Religious Services podcasts underline that not everyone has had the privileged academic background that I do. Some people do not know their own histories, or cultural products, or theologies or philosophies etc. I’m sure they are all very nice people in their own rites. I’ve stopped listening to these discussions because … I think the most generous I can be to them (the podcasts, not the people), is that I hoped for a more intellectual and better-informed discussion. I learned nothing from these discussions.

And when the talk is on issues of popular culture, I find it really difficult to contain my distain. I’m a big movie buff and my tastes are eclectic. I love the history of European art cinema, Asian cinemas from across the continent, but also gory stupid horror movies too. I particularly love horror movies. I recall two discussions, one on the Satanic Religious Services and the other on Joseph Rose’s Hail Satan podcast about horror movies, where the discussion was on (more or less) the best films which represent Satanism. I guess I shouldn’t be too discouraged that nobody seemed to have heard of Benjamin Christensen’s Haxan (1922) or even any of the contemporary folk horror movies, but to suggest that The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013) was the scariest movie ever made… fuck off! I would email TST and suggest inviting me on as a guest to talk about spooky Satanic movies, but unless I pay the fee to be ordained as one of their ministers, I don’t qualify. Their ministry is more important than my expertise. Maybe that is as it should be, at least for them. But that is a kind of elitism I see forming in the TST which makes me uncomfortable. My own elitism (or sense of intellectual entitlement) suggests that if these are their ministers who get a platform to educate and enlighten the TST membership, I’m not sure it is an environment in which I will flourish. I promise there will be many blogs about Satanism in films in the future.

To summarize this point, I recognize I am an academic snob. And I sincerely do not need to always be the smartest person in the room. I want to learn from my peers, as much as I want my peers to learn from me. And I’m sure the existing ordained ministry of the TST have expertise they speak to. I just wish those “services” were more intellectually stimulating for me.

Let me wind up here. I am a member of The Satanic Temple and I identify as such. (But obviously, I am in no way speaking on their behalf or representing their views). I believe in their seven tenets, and their invocation prayer is one of the most beautiful I have ever encountered. In any faith. But there are some issues which don’t sit well with me. I am concerned regarding their increasingly dogmatic approach to the organization, and by the apparent bullying that accompanies this. I am concerned that TST specifically, and contemporary Satanism in general, is an environment only for recovering Christians, and while other faiths may not be intentionally excluded, there’s little there for us. And thirdly, the absence of sufficiently academic level discourse within these various groups.

I thought about joining Satanic Delco or Outsider Satanism, but I just started on this journey and don’t want to jump into another group as quickly as I did TST. Nor do I want to form yet another splinter group, as these seem to be becoming mutually exclusive – if I joined Delco, I’d be expected to relinquish my TST membership (by TST, not Delco).

In future posts, and what I hope this blog will become, is a guiding light for personal Satanic practices and ideas. I want this to be a place of debate and meditation on what it means to be a Satanist today. I want to discuss the seven tenets, the TST’s invocation prayer, to develop a calendar of Satanic holidays, lists of potential Satanic film festivals readers might want to explore for themselves, and generally have this as a safe space for discussion and (respectful) dissent.

Ave Satanis

Ave Lilith

Ave te ipsum