American Halloween: Satan is dressed like Atticus Finch

"The real Satan however will look just like Jesus Christ (Revelation 13), he shall come in peaceably (Daniel 11) and he shall work wonders in the sight of mankind in order to deceive them into believing he is Jesus Christ (Revelation 13)." comments from Times of Israel

The ACLU vigorously defends the rights of all Americans to practice their religion. But because the ACLU is often better known for its work preventing the government from promoting and funding selected religious activities, it is sometimes wrongly assumed that the ACLU does not zealously defend the rights of all religious believers to practice their faith. The actions described below – over half of which were brought on behalf of self-identified Christians, with the remaining cases defending the rights of a wide range of minority faiths – reveal just how mistaken such assumptions are. ACLU

America has a devil of problem.  We believe that everyone has a right to practise their faith.  Americans have a poioumenon problem - in over two hundred years we have decided to take the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and The Devil and Daniel Webster as a metafictional taffy pull.

My twenty dollar words  roughly translate to a 'product' in which the story is about the process of creation.   Pure John Dewey - the play is the thing and it is all about the inquiry, Yo!

Take a text, an article of faith, a statement. a word, or even a gesture and make something huge out of it.  Think of a social justice defense lawyer, - a protester has a constitutional right to exercise his free speech (verbally, artistically, dramatically and confrontationally); ergo, the charges against a protester must be dropped, unless they embarrass the mayor who blesses the actions of said attorney.

It is not what the Bill of Rights actually says in the document, but what a press protected, politically paid up pettifogger can make the public go along with at the moment.

Feelings help. Appeals to the breast of a public television subscriber can't miss in America.

America no longer trusts in God and it bans prayer, religious iconography ( unless Muslim for the time being, anyway), rosaries, crosses, or even solemn looks.

However, amid all of this civitas in bella Dei,  quasi-quack collegia et Satanas Wicca vocati sunt. Satan and Wicca are welcome.

I travel to the great State of Wisconsin as often as possible.  The people the grace and simple courtesies offered statewide above the Illinois border are a tonic.

I tend to go to Monroe, Green, Lafayatte and Madison counties, lands settled by sturdy Swiss, German, Nordic and Celtic immigrants before the Civil War.  There are United Churches of Christ, Catholic parishes, and every Evangelical and Mainline Protestant houses of worship up and down the rolling hills of Dairyland.  There is at least one synagogue in Madison and more than few Mosques and Muslim Circles. It is the UCC Swiss and Mennonite Dutch and others whose dairy barns in the Swiss/Nordic counties that sport Hex signs.  

The word Hex is believed to have come from the Teutonic word Hexe, or "witch." The signs are elaborate Rosetta's, circles with interior designs of geometric shapes.  They are beautiful examples of folk art. Some believe they have more to do with flowers, than witchcraft.  Most acknowledge the pre-Christian designs as part of the Alpine German " Sun of the Alps."

I was told by a Swiss blooded American that farmers placed Hex Signs on their barns to ward off Satan - he explained that many built round barns " so the Devil had no corner to hide in."

Actually, they were very practical and sound structures.  Here is one in Dane County near Mount Horeb that was converted into a magnificent home
Mount Horeb is home to Circle Sanctuary's many tribes of 'witches' and Wiccans, shamanns, circkes of drummers and Indigenous Peoples practitioners along what is collectively called The Spirit Pathways.  

In Mount Horeb,  the "Circle comprises a network of Pagan, Wiccan, Goddess and Shamanic gatherings from around the country and the world. Directed, more or less, by Selena Fox. The Circle home page is an extensive informational site, to say the least."  That it is.

The ACLU has no beef with The Circle whatsoever. The ACLU is all over Catholics, Jews and Evangelicals ( Main-liners are totally NPR and Muslims have yet to experience the Roger Baldwining of their beliefs).


The ACLU has no problem with Satan, but sure has one with the Decalogue.

Satanists have found a haven and coven in Salem, Massachusetts , home to full-blooded nut job and 1/2,6789th Cherokee Senator Bessie Warren.  Salem was where deplorables and abolitionists burned witches at the stake in 17th Century, inspiring Hawthorne's Hester Prynne to proudly sport the Big A and causing Arthur Miller to attack McCarthyisms with the Crucible. Roger Baldwin's ancestors ran Catholics and Baptists to Maryland and set the tone for  ACLU the American bed and breakfast industry  

Located one-mile from historic sites tied to Salem’s 1692 witchcraft hysteria, the building — a former funeral home — was inaugurated last month by activist Malcolm Jarry, a self-described “secular Jew” who co-founded The Satanic Temple (TST) in 2013. Jarry is a pseudonym, and he refuses to be photographed.The temple houses an art gallery in honor of Baphomet (see above), a “sabbatic goat” representing the universe. Behind the two-story building, an eight-foot tall statue of Baphomet sits in a plain shed, where visitors can pay to view it.
With up to 50,000 members in chapters around the world, TST has garnered colossal media attention in the last three years. Chief among Jarry’s causes are marriage equality and women’s reproductive freedom. Any issue related to the government using religion to restrict individual freedom is also likely to engage temple leaders, some of whom staged a 2014 “Black Mass” at Harvard University to push the envelope on religious freedom.
Outside of New England, TST has taken legal action against the placement of edifices of the Ten Commandments in civic settings, including statehouses. To illustrate how such displays violate religious freedom, the temple has insisted it be allowed to erect goat-headed Baphomet statues in the same locations. TST is also planning to take on some schools’ use of isolation, denial of bathroom access, and corporal punishment of children. Times of Israel (emphases my own)

Man, talk about outdoing the public relations of NPR and the Unitarians!  Satan is a Progressive and dresses up like Atticus Finch for go-to-meeting duds, I'll Elizabeth Warrant !

The establishment of a religion?  No. the State sponsored destruction of religious liberty.

Happy Halloween!