September 12, 2014
Satanists
planning to hold a black mass at a public facility later this month in Oklahoma
say they've sold all 88 tickets that were available for the event.
The Dakhma
of Angra Mainyu, which is holding the Sept. 21 mass at the Oklahoma City Civic
Center Music Hall, is promising an event that is "enlightening but
educational," according to a description on the Civic Center's website.
"One of
the dictates of the church is not only to educate the members but to educate
the public and to debunk the Hollywood-projected image of our beliefs,"
Adam Daniels told ABC News. Daniels is a registered sex offender, convicted in
2009 of "sexual battery of persons over the age of 16," according to
the state's sex offender registry, which notes that he has satanic tattoos
"all over body."
In order to
comply with local laws, the group had to make a few changes to the ritual.
Instead of using urine, participants plan to use vinegar. Instead having a
naked woman on an altar, she'll be wearing lingerie. And instead of spitting on
a consecrated host, they will spit on an unconsecrated one, according to ABC.
The group
was reportedly in possession of a stolen consecrated host, causing the local
archdiocese to sue. It was returned to the archdiocese by an attorney
representing Daniels.
“I am
relieved that we have been able to secure the return of the sacred Host and
that we have prevented its desecration as part of a planned Satanic ritual,”
Archbishop Paul Coakley told the National Catholic Register. “I remain
concerned about the dark powers that this Satanic worship invites into our
community and the spiritual danger that this poses to all who are involved in
it, directly or indirectly.”
Coakley also
called the event "very transparently a blasphemous mockery of the
Mass."
But not every
religious group is riled.
"As a
church, we want to respond as people of love, who are consistent with the
teachings of Jesus and the ways he responded to those who rejected him and even
hated him," Tom Mannin, the pastor of Oklahoma City Community Church,
wrote on the organization's website in remarks spotted by the Christian Post.
His church
also uses the civic center for its services.
"(W)e
will speak gracefully and peacefully of the people at the black mass gathering.
We will pray for God's love to abound in our city and among it's people of
varying belief."
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