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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.satanism,alt.religion.wicca,alt.witchcraft,alt.pagan,alt.fan.harry-potter
From: satanservice.org@boboroshi (SOD of the CoE)
Subject: Re: Is Witchcraft Satanic (&Potter Books Therefore Demonic!)?
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 22:55:44 GMT

50040315 vii om

uncited:
#> Satanism is a sect of Christianity, worshipping the devil. 

this is the "satanism" of Christians, and has little to do with the
Satanism of those who actually practice. there are a small subset
of Satanists who worship what they call Satan, but typically they
are not inverso-Christians, as you've pretended to know here.

#> Instead of Yehova.. 

a good number of Satanists actually disbelieve in that god or
his importance. though Christians and others promote their god 
as necessary or important to the cosmos, there are numerous
others who have developed a reactionary or contextually-driven
identification of the being 'Satan' whom they find attractive.

#> As a two god system 

most Satanists appear to be atheists in the sense that they see
all of this as metaphor and do not consider Jehova worthy of
their attentions, sometimes more worthy of their opposition. if
the Satanist presumes gods, usually the Christian god is down-
played or actively opposed as a deceiver and arrogant liar.

#> I suppose it was hardly suprising that those who didn't want 
#> to worship the Christian god would want to worship the 
#> Christian devil... 

Satanists have explained this opposition to Christianity well
enough such that those who have their heads buried in their own
scripture could become aware of more than their diatribes if
they examined their ethics and rectified their methods toward
a more sincere and less arrogant stance.

the few demonolaters whom I've encountered weren't Christians,
and sometimes they didn't consider themselves to be Satanists.

#> You need to have been Christian to be a Satanist... 

this is false. I've never been a member of a Christian church,
was not raised to be part of the Christian religion, have
never considered myself to be an exclusive Christian, but I
am firmly interested in serving Satan as I have come to know 
Hir through study of numerous sources.

#> Most witches are not interested in Christianity, 

this is true. in fact, I'd suggest that there is a strong
and indicative antagonism between witches and Christians,
primarily because of the false stories told by witches
about "The Burning Times" and their own bad memories from
childhood Christian homes.

#> or its secondary god Satan. 

typically the Christian does not like to refer to Satan as a
god, but some do, especially the euphemistic 'god of this 
world' as presented by Paul and others. usually the term
'god' applied this way is a reduction, contrasted with the
'God' of Christianity. those outside either sometimes talk
about the 'two gods of Christianity' but have a very specific
criticism in mind (as to the power described of the anti-god).

Gemini :
# [A] point I have tried to get across to others so many times....

unfortunately, it is a biased and unfair point which doesn't
have very firm grounding in a study of religion, preferring
instead to dwell in a subjective twisting of the facts to suit
your preferred view of the world. just another delusion.

# ...For whatever reason 

study, patient encounters with numerous religious and witches
in a variety of context, from studying in Outer Court circles
and attending off-site church encounter groups to reading
articles from sociologists of religion concerning viewpoints
that religious have about one another.
 
# they refuse to believe that satan is christian, 

this is of course true, but Satan is also Jewish, and now
Satan is also, arguably, Neopagan and atheist.

# and [that] pagans (and, in general, [witches]) are *not* 
# [satanic]. 

in fact neither are all witches Neopagan (look a little
further afield and you'll discover all manner of witches
in cultures you're ignoring), nor does the term 'satanic'
in its various guises mean the same thing to different
people. as a Christian condemnation of course you are
COMPLETELY CORRECT. from the vantage point of studying
numerous religions, 'Satanic' has come to mean something
much larger than those who are *opposed to their 
conception of said being* have been able to conceive.

this appears also to translate to a number of Neopagans,
which isn't surprising, given that the religious complex
of Neopaganism might easily be argued as a subset of
Christianity.

# You *have* to be xtian to believe in/worship satan

inversos do qualify for this limited explanation, but
your concepts are *CHRISTIAN AT BASE* and you'd do better
than just blithely accepting as your authorities Christians
who are antagonistic to Satan and witches as a whole.

i.e. you are attempting to bring to heel those who are
telling you that their experience as Satanists differs,
but you are repeating Christian dogma as if you are one.

blessed beast!

boboroshi at-sign satanservice.org: Satanic Outreach Director
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