Wolf_O Analysis_of_Church_of

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by the organization s very top, such as Syco- would be preposterous. On the contrary, the
phants Unite! by Blanche Barton, demand that: Church of Satan encourages its followers to pre-
emptively attack other organizations.
[The Church of Satan s] supporters and advocates
must be prepared to recognize and battle our enemies,
7. Double-Talking and Two-Facing
especially when they re wearing black robes. [47]
The enemies are defined as any other organi- When inevitably followers or prospective fol-
zation laying claim to Satan s name. lowers of the Church of Satan have complained
about the opinions of charismatic people in the
The Church of Satan presumably has a large
membership base compared with competing or- Church of Satan, the Church of Satan has usual-
ly used the eclecticism argument, replying that
ganizations who are encouraged by the Church
of Satan to attack first. Even without encourage- the religion encompasses a large array of differ-
ing opinions which together form a greater
ment, for each person that attacks the Church of
whole, and that each follower should choose
Satan for no reason statistically the Church of
Satan can be expected to have many more fol- what makes him or her successful [23].
lowers that have made similar attacks out of the At the same time, followers and prospective
blue. The encouragement only exacerbates the
followers that agree with the same charismatic
hostility.
people find that the Church of Satan reinforces
It is very plausible that many attacks against their support stating that these people form the
the Church of Satan are results of harassment core of the Church of Satan s ideology.
by Church of Satan followers acting on expecta- It is unlikely that people with widely diverg-
tions from the Church of Satan s administrators.
ing opinions will want to discuss religious de-
The CoS Files contain examples of conflicts that
tails with each other on a constructive level
are initiated by the Church of Satan. [44]
(they will rather just hiss at each other), and
The competition from alternative Satanic orga- therefore unlikely that they will discover the
nizations is two-fold: firstly, the alternative or- conflicting support given by the Church of Sa-
ganizations threaten the Church of Satan s re- tan s officials. If they do discover the conflict
cruitment as they provide additional options for nonetheless, it can be resolved with a repetition
those that would otherwise have joined the of the above reference to richness and diversity
Church of Satan. If one was to believe the of the religion. (That is, serving the Church of
Church of Satan s statement that it does not ad- Satan s purpose to confound and confuse till
vocate membership, it would seem unlikely that the stars be numbered, the people are being
the Church of Satan would be provoked by a told that they are both right, and that they only
The Emperor s New Religion Copyright � 2002 Ole Wolf Page 18 of 30
do not have the insight to appreciate this fact ing the Temple of Set and the Church of Satan.
yet.) (This double-courting illustrates that Peter
Gilmore used two-faced policies from the very
This stratagem enables the Church of Satan to
beginning of his career in Satanism.) Michael
let many different people with opposing views
Aquino argues that Anton LaVey had lost inter-
interact with people of their own liking. In turn,
est in Satanism and instead attempted to turn
these people are given the impression that Sa-
tanism is exactly about their particular interpre- the organization into his personal cash cow, and
that the organization s continued activities were
tation, because their contact in the Church of
a financial scam.
Satan is endorsed by the organization. By claim-
Michael Aquino shows evidence that a focus
ing support, not only does the Church of Satan
persuade gullible people to join the organiza- on finances did escalate in the months before
tion believing it to be well suited to their per- 1975, and that 1975 may have presented a some-
what drastic escalation. It is also believable that
sonal ideology; it also places the charismatic
Michael Aquino s relation of his concord with
people in a role as active recruiters.
Anton LaVey on the belief in Satan is correct,
It is quite possible that from the Church of Sa-
judging from Michael Aquino s otherwise ex-
tan s view their role as recruiters may be their
quisite memory and careful use of sources and
only justification and reason for titular reward
documentation. The odds of Michael Aquino
in the organization, and that their ideological
having a personal agenda that provokes the
contributions are summarily ignored unless
view mentioned above are low given the addi-
they are useful for luring more followers and
tional documentation of Anton LaVey s accept
their accompanying $100.00 into the organiza-
of, or belief in, the Devil cited earlier.
tion. If the esteemed recruiters eventually begin
In frustration over the new direction, which
to discourage more people from joining than
Michael Aquino saw as ideological treason, he
they encourage to join, their titles may be re-
claims to have performed a personal invocation
voked or the recruiters may be expelled for du-
of Satan in the form of the ancient Egyptian god
bious reasons of sudden disagreement with the
Set. In The Book of Coming Forth by Night, Micha-
Church of Satan or its founder.
el Aquino describes how Set explained that An-
8. The 1975 Turning Point
ton LaVey s infernal mandate had been re-
voked and passed to Michael Aquino as Anton
It is possible that the Church of Satan started
LaVey s successor:
as a genuine organization dedicated to the
I [Set] raised him [Anton LaVey] to the Will of a Dai-
Prince of Darkness, but then deviated from its
mon, unbounded by the material dimensions. And so I
course and focused on perpetuating its pro-
thought to honour him beyond other men. But it may
fessed alliance with the Devil only as a conduit
have been this act of mine that ordained his fall.
for fraud. This is the view held by Michael
& Michael Aquino, you are become Magus V� of the
Aquino of the Temple of Set.
Aeon of Set. [49]
The fact that the Church of Satan was original-
The Church of Satan has a case against Micha-
ly a home study group indicates that at the very
el Aquino in terms of the postulated 1975
least it was originally an ideological movement.
schism. Firstly, the Church of Satan advises that
Michael Aquino describes how the Church of
Michael Aquino s revelation might have been
Satan ostensibly later turned its back on Satan,
prompted by a strong desire to be a new Anton [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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