The faithful here on the southern plains have been riled up lately. Well, not as riled up as they are in some places of the world and certainly not as deadly. At least everyone, so far, has left the guns and knives at home and there haven't been any beheadings that we know of.
Yesterday Mr. Adam Daniels held what he described as a black mass in a tiny theater which seats less than 100 people in the basement of the city owned Civic Center. The ceremony had been announced months ago causing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and others to go into a tizzy. Despite the shrill objections of a number of Christian groups, in a rare fit of courage, city officials--after making sure Daniels' check didn't bounce--cited the constitutional guarantee of free speech and refused to stop the goings on.
There was a hitch though. When Daniels claimed he would use bread which had been consecrated by a rogue Roman Catholic priest during the ritual, Archbishop Paul Coakley did what any spiritual leader would do these days--he hired a lawyer and threatened to sue.
At that point Daniels was suddenly faced with the choice of either being tied up in court for who knows how long, or displaying his wife's open thighs on an altar-like table in front of a bunch of complete strangers. He ultimately caved in, gave the bread over to the Archdiocese and partied on.
The city's daily paper, The Oklahoman reported hundreds of protesters, Roman Catholic and otherwise gathered outside the Civic Center to raise hell about the people inside who were paying homage to the guy who runs it. The story, written by Graham Lee Brewer described a scene which sounded rather like a wild and weird combination of an old fashioned protestant revival and traditional Roman mass. The Rosary was recited repeatedly by many while the Lord's Prayer echoed over the grounds and "street preachers," such as Albert Stortz walked around screaming things like, "Shame on Oklahoma City!"
Brewer quoted Stortz as saying, "The bible says evil prevails if good men do nothing." It is unclear in which book, chapter, and verse, Stortz found that particular passage, although it does sound eerily similar to the famous Edmund Burke quote, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Hey, sometimes it is the sentiment that counts and not the source.
In the end, Daniels' group known as Dakhma of Angra Mainyu Syndicate, which is apparently comprised of six people and a rock band, conducted a ceremony which, according to The Oklahoman writer, Carla Hinton at times included piped in music from the film, "The Exorcist." Hinton also reported more than half the sell out crowd of 88 people were no shows. No wonder a Christian denomination of more than 1.2 billion members had one of their leaders go all in to stop this terrible heretical threat. After all, once these crazed fucks get a toe hold there is no stopping them.
Daniels told the intimate gathering, "That the point of this is to destroy the fear of the Catholic Church." There was no mention of who and how many people fear the Catholic Church, but usually those are details best left to the little people and their imaginations. Especially when you are dealing with the big picture, not to mention your wife lying on a table with her knees drawn up and spread wide apart in a public venue as a large latex replica of a penis is being waved around during the proceedings.
Elsewhere in town, a small group of Muslims conducted a demonstration at a major intersection on the north side of Oklahoma City Friday of last week. They held signs which said things like, "Muslims Against ISIS" and "ISIS Does Not Represent Islam." Unfortunately, for just about everyone, ISIS, doesn't agree with that last assessment of the situation.
The demonstrators were led by Adam Soltani who is the executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR.
The gathering was, no doubt, partly in response to state representative John Bennett, R-Sallisaw. A couple of weeks ago Bennett warned his facebook followers to beware of people who call themselves Muslim Americans. After CAIR, the NAACP and other groups asked him to dial back the rhetoric, on Monday, Mr. Bennett cooled the fires of distrust and hate by holding a town hall meeting in Sallisaw during which he told the crowd, "Islam is a cancer on the nation which needs to be cut out."
Soltani, who is married and has a two year old child, told reporter Barbara Hoberock of the The Oklahoman he received an anonymous call on his cell phone Thursday telling him he and all other Muslims in America should have their heads cut off.
Yes, well, there is a lot of that going around lately.
Sometimes it is easy to kick back, take a sip, light a cigar, then look to the sky and say something along the lines of, Lord, save us from not only those who hate religion, but everyone who belongs to one.
Indeed.
And with that thought, ladies and gentlemen, Monday is done.
9-22-14
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