SatanCon, an event billed as "the largest satanic gathering in history," recently took place in Boston, Massachusetts, courtesy of a Salem-based group called The Satanic Temple.
The mainstream media largely labeled it as satirical and harmless. NBC News even seemed to give it a sort of veiled plug with the headline: "SatanCon, poking at religion and government, opens this weekend in Boston."
The news outlet described the convention as "mostly lighthearted" and characterized The Satanic Temple as "a progressive church that doesn't worship the devil but instead uses the word to get attention."
Other media outlets were similarly generous in their descriptions of the event as well as its organizers.
The Satanic Temple has identified itself as a religious organization. In 2014, it promoted a Black Mass at Harvard University. And in 2019, the group persuaded the federal government to grant it recognition as a tax-exempt religion.
The recent convention actually conducted a number of worship rituals, the focus of which was on the devil and related demonic entities.
During the event's opening ritual, a lead figure tore pages out of the Bible.
In another ritual, individuals engaged in what was termed a satanic "unbaptism," wherein participants made their way to a center altar, took on new names, and chanted a blasphemously revised "Hail Mary" prayer.
Notwithstanding mainstream media claims to the contrary, the SatanCon event was created as a promotion tool to disseminate information on one of the darkest of ideologies and to sing the praises of evil personified.
From time immemorial, philosophers and theologians have pondered the question of how to delineate good from evil and evil from good.
Good is universally understood.
Associated with an innate goodness are the attributes of honesty, loyalty, fairness, kindness, and the like. Such traits have been, and continue to be, admired and encouraged in human cultures across all time.
In his book "The Road Less Traveled," psychiatrist M. Scott Peck wrote of values that lead people to live meaningful lives. Some of the virtues the author cited were truth, integrity, fair-mindedness, gratitude, kindness, and humility.
Dr. Peck discovered that in order to understand spiritual growth, one has to also understand its opposite. This notion inspired him to write another book, "People of the Lie," in which he explored the concept of evil.
He found that evil people share some key behavioral traits.
— They lie.
— They are intellectually devious.
— They scapegoat.
— They turn their backs on facts.
—They self-deceive to escape their own consciences.
They are also narcissistic to an extent that enables them to "ignore the humanity of their victims" and incite hatred against their enemies.
Dr. Peck additionally dealt with the question of whether or not the devil is real. Being a psychiatrist and perceiving himself to be a man of science, he initially believed that the devil did not exist. But he changed his opinion after confronting the reality of spiritual evil.
His work prompted him to delve into several cases that involved demonic possession. His attendance at an exorcism ultimately compelled him to believe in the existence of Satan. The experience led him to be discipled by a Roman Catholic nun and to be baptized into Christianity.
He was open about his conversion.
"After many years of vague identification with Buddhist and Islamic mysticism, I ultimately made a firm Christian commitment. ... My commitment to Christianity is the most important thing in my life and is, I hope, pervasive and total," he stated.
In a similar philosophical vein, Tucker Carlson approached the determination of what is good and evil by examining the byproducts of each.
According to the iconic cable news host, "Good is characterized by order, calmness, tranquility, peace ... lack of conflict, cleanliness ..."
Carlson noted that evil is defined by opposite byproducts including "violence, hate, disorder, division, disorganization, and filth."
"If you are all in on the things that produce the latter basket of outcomes, what you're really advocating for is evil," Carlson said.
The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia actually spoke about the Evil One in an interview with New York magazine.
When Justice Scalia unequivocally stated that he believed in the devil, interviewer Jennifer Senior was taken aback.
"You do?" she asked.
"He's a real person," Justice Scalia answered, and added, "Most of mankind has believed in the devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the devil."
French poet and essayist Charles Baudelaire once said, "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."
He does.
People of true faith know it. And they pray for all.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst and law professor. Visit Newsmax TV Hollywood. Read James Hirsen's Reports — More Here.
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