Manny the Satanist

Technically this happened this past April, but as of this third week of May, I have finished my graduate program and I now have my Master's Degree in Library and Information Science.  By all intents and purposes and consideration by my librarian peers, I'm now considered a librarian. I have Satanism to thank for this.  Why?  I'll try to explain this the best way I can. As some of you may know, I grew up going to the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall.  This is a religious Christian organization that suppresses individual freedom and they expect you to dedicate your whole life to Jehovah, the Kingdom Hall, and to gathering more members for the Kingdom Hall until the day you die. One of the topics of sermons that I would keep hearing over the years is about how one should basically avoid going to university because it was considered the "Devil's Playground of Sin" (well, they didn't use those exact words but that was basically the idea they were trying to co...

Today’s my birthday and it’s been around a year since I first read The Satanic Bible .  I have some personal history with birthdays. As I’ve mentioned in my very first blog entry, my mom tried raising me as a Jehovah’s Witness (with no success, obviously; the complete opposite.  Not her fault, though.  Kind of).  I remember all those sermons I heard over the years that discussed birthdays and why the Witnesses were vehemently against them.  During the first couple of years in the Kingdom Hall, it didn’t make sense to me; I just thought this religion was run by prudes and that God was some boring asshole who didn’t want people to have fun.  I remember being invited to birthdays by friends and classmates and I’d have to decline because (my mom’s) religion forbade birthdays.  I was denied the chance to live like a normal person. If you want to hear something sad, I didn't have my first official birthday celebration until I was 21.  A coworker had to ...

June is Pride Month.  On this month 6 years ago, the United States Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide.  Ever since then, every June has been Pride Month. Now, when it comes to Satanism and gay marriage, our stance should be obvious: we fully support it. Basically, our philosophy is all about individual liberty and we generally support politics that help champion our individual freedoms.  So if two adults of the same sex want to marry each other, let them be!  It’s their choice to do so. Out of many religions I’ve seen over my 30 years on this planet, Satanism is the first religion I’ve seen that actively accepts people of all sexual orientations.   The Satanic Bible  explains this stance where Anton LaVey states that “Satanism encourages any form of sexual expression you may desire, so long as it hurts no one else” (pg. 69). The following quote is the one that I feel shows that Satanism supports gay marriage in The Satanic Bible .  In this...

https://www.newsweek.com/decapitated-gutted-animals-found-texas-linked-satanic-ritualofficials-1590378 Recently I saw an article posted by Newsweek on 5/11/21 that reminded me of the Satanic Panic from the 80’s.  The media technology is different today but the false narratives about Satanists are the same. It irks me that even 40 years or so after the Satanic Panic was done with, people still believe in this theistic bullshit. For 55 years, the Church of Satan has made it very clear that Satanists don’t sacrifice children and animals.   The Satanic Bible  states this clearly and if people would take the time to understand our religion, they’d open their eyes.  Anton LaVey simply states in The Satanic Bible that “under no circumstances would a Satanist sacrifice any animal or baby” (pg. 89).  Clear as the sky is blue and this stance has been the same since the beginning. The explanation for why we don’t sacrifice animals and babies is because they’re the only fel...

This is another opinion blog post that I’m doing here.  I’m going to be basing this on what I’ve read in Speak of the Devil: How The Satanic Temple is Changing The Way We Talk About Religion (2020) by Joseph P. Laycock.  I wish the TST had something akin to The Satanic Bible or The Satanic Scriptures but I couldn’t find anything like it on their website page of list of literature, so Speak of the Devil is what I’ll be going by. This is based on my best interpretation of what TST is like in my perspective, and I really tried my best to learn when I read Speak of the Devil .  Anyways, here it goes. The main thing to remember is that The Satanic Temple and The Church of Satan are not the same thing.  These two groups are often confused for one another all the time and it’s gotten a bit annoying for both organizations and its people.  The CoS was started in 1966 by Anton Szandor LaVey while TST was started in 2013 by Malcolm Jarry and Lucien Greaves.  While...

Satanic Statement Number 9: Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years! (Anton Szandor LaVey,  The Satanic Bible , 1969). This is something to think about.  Remember my blog posts on personal responsibility and rock/metal music?  Satan is the one to scapegoat when they’re caught committing injustices and Satan is used to scare youth away from certain types of music.  These are tactics used by the church and used by their followers.  Blame Satan and utilize him for the needs of the church. It all comes down to using Satan as a fear-mongering control tool.  For thousands of years, Satan was used as a control device and a fear tactic by the Christian church in order to keep their followers in line.  The threat of eternity in hell with a demonic being who’d torture you for eternity was used to scare people into avoiding being human and living their lives the way they wanted to.  I remember all...