Messina

Tucsonan John Brown II doesn’t believe in God. He used to, but the
former Jehovah’s Witness has closed the good book.

Brown is now a Satanist.

You might think that all Satanists worship a Satan figure, but
that’s not the case. While there are indeed those who worship a Satan
deity, Brown does not. He believes that Satan is more of a metaphor
than reality.

Brown’s entry into Satanism began about 18 months ago. After
“jumping from religion to religion” following his Jehovah’s Witnesses
days, he made a new discovery.

“I was looking on the Net … and came across a bootleg version of
The Satanic Bible. I looked at it and said, ‘This kind of sounds
like me a little bit.'”

The Satanic Bible was written by Anton LaVey, founder of the
Church of Satan, in the 1960s. LaVey also penned the Nine Satanic
Statements, found in the beginning of The Satanic Bible. Some
read like earthy, gritty life tips: Satan represents indulgency instead
of abstinence; Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it
instead of love wasted on ingrates; Satan represents responsibility to
the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires.

Brown says that he agrees with the statements and has found them to
be down-to-earth. “There’s a chapter in The Satanic Bible where
LaVey talks about (how) we don’t exactly not believe in God, because
the person themselves is God. To me, I actually found that
empowering.”

Brown says that he wanted to create a Satanic presence in Tucson, so
he started a blog a year ago (www.tucsonon-satanists.org) and a
group called the Society of Dracul. Brown says Dracul is the Romanian
name for the Devil, and he chose the name partially because of his love
of the Bram Stoker novel. The group meets once a month for a “black
Mass,” which Brown explains as “essentially a parody of a Catholic Mass
or any other religious ceremony. It’s very much making fun of religion.
In one instance, we burned a Bible. We also played a twisted version of
‘pin the tail on the donkey,’ called ‘pin the tail on the
Nazarene.'”

Brown taped his last Mass for others to view online. During the
Mass, wafers and wine are passed out to represent the body and blood of
Christ. Any similarity to a Catholic Mass ends there: Participants are
then encouraged to crumble the wafer as Brown says, “That is all the
body of Christ is worth to us.” Wine is dumped into a cauldron, while
Brown intones, “That is all the blood of Christ is worth.”

To the Christian groups who may not see things Brown’s way, he says
that Satanism is here to stay. This reflects the ninth statement by
LaVey: Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he
has kept it in business all these years!

Speaking of business, you won’t find Brown on the street corner
urging others to join his group. He does not see himself as a religious
leader. Proselytizing is seen as a form of religious sales and not a
Satanic philosophy, he says.

“This is a free country. Religious freedom is great in this country.
I don’t want to hurt a benign group, and I don’t want a group bothering
us.”

The “kindness to the kind” philosophy also extends into Brown’s
personal life. His wife is an evangelical Christian. He says she
doesn’t try to change him; she instead thinks that is God’s job. “Her
concept is to let God work in me and let God change me.”

However, Brown wants change to be in his hands, in accordance with
Satanic Statement no. 2: “Satan represents vital existence instead of
spiritual pipe dreams.” The moral: Instead of waiting around for God to
change something, change it yourself.

Members of Brown’s group are looking for a change due to past
experiences. “Most people who attend the group I host have had a really
extremely bad experience with religion,” he says, telling me about a
gay man harassed and assaulted by church members. Another woman was
harassed by someone wanting to convert her.

What’s ironic is that the so-called religious people who previously
pummeled some of Brown’s group members are actually acting in
opposition to the God they believe in. God is about unconditional love
and acceptance, and not prejudice, assault or badgering.

We’re not all going to believe in the same things, so we must strive
for an acceptance of differences. If a Satanist and an evangelical
Christian can live under the same roof, that is an example of religious
tolerance from which we can all learn.

This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2009.