The Los Angeles Dodgers honored the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of queer and trans “nuns,” at a home game Friday night. The SPI is famous for its sexualization of Christian imagery, including using a cross as a stripper pole and parodying the Holy Eucharist by drinking from a chalice filled with yogurt as a stand-in for human semen.
The group, whose motto is “Go and sin some more,” explained in a statement that they mock Catholicism in order to “expose the forces of bigotry, complacency, and guilt that chain the human spirit.” This gospel of self-indulgence is the exact opposite of the one real nuns follow in their lives of chastity, service and self-denial. (RELATED: Catholic Org To Hold Prayer Procession Outside Dodger Stadium To Protest Pride Night)
In May, news broke that Target had partnered with queer designer Erik Carnell, whose website included pins and shirts featuring a goat-headed deity with the slogan “Satan Respects Pronouns,” as well as merchandise calling for “transphobes” to be decapitated.
On Instagram, he wrote “Satan loves you and respects who you are.”
“LGBT+ people are so often referred to as being a product of Satan or going against God’s will, so fine. We’ll hang with Satan instead,” Carnell added.
In February, singer Sam Smith, who identifies as nonbinary, dressed as Satan to perform his song “Unholy” at the Grammy Awards. Just under a year earlier, gay rapper Lil Nas X starred in a music video in which he gave Satan a lap dance before snapping the devil’s neck and crowning himself king of hell. (RELATED: ‘Kind Of Passé’: Church Of Satan Pans Sam Smith’s Demonic Grammy’s Performance)
This happens too often to be a coincidence. So what’s the connection between LGBT Pride and Satanism?
For Christians, there exists a divine order in the universe to which each person must strive to conform himself. Satan, once a high-ranking angel consumed with jealousy (and, yes, pride) over God’s special love for humankind, chose to reject this cosmic order. He whispered to Eve that God’s commands were arbitrary: not rooted in His inherent goodness, but in a desire for control.
God desires you to deny yourself for the sake of unity with a greater, divinely perfect Good; that is, God Himself. Satan wants you to follow your bliss and wouldn’t presume to lecture you about what is and isn’t good for you. Live your own truth and see where it takes you.
After word broke of the planned Pride Mass, a significant backlash erupted, culminating in Bishop Zubik’s letter, which was sent to priests, deacons, and seminarians of the diocese.https://t.co/1PiB7l471V
— National Catholic Register (@NCRegister) June 14, 2023
Satan’s spiritual progeny have mostly dispensed with belief in God, or even in a literal Satan. “If I believed in Satan, I’d have to believe in the Bible — and I consider myself an atheist,” Carnell told the Washington Post. They have retained, however, the idea that all appeals to moral absolutes are thinly veiled lies designed to repress and dominate.
Goodness is not an objective category but something we work out among ourselves. In place of the 10 Commandments, the Satanic Temple offers seven “fundamental tenets.” The third enshrines bodily autonomy — hence the Temple’s treatment of abortion as a sacrament — and the fourth states that to “willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own.” The only real sin is to inhibit someone else’s self-expression.
Nowhere is the conflict between these worldviews clearer than in the realm of sex. Christian opposition to homosexuality is rooted not only in the few Bible verses that mention it, but in natural law theory. God, the argument goes, created human sexuality for the purpose of procreation and pair-bonding. To seek out sexual stimulation for a different purpose or in a way that frustrates those purposes is sinful because it goes against God’s design.
For the Satanist, the question, “What is sex for?”, is nonsense. It’s not “for” anything. The evolutionary purpose of sexual pleasure may be to incentivize reproduction, but there’s no “ought” attached to that “is.” It’s your body. Do whatever feels good as long as your partner(s) consent. The same thing holds true when it comes to gender. Don’t like your body? You own it. Remake it however you please.
The controversial, liberal Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin takes a different view of Pride Month, arguing Catholics should feel free to celebrate. The kind of pride on display, Martin claims, is not sinful self-aggrandizement but “consciousness of one’s own dignity.” (RELATED: Jesuit Priest’s Comment On Homosexuality Unveils The ‘Most Insidious Problems Facing All Christians Today,’ Theologian Says)
There was once a gay rights movement which sought nothing more than to convince society to recognize that dignity. In the mid-1960s, clean-cut “homophiles” donned suits and marched with neatly lettered placards that read, “End discrimination policies against homosexuals” and “Homosexuals are American citizens also.” Their purpose, author Carl Trueman wrote in his book, “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self,” was to convince their countrymen that “being gay was quite compatible with being patriotic and with clean living.” They didn’t want to be arrested or fired from their jobs for engaging in gay sex, but the homophiles had no radical agenda to remake society in their image.
GRAPHIC: Trans TikTok “influencer” Rose Montoya, posed topless at Biden’s White House Pride celebration. Next to him is a biological female, also topless, who had her breasts surgically removed. pic.twitter.com/1cprqxtkcQ
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 13, 2023
Unfortunately for Fr. Martin, that movement no longer exists. The lewdness and nudity on display everywhere from “family friendly” festivals to the White House lawn are not pleas for the recognition of human dignity; they’re power moves.
Today’s activists trace their lineage to the Stonewall Riot of 1969, when patrons of gay bars hurled bricks at police. A year later, the first Pride parades were held to commemorate the anniversary. From then on, the movement’s purpose has been to force American society not just to tolerate homosexuality, but to affirm it as morally and legally equivalent to any other form of sexuality.
This glorification of individual autonomy and self-determination — especially when they transgress traditional boundaries — is a religious claim. And it’s exactly what Satan offers, whether you believe in him or not.