WND

WASH POST COLUMN CHEERS SATAN, JEERS CHRISTIANS

Sympathy for devil as champion of 'modern culture, science and secular values'

WASHINGTON – The venerated journalistic institution the Washington Post, which recently adopted the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” published a column Wednesday by a spokesman for the “Prince of Darkness” who blamed Christianity for slavery and white supremacism.

The op-ed by Lucien Greaves, both a defense of Satanism and an attack on Christianity, was headlined, “I’m a founder of the Satanic Temple. Don’t blame Satan for white supremacy.”

Although slavery was historically practiced by virtually every culture in world and only stopped by Christians, Greaves revives the argument that blames it on Christians.

In the op-ed, the self-described co-founder of the Satanic Temple:

• Objects to Christians blaming Satan for the death and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month

• Objects to condemnations of white supremacy as satanic

• Blames Christians for slavery

• Claims Satan is pro-science and pro-humanism

• Claims modern satanism embraces Enlightenment values

• Claims satanism is more modern than “theocratic superstitions”

• Claims satanism embraces secular values

• Blames all white supremacy in the U.S. on something called the Christian Identity movement

• Blames slavery on “Protestant radicalization”

• Claims Satan is a victim

• Claims there is a witch hunt against satanists

• Claims satanism is diverse and not racist

• Claims satanism is a victim of superstition

Greaves begins his piece by taking exception to what he terms a “consensus among Christian leaders was that Satan was at fault,” for the violence and death in the melee between far-right protesters and far-left counter protesters earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Evangelist Franklin Graham had shamed politicians “trying to push blame on President Trump,” and remarked: “Really, this boils down to evil in people’s hearts. Satan is behind it all.”

Greaves said he was “naturally irritated by such comments” because “such language is not harmless. It lets mainstream religions off the hook for some of the darker periods of American history, despite the deep connections between slavery and Christian theology.”

Lucien Greaves, co-founder of the Satanic Temple

However, while asserting that slavery in the U.S. was often “justified on scriptural grounds,” Greaves failed to mention it was Christians who were actually responsible for ending slavery.

“This is one of Satan’s oldest tricks,” asserted pastor Carl Gallups, bestselling author of WND Books’ “When the Lion Roars” and “The Magic Man in the Sky.”

“He still uses it so prolifically because it still works so well. It is the tactic of blaming others for that which you are actually, and so obviously, the guilty one,” the pastor told WND.

He continued: “While it is true that all manner of evil has been carried out ‘in the name of’ Christianity and the ‘Christian church,’ the fact of the matter remains – neither the teachings of Jesus, the contextual Word of God, or the conduct and practice of true born-again Christians support slavery, white supremacism, or acts of abject terrorism and violence. 

The exact opposite is the truth.”

Indeed, it was Christian activists who began and ran the pre-Civil War abolitionist movement in America, as well as the campaign across the Atlantic led by parliamentarian William Wilberforce that brought an end to the slave trade in Britain in 1807.

Also unmentioned by the Satanist was the Catholic Church’s long history of opposing slavery, including Pope Benedict XIV’s condemnation of it in 1741; Pope Pius’s demand for the end of the slave trade in 1815; Pope Gregory’s condemnation of the slave trade in 1839 and the same by Pope Leo in 1888.

William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) English politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade

Greaves painted Satanism as an enlightened and modern culture, as opposed to “the monarchical, feudalistic, theocratic superstitions of old.”

Calling modern Satanism “a metaphorical icon for Enlightenment values,” Greaves maintained it “actively fights for individual sovereignty and secular values” and “exalts scientific inquiry and promotes humanistic, pluralistic values.”

However, even though such Enlightenment philosophers as Montesquieu and Rousseau did attack slavery in principle, Greaves neglects to mention it was only Christian groups that did the organizing and work that actually ended slavery.

Although most Christians in the mid 1700s did accept slavery as a fact of life, that changed entirely on both sides of the Atlantic in just one generation, thanks solely to Christian activism.

The abolitionist movement began in America when Quakers officially renounced slavery in 1754. By the 1770s, they were joined by Evangelicals, Methodists and Presbyterians.

It became a mass movement in 1787 when the British Abolition Committee was established.

Abolitionists boycotted goods from slave plantations in the Caribbean, including up to 400,000 Britons who stopped buying rum and sugar.

According to a scholarly paper on the end of the slave trade by professor John Coffey of the University of Leicester, it was the Quakers and the Evangelicals who were primarily responsible for the formation of the abolitionist movement, by “building a broad coalition that included Whig and Tory politicians, Enlightenment rationalists, Romantic poets and sympathetic journalists.”

In addition to attempting to blame slavery on Christians, the satanist Greaves also blamed all modern-day white supremacy in America on something the Anti-Defamation League, or ADL, calls the “Christian Identity movement.”

However, Greaves neglected to mention the ADL characterizes the group as a small, fringe cult of conspiratorial racists and anti-Semites “whose adherents believe that white people of European descent are the descendants of the ‘Lost Tribes’ of ancient Israel.”

From the information provided by the ADL, the “Christian Identity movement” is not supported by any mainstream or prominent Christian leaders, groups or denominations.

Nonetheless, Greaves blames slavery on “Protestant radicalization.”

Spanish Conquistadors stopped the Aztec practice of using slaves for human sacrifice

He claims, “The Ku Klux Klan is as much a religious Protestant sect as the Taliban or al-Qaeda are Muslim.”

And that, “Allowing Christian leaders to merely disown Protestant radicalization by fiat absolves them of having to confront the problem” of slavery.

However, history shows slavery was actually abolished by those same Protestants the satanist blames, as outlined above by professor Coffey.

“What we are witnessing,” pastor Gallups told WND, “in this ridiculous rant by a co-founder of the Satanic Temple is the spirit of Satan himself – who is the father of all lies, deception, and wickedness – and is also called the ‘accuser of the brethren.'”

“There could not be a more poignant illustration of this fact than this particular Washington Post article,” the pastor observed.

History also refutes Greaves intimation that slavery was somehow a uniquely Christian institution and survived though the ages only because of its support.

As Fox News host Tucker Carlson pointed out (in the video at the top of this story) on Aug. 15, following the violence in Charlottesville:

Up until 150 years ago when a group of brave Americans fought and died to finally put an end to it, slavery was the rule, rather than the exception around the world. And had been for thousands of years, sadly. Plato owned slaves, so did Muhammad, peace be upon him. Many African tribes held slaves and sold them. The Aztecs did, too. Before he liberated Latin American, Simon Bolivar owned slaves.

Plato, iconic philosopher and slave-owner

Slave-holding was so common among the North American Indians that the Cherokee brought their slaves with them on the Trail of Tears. And it wasn’t something they learned from European settlers. Indians were holding and trading slaves when Christopher Columbus arrived. And, by the way, he owned slaves, too. None of this is a defense of the atrocity of human bondage. It is an atrocity. The point, however, is that if we are going to judge the past by the standards of the present, if we are going to reduce a person’s life to the single worst thing he ever participated in, we had better be prepared for the consequences of that. And here’s why: 41 of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence held slaves. James Madison, the father of the Constitution, had a plantation full of slaves. George Mason, the father of the Bill of Rights also owned slaves, unfortunately. But does that make what they wrote illegitimate?”

Gallups somberly reflected on the Washington Post column, telling WND, “The fact that a mainstream media publication has now aided the Satanic Temple’s distorted message to go worldwide is also an indication of the biblically prophesied demonic outpouring of the last days – just before the return of Jesus Christ.”

The pastor then shared in detail, just how and why he found the opinion piece so timely:

“This entire article, and the convoluted bluster that it aides in promoting, reminds me of the passage in Revelation that appears to speak of the times in which we are now living: ‘Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.’

“Two thousand years ago, these words were prophesied in the book of Revelation concerning the last days: ‘Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring – those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.’

“The context of that passage defines ‘the woman’ as a returned Israel. The ‘rest of her offspring’ are obviously those who are born again Christians. Now – ask yourself, who is it that Satan is most viciously attacking in these prophetic days?

“It is none other than the prophetically revenant nation of Israel as well as born again believers and the ‘true’ church of Jesus Christ, worldwide.

“The article by Lucien Greaves does not surprise me in the least. Indeed, Satan’s time is short and quickly closing in. But, I’ve read the end of ‘The Book.’ I know who wins; and it’s not Satan or his minions.

”http://www.wnd.com/2017/08/wash-post-column-cheers-satan-jeers-christians/