The website also provides instructions on how to conduct your own Pink Mass, to render a deceased loved one, or in the case of Fred Phelps’ mother, a deceased person not personally known to oneself, gay in the afterlife.
The stated goal of The Satanic Temple, aside from helping gay couples “respectfully and tastefully express their mutual affection”, is to draw attention to the Temple’s efforts to raise money to join the NY Adopt-a-Highway program.
Look, I live in Topeka, and I drive past the WBC compound almost every day. My church has been picketed many a time by the WBC, and I have been shouted at by picketers(for counter picketing) and I even got mentioned in one of their faxes.
But I think this “Pink Mass” is disgusting, tacky, whatever you want to call it. Those participating are reducing themselves to the low level the WBC already occupies.
Folks should take a higher road when protesting, or opposing, noxious groups like the WBC. I know those who say they can’t wait for Phred himself to die, so they can picket HIS funeral. I disagree, why be as sad and misguided as those you are in opposition to?
Then you don’t understand Satanism.This is the type of stuff they do–they haven’t lowered themselves at all. If anything, by picking a more worthy target, they’ve raised themselves up a bit.
Satanism basically exists to troll the religious. Its very name was chosen because it was supposed to scare Christians. It makes them feel powerful to see other people freaking out over them.
Granted, this is weak sauce. If they really wanted to do this right, they’d try to find a way to make Phelps believe he might not be one of the elect and thus all his hatred was for naught.
I consider myself a broad-minded guy who can tolerate a lot of things, but I don’t think I can accept the idea of tasteful Satanists. For the record this is still different than what the WBC does: they mostly target people who haven’t done anything at all except die, and the Satanists are targeting the WBC specifically because of their actions. So their protest still makes more sense than what Westboro does.