Posted on 10/24/2004 8:31:54 PM PDT by Cornpone
The British Armed Forces has officially recognised its first registered Satanist, a newspaper reports. Naval technician Chris Cranmer, 24, has been allowed to register by the captain of HMS Cumberland, based at Devonport Naval Base in Plymouth.
The move will mean that he will now be allowed to perform Satanic rituals on board the vessel.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Cranmer realised he was a Satanist nine years ago.
Religious values
Mr Cranmer said that was when he stumbled across a copy of the Satanic Bible, written by Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey.
He said: "I then read more and more and came to realise I'd always been a Satanist, just simply never knew."
Mr Cranmer, who is from Edinburgh, is now lobbying the Ministry of Defence to make Satanism a registered religion in the armed forces.
The Navy should not permit Satanist practices on board its ships
Tory MP Ann Widdecombe Former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe said she was "utterly shocked" by the Royal Navy's decision.
"Satanism is wrong. Obviously the private beliefs of individuals anywhere, including the armed forces, are their own affair but I hope it doesn't spread."
She added: "The Navy should not permit Satanist practices on board its ships.
"God himself gives free will, but I would like to think that if somebody applied to the Navy and said they were a Satanist today it would raise its eyebrows somewhat."
A spokesman for the Royal Navy said: "We are an equal opportunities employer and we don't stop anybody from having their own religious values."
The path to Satan
The Church of Satan was established in San Francisco in 1966.
Mr LaVey was its high priest until his death in 1997.
Followers live by the Nine Satanic Statements, which include "Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence", "Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek" and "Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification".
Doug Harris, director of the Reachout Trust, an evangelical Christian ministry that "builds a bridge of reason" to those involved in cults and the occult, says the statements are "selfish".
"Following such tenets and working them out practically in your life seems to produce a selfish person not a member of a team," he said.
Right where you are, Cornpone; right where you are.
"The move will mean that he will now be allowed to perform Satanic rituals on board the vessel."
Talk about a way to lose moral...
Shoulder to shoulder...into the fray we go
Yessir...
Thats the way I see it. People of conscience will HAVE to take a stand.
May God have mercy on us.
Well I'll be damned!
No - wait - HE'LL be damned!
Search is your friend
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1255099/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1254854/posts
Wouldn't it be nice to have a little planet to call your own?
And may God continue the blessings that have been bestowed upon us...for the time we have left
LaVey is a charlatan. He did not believe in God or Satan. He was an atheist and was just using the Church of Satan stuff to gain publicity. I doubt the Ol' Scratch would waste his time any idiot stupid enough to fall for this sort of stuff; he's looking for bigger game. This kid can't have much judgement or maturity to fall for this sort of nonsense and thus it is very likely that he will eventually be weeded out and return to civillian life to pursue a career as a fry chef at a fish n' chips shop.
You know...I do the searches and nothing ever shows up...I don't mean to belabor our readers but if I do a search and no previous post shows I really don't know what else to do. I do my due diligence.
Relax, everybody. LaVeyan Satanism has precious little to do with the Big Boss Bad Guy. It's basically the classic Liberal attitude dressed up in the trappings of a religion. Actually, LaVey's eleven satanic principles are fairly mild:
The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth
Copyright © Anton Szandor LaVey. All Rights Reserved.
1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
3. When in anothers lair, show him respect or else do not go there.
4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.
5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.
7. Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
9. Do not harm little children.
10. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.
Real satanists, BTW, NEVER admit it. They prefer to appear to be good, upstanding folk. Some go to church, and some even appear to be fanatical witch-burning, clinic-bombing bible thumpers. Others call themselves Muslim, or Jew, or Sikh, and preach violence and murder in God's name.
Those are the real enemy- not LaVey's bunch of La-La land losers.
Sounds suspiciously like something I've read in the Koran before...
"11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him."
Is Satan a member of the NRA? ;-)
This doesn't sound too bad!
Actually, with the exception of that crap about magic, it's all just common sense.
"Real satanists, BTW, NEVER admit it."
They won't admit it because they don't even know it - that's how good Ol' Scratch is. ;-) LaVey is a joke and nothing to get worked up about.
Actually, although the Church of Satan was essentially a money-making front for LaVey, he derived his rituals from the rituals of genuine Satanic groups like the OTO and Thule Society, and he was covertly networked with the OTO, the Process Church of the Final Judgement, and the skinhead movement. Don't assume his front group and public PR posture were all there was to his operation. Nothing LaVey said should be taken at face value, including his attempts to portray himself as a mere hedonist and the 11 rules he wrote for public consumption.
is his name Klinger?
Satanism has got to be the MOST ridiculous "religion" ever.
Le Vey is a crack pot. A brief look at his book and its a mystery why any half educated person would fall for it. Seriously, it reads like satire.
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