Prior to a planned Satanic demonstration at the Kansas Statehouse, the governor clearly instructed participants to remain on the property’s outer grounds.
Not only did Satanic Grotto leader Michael Stewart ignore that order, he also apparently got violent with one of the counterprotestors.
As KSNT reported:
Officers tackled Michael Stewart, president of the Satanic Grotto, to the floor inside the statehouse rotunda on Friday, March 28 as he attempted to hold a Black Mass ceremony. He entered the building to hold the event after being warned by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly to move the ceremony to the outer grounds. An officer told Stewart as he entered the Kansas Statehouse that he was welcome to enter the building but could not hold an event or cause a disruption or he would be arrested.
ADVERTISEMENTStewart had just started the Black Mass ceremony inside the Kansas Statehouse in the rotunda area when a counter-protester entered into a physical altercation with him. Officers could be seen taking Stewart to the floor as he shouted that he was not resisting. He was then lead away from the area shouting, “Hail Satan. I dedicate this building to Satan.”
Stewart was arrested on charges of unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct, according to the Shawnee County Department of Corrections. The other individual who was involved in the physical altercation with Stewart, a 21-year-old man, was also arrested in addition to a handful of others present at the Kansas Statehouse on Friday.
“The point of the Black Mass was to… just to show our space in the public circle,” Stewart said on the south side of the Kansas Statehouse prior to the incident within the building. “To express our feelings and our hurt that’s come from past traumas and really to give voice to our community in the public square here.”
Dozens of Catholics and Christians gathered at the Kansas Statehouse to protest the planned Black Mass. Both Kansas lawmakers and the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City condemned the Black Mass in the days leading up to Friday allegedly due to the anti-Catholic nature of the ceremony.
There has been an increase in reports of Satanic-linked organizations holding very public displays in recent years:
Does your child’s school need an after-school club as an alternative to the Good News Club or other religious clubs? After School Satan Club (ASSC) is back! https://t.co/meoLJJsYiE #EducatinWithSatan #ASSC #AfterSchoolSatan #TheSatanicTemple pic.twitter.com/8ihCDLlQPM
— The Satanic Temple (@satanic_temple_) January 8, 2022
As with the display in Kansas, however, the uproar from those offended by such efforts has been consistent:
These are the people running Satan Club for your kids in school. Their newest location is an elementary school in Lebanon, Connecticut.
Parents are reportedly fuming and intend to discuss this at the next board meeting on November 21. pic.twitter.com/3sKpHotHLn
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 14, 2023
The Satanic Temple put up a Satan statue in front of the New Hampshire State Capitol.
It was dismembered within 48 hours.
They put it up again.
It was beheaded again within 48 hours. pic.twitter.com/f8dJvjtnEL
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 20, 2024
This morning, @PeteMundo spoke with Spring Hill High School senior Max Pacheco who shared his story of infiltrating the Olathe Northwest Satan Club this year.
FULL interview: https://t.co/K5lFlPsMp7 pic.twitter.com/y2RqjIhS6f
— KCMO Talk Radio (@kcmotalkradio) April 16, 2024
Breitbart covered some of the counterprotesting that took place this week in Topeka:
Thousands gathered on the Capitol grounds to pray peacefully, outnumbering the handful of satanists by many orders of magnitude. So, when the satanists were screaming expletives at peaceful Christians, they didn’t look powerful or edgy. They looked rather pathetic.
Those outside were perhaps outnumbered by those indoors across the street where the real action was, at Assumption Catholic Church. The Kansas Catholic Conference announced a special holy hour followed by a real Mass as an answer to the black mass. By the time the holy hour began, the church was already completely full. Local Knights of Columbus members directed the ongoing stream of people to another church a mile away, which quickly filled to bursting.
The so-called black mass ended in a whimper, when a single disturbed and hateful satanist entered the Capitol and got only a sentence out before punching a Christian and getting himself arrested.
Here’s some additional coverage of the protest and its aftermath:
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