In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with comedian, Satanist, and former senatorial candidate Steve Hill. We discuss police brutality, racism, the prison system, comedy, his journey to Satanism, and much more.
Follow Steve on facebook.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Black Satanist, Comedian, and Senatorial Candidate Steve Hill”
Growing up in the evangelical world, a central lesson I learned about reality was that there were necessary and normative divisions. These divisions began at the moment of creation itself: God separating light from dark, land from water, sky from earth, and, most relevant to me, woman from man. The first 27 verses of the book of Genesis describe this process of creation by way of division, from an earth “formless and void.”
As a gay child, I was raised to believe that the sin of my homosexuality blurred these foundational distinctions established at the dawn of time. Homosexuality, by its very nature, violated the metaphysics of man and woman. It was therefore understood as an act of Uncreation: a terrifying unraveling of the created order, a returning to an earth formless and void.
Continue reading “Meditation as Uncreation”
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with Satanist, criminal defense attorney, and Old Ben Kenobi of Satanism Stu de Haan. We discuss the political activism of The Satanic Temple, free speech, and why TST should be seen first and foremost as a religion and not a political activist group.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Lucien’s Law with Stu de Haan”
For the past few days, I’ve watched with fascination the trashing of prominent leftist cultural critic, author, and youtuber Lindsay Ellis. Several weeks ago, she tweeted something about Avatar: The Last Airbender which apparently sparked a controversy. (I’ve never seen any of the pieces of media she was referring to, so I can’t offer comment on them.) The ensuing controversy, trashing, and demonizing led her to delete her twitter account, and I witnessed some anonymous twitter users dancing on her digital grave. The whole episode seemed, in typical twitter fashion, bewilderingly excessive.
Continue reading “Mental Health, Public Shaming, and the Trashing of Lindsay Ellis”
In this episode of Sacred Tension, producer Dante and I take questions from the audience on Satanism, sexuality, porn, the pandemic, and much more.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Satanism, Porn, and Surviving the Pandemic”
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with transhumanist author Peter Clark about Satanism, scientific religion, artificial intelligence, the future of humanity, and much more. You can find Peter Clarke here.
You can read his article on the character of Satan here.
And his article on Satanic transhumanism here.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Satanic Transhumanism with Peter Clarke”
In their book The Coddling of the American Mind, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff spelled out three great untruths that they believe are infesting our culture. While I’m ambivalent about the book, these three great untruths have stayed with me. They are:
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with Penemue, Director of Ministry for The Satanic Temple. We take questions from the audience about the Temple’s new ordination program and discuss weddings, the role of pastors in society, the future of the ordination program, and much more. You can learn more about The Satanic Temple’s ordination program at https://ordained.satanicministry.com/
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Ministers of Satan with Penemue”
At this point, we all know that social media is making us unwell. We know it is jeopardizing mental health, democracy, social progress, and our collective ability to focus. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time discussing these trends, but not as much time discussing solutions. So, what can we do about it?
Continue reading “Five Rules to Keep Social Media From Ruining Your Life”
I consider myself a mystic, and yet I am an atheist. I don’t believe in God, gods, the afterlife, or the supernatural. How is this not a contradiction in terms? Isn’t supernaturalism and woo central to the experience of mysticism?
Continue reading “On Atheistic Mysticism”
Stephen Bradford Long 