Just as I was contemplating packing up to go a young man approached the tent with a bandanna tied around his shaved head, sunglasses, and asks “Hey! So what are you guys doing here?”
“Oh hey,” I say, caught off guard “We’re just here to show support, hand out coffee and have conversations”
“Oh, you’re not here trying to convert everyone to Christianity?”
“Well… we do want to share Christ with people, but also we are here to show support for just the fight for racial equality and justice.”
“You know, Christianity has raped this country, the indigenous people and black people in this country of their rights?”
“That’s an interesting viewpoint, you know, I’m actually native Hawaiian, hey can I get you a cup of coffee or a snack?”
“Actually, I’ll take a water. Thanks! So you’re really a native Hawaiian? My family is from south America, Guatemala actually. What are you doing out here? Promoting this religion after the imperial sword raped your culture and indoctrinated you into this religion?”
“Yeah, I mean I have read my history, and there were a lot of things that led to my country getting taken over by the US, there were a lot of greedy white people involved, but there were also a few greedy Hawaiian rulers.”
“Yeah, so you’re a Christian right?”
“Yes”
“Well I’m a Satanist” he excitedly revealed, rolling up his sleeve, to show me his pentagram tattoo. “You guys believe in forgiveness, I believe in getting even, that’s why I’m an anarchist too!”
Not the exact same tattoo, but you get the idea
“Wow! Really! You know, I’m actually a bit of an anarchist myself.”
He was visibly shocked, and steped back – “Really?”
“In a certain sense. I imagine that the world in its natural state, does exist in a state of anarchy, after the fall. If you image the political world as a cue ball, the pure white might represent anarchy, or a lack of government and political systems are just a paint that we coat it with, to help us deal with uncertainty, organize and make sense of things. That said, it doesn’t take much to chip away at that thin veneer and things just naturally revert back to anarchy. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but I would agree with you, that it is absolutely a natural state of the world.”
Joe is at this point thinking very hard about his political philosophy. “Yeah, no that makes sense, I didn’t know that’s how Christians thought of the world though.”
“Oh, that’s just me, don’t worry.”
“Ha! I like that.”
“Tell me about Satanism, I’m curious as to what you think Satan is.”
“For me, it’s more about individual liberty, being free from these rigid rules of religion. For us, it’s like, ‘Do as thou will’ right? I mean as long as everyone is consenting and not harming anyone, you should be allowed to do it!”
“That doesn’t sound too much like Satan worship – do you really worship him?”
“I mean, not really”
“Huh, okay so, what does that look like then”
The my young Satanist friend added something unexpected “Well doesn’t Satan mean liar in Christianity? Like when he speaks lies he’s talking in his native tongue?”
“Yeah, exactly, how did you learn that?” I exclaimed.
“Well, I know a lot about this because I grew up Catholic, and meanwhile, religion is ruining cultures and killing natives and oppressing people”
“You know, I just learned this recently, but the 1st commandment, not to use God’s name in vain? Well that command was actually more about not doing terrible things in God’s name then about cuss words and swearing”
“Huh, that makes a lot of sense”
“So colonizers coming int to enslave people and take their land in the name of God would be breaking the 1stcommandment. Making God look bad, when really they just wanted an excuses to do whatever they wanted. I think that a lot of what you are talking about is people just exercising their power to step on the neck of their fellow human beings and using God as an excuse. I think that most of the religious conflicts that you are talking about are really just people vying for power and using religion as an excuse.”
Joe is clearly thinking about his own experiences when he comments “Man, the people at my Catholic school were the worst, I felt like everyone was judging me, and then meanwhile the church is letting all of these priests just get away with child molestation, the hypocrisy, I couldn’t stand it. At least in Satanism, we don’t have that. I mean no one has ever raped a kid in the name of Satan!”
I bite my tongue hard.
“Yeah, I know, the Catholic church has done a lot of terrible things.”
“You know, you should really study your ancestral religion, get back to your roots, connect with your history and past. Tribal and shamanistic religions are really deep.”
“You know, Joe, when I was younger I experimented with a lot of other religions, ancestral stuff with Hawaii, Buddhism, Agnosticism, but they just don’t have a good place for forgiveness and it just didn’t bring me the peace and joy that my relationship with Christ brought into my life. I just want to share that with others.”
We are able to chat a little more just before his girlfriend begins to gesture “You know I have to go, but I’m really glad that you guys are here and I am glad that Christianity is working well for you”
“Well I would love to get together again sometime soon, if you ever want to grab a cup of coffee”
“Eh, yeah, I overheard about the app, I’m good”
“If you ever change your mind, we’ll meet you wherever you’re at”
“Thanks, I actually appreciate that, but hey I got to go, it was good chatting!”
“Elbow bump?”
“Nah, fist bump!”
Wow, that was different.
I barely have time to reflect before a beat-up white pickup truck approaches the bollards and a young man jumps out to push the concrete barriers out of the way. The pickup slowly maneuvers the tight gap that was created and parks right between us and the statue. Two young African American men hop out and set up a speaker.
I am terrified of what they plan to say and what types of music they plan to play. I say a quick prayer as the young man picks up the mic and starts to talk about God, he then proceeds to play Gospel choir music.
The rest of the day is rather low-key. We hand out coffee and water, and chat with people. Oddly enough, it feels like I’m just tailgating without the grill. Eventually, our appetite gets the better of us and we decide to pack it up. New protesters have cycled in to replace the ones we met this morning, but all the same they help us pack things up.
As we approach our car we hear a middle-aged woman yell about another person, hanging out on the roof of the abandoned building that the SWAT team had cleared out earlier (see the previous post for more). Sure enough, I turn to see another figure overlooking the monument from the same overwatch. The crowd gets restless once again. I wish I could stay longer, I wish that we had more people. I pray for the safety of everyone right before we leave.
Goodbye, Lee Monument Protest, I will return.