INDEPENDENCE DAY

Today in the USA we celebrate the
“birthday” of what our founders intended to be a secular republic. Americans
popularly use this day as a means to enjoy a holiday summer weekend with
convivial gatherings, barbecues, and evening fireworks displays while
commercial enterprises lure folks towards capitalist excess with varied sales
for their wares and services. While we partake or refrain from all of this as
we please, Satanists also make time to reflect on the significance of the
manifestation of this country whose expressed values favor self-determination
for its citizens.

Satanism champions freedom,
individualism and personal satisfaction so naturally we endorse the nation that
in its 1776 Declaration of
Independence promised its citizens “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness” as fundamental rights. We also find inspiration in the bold
proclamation in the Treaty of
Tripoli in 1797 that “the Government of the United States of America
is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” This inherent
secularism rejected the age old practice of governments being in cahoots with
established religions to force widespread obeisance to whatever theist
doctrines have held hegemony.

When properly functioning, the
American social system serves as an ongoing experiment towards attaining a
societal framework permitting individuals to control their own destiny. This is
achieved via a social contract offering equity under the law which, to a
certain degree, promotes meritocracy while eschewing the mob rule of democracy.
Viewing the past endeavors of our species, most freethinkers understand how
rare is this approach to organizing our interactions—it could be but an
ephemeral aberration in human history.

We saw how quickly there arose an
upsurge of faith-based opposition under the Orwellian guise of “religious
freedom” in response to the SCOTUS decision in favor of mandating nationwide
acceptance of same-sex marriage. This demonstrated that state-church tyranny is
a tool many would gladly wield, given the chance. Yet laws quickly passed in
resistance to that landmark decision are being struck down, with judges noting
that “religious freedom” does not mask the blatant bigotry intended by the
Christians who scrambled to establish that form of legislation. Around the globe, the ongoing horror of
theists mass-murdering those who do not submit to their irrational doctrines continues
unabated. From night clubs to airports, in mosques, restaurants,
marketplaces, theaters, hotels and universities people are being slaughtered by
those who claim their religious beliefs as basis for such crimes. We should be
profoundly alarmed.

All who join us in cherishing
personal sovereignty must grasp that maintaining the flame of freedom requires
active vigilance, not acquiescence to those who would limit our autonomy based
on their supernaturalist delusions. As we gather here at The Black House today,
we reflect on the fragility of individual liberty, affirming our iron-willed
determination to preserve free thought in resistance to all who seek our
subjugation to the “dictates” of their mythological deities.

Here’s to Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness, unhampered by those whose faith will not tolerate
diversity! Hail independence, now and henceforward!

—Magus Peter H. Gilmore