Meeting prompts protests due to Satanic invocation

The tension Tuesday at the San Marcos City Hall and on the premises outside prior to the scheduled regular meeting could be seen on faces and heard as religious groups held signs calling on passing cars to honk in response.

Scheduled to give the invocation prayer during the meeting was Lanzifer Eligus Longinus, a representative of the Satanic Temple, and well known in Central Texas.

There was not an empty seat in the council chambers, with the media heavily in attendance, waiting to get a photo of Longinus as he gave his invocation.

Several Christian-based organizations had sent out press releases following the announcement that Longinus was on the meeting agenda.

He read to those in attendance, “Let us stand now unbound and unfettered by arcane doctrines or a fearful mind and darkened times. Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to retrieve knowledge and dissipate our blissful and conforming delusions of old. Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions not their failty to arbitrary social norms and illusory categorizations. Let us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true. Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one and all. That which will not bend must break, and that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise. It is done. Hail Satan.”

Some of those seated in the crowded chambers audibly gasped as he spoke the name, Satan. Others quietly said prayers.

The lawn outside of city hall was crowded with protesters against the invocation speaker, and also with those who were waiting to speak against the possible approval of the new Meet and Confer Agreement between the city and the San Marcos Police Officers Association, an item on the agenda. Those with signs extolling Jesus in 2024 were there to represent their faithy and their concern that Satan was the focus of the invocation.

“We do not plan to protest the satanic invocation itself,” Director of Citizens Defending Freedom in Hays County Tristan Cleve said. “Just like all Americans, satanists have a right to speak and worship as they choose, though we certainly disagree with them. However, as a group that harbors traditional morals and Christian values, we will be there to pray that God’s presence is present and that we are asking for healing for this town and that God’s spirit be with the council members. And with the satanists that are here to pray to their deity that they find God. The future of our community and of our nation depends on it.”

For the Satanic Temple members, Longinus and others said that this is about their right to speak and be heard.

“I had to go through an ordeal just to get the time slot to do this. It’s taken over a year almost. I encourage religious leaders and individuals of all religious minorities to do the same thing that I’m doing today because rights have to be exercised otherwise they’re just pretty words on paper,” Longinus said. “I’m obviously part of a religious minority, and that’s why this is important to me because religious freedom is for everybody.”

The Satanic Temple website does not mention devil worship and those who are participants do not preach anything that would be considered inherently evil by Bible standards.

The temple’s mission, according to the website, is to encourage empathy and benevolence, reject tyrannical authority, advocate for practical common sense, fight injustice, and undertake noble pursuits.

“We don’t perform ritual sacrifice of any kind because there’s nobody to sacrifice to. If we are sacrificing anything, it’s our own time,” Longinus said.

“It’s a provocation,” Christopher McNair said. “We’re going to have to share what we believe in if they’re going to be dishonoring it.”

Longinus said he found the protesters' standpoint to be in opposition to religious freedom. “The funny thing about that is one of the organizations out there protesting this calls themselves Citizens Defending Freedom. That’s kind of funny because they’re obviously not defending my freedom, so they have a pretty skewed idea of what freedom means. You can’t have freedom without diversity,” Longinus said. McNair said he believed that religious freedom was not imagined by the founding fathers to include the Satanic Temple. “It was really never understood to be like this. I think the founders understood that freedom of religion and everything like that was all understood in the context of a good moral Christian nation,” McNair said. Mc-Nair looks to the past as an example of what religious freedom should entail. In response to a request for clarification from the city as to how invocation speakers are chosen, city officials pointed to an August 2009 resolution No. 2009-97R, signed by then Mayor Susan Narvais. The resolution stated, “1. Invocations are offered at the request of and for the benefit of the San Marcos City Council as a legislative body and shall be deemed to be a constitutionally permitted form of government speech rather than private speech. 2. The City Clerk shall be responsible for establishing a rotation list of clergy to offer invocations at regular meetings of the San Marcos City Council. 3. The City Clerk shall make a concerted effort to include clergy from all faith traditions and may invite clergy from outside the City of San Marcos to offer invocations. 4. The opportunity to offer an invocation is a privilege and not a right. The opportunity shall not be exploited to advance any one religion, disparage any other religion, or to proselytize. Violations of this policy may result in removal from the rotation list. 5. If the clergy member designated to offer an invocation is not present at the meeting, a moment of silence shall be observed in lieu of an invocation. 6. The City of San Marcos reserves the right to amend this policy at any time.”