Path: ultra.sonic.net!bug.rahul.net!wasp.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!peerfeed.ncal.verio.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.dejanews.com!nnrp1.dejanews.com!not-for-mail From: harwer2@hotmail.com Newsgroups: alt.christnet.satanism,alt.satanism,alt.satannet Subject: Re: First Church of Satan STATUS Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 18:48:56 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion Lines: 94 Message-ID: <77o2ik$n3r$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> References: <77mb0l$9mm$1@winter.news.rcn.net> Reply-To: harwer@ultinet.net NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.99.47.211 To: harwer@ultinet.net X-Article-Creation-Date: Fri Jan 15 18:48:56 1999 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows 98) X-Http-Proxy: 1.1 x14.dejanews.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 207.99.47.211 Xref: ultra.sonic.net alt.satanism:105453 alt.satannet:2237 In article <77mb0l$9mm$1@winter.news.rcn.net>, "the Daemon Egan" wrote: > But as far as federal recognition goes, let's take > them one by one; > > 1. The Temple of Set is a tax exempt, non-profit > smoothly run organization. This means the Council > of Nine, acting as the current board of directors > can hire a secretary, vote themselves a small > salary, organize fundraisers, distribute printed > material, etc... > I would say they have alot to offer in lieu of the > required yearly fee. I'd agree with that, with the caveat that I really know very little about the internal mechanisms of the Temple of Set. Some people find them silly; others seem to get a great deal out of the Temple of Set membership. YMMV. > 2. The Church of Satan in California is a profit- > making business scheme... I wouldn't dignify it by > calling it a "venture." Your 100 dollar membership > fee lines their pockets - if you want their publication, > you must pay extra. Now that Howard is dead, let's > see how long this lasts... Actually, I'd compare the Church of Satan to groups like the Elgar Appreciation Society or the Mahler Society of New York. (For the Great Unwashed: Elgar and Mahler are renowed composers). We do a number of things which may be of use to you if you're interested in the philosophy of Anton LaVey. We can put you in contact with others who share your interests; we see that LaVey's writings stay in print; we apply his philosophies in our day-to-day lives and offer suggestions as to how others can do the same. If this is something which interests you, it may be worth your while to join the Church of Satan. If it's not, you should go do something else. Many (perhaps most) of the regular posters on alt.magick and alt.pagan consider Anton LaVey a carny and a conman; they think his *Satanic Bible* is the lowest form of mass entertainment, and unworthy to be considered among such august tomes as Crowley's *Liber AL.* For them, LaVey is unimportant... and hence, they avoid this newsgroup and, for the most part, discussions about LaVey. Some of the regular posters on here claim that Anton LaVey was a carny and a conman; they call *The Satanic Bible* the lowest form of mass entertainment, and unworthy to be considered among such august tomes as... well, hey, has Paul Valentine ever actually WRITTEN anything connected to Satanism? For them, LaVey is "unimportant. Hence, they spend inordinate amounts of time trying to prove what a horrible, bad person LaVey is and how irrelevant his Church of Satan is (while, of course, trying to palm themselves off as the "real" Church of Satan...). What's wrong with this picture? > 3. The First Church of Satan is an individually-owned > not-for-profit organization. We don't pay taxes because > we don't accumulate any revenues. Every penny that comes > in goes RIGHT BACK into the Church. This pays for the > web hosting service, upcoming online credit card service, > advertising and public service announcements (selling > Satanism as an alternative religion). We thrive on > volunteerism. I've avoided a "board of directors" > because we intend to KEEP it this way. So long as you're just a mailing list and a website, that's probably all you're going to need. > At the end of each fiscal year, we will be sending out a > detailed bank statement to all of our members. Please > understand, these actions serve one purpose: to put > Satanism in the public domain where it belongs > aside every other mainstream religion. No comment. Well, one comment: what does all this "official recognition" shite have to do with anything? All this "we're recognized as a tax-exempt corporation!" "Oh yeah? Well, we're an internationally recognized 501(c)(3) corporation!" stuff is, to me, on a par with arguments about dick size. Peace Kevin Filan -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own