In the real world the story I’m about to relate below is a complete nothing-burger, a total non-event that does not in any way harm anybody. It concerns a recent invocation given at the Tulsa City Council in Oklahoma.
The delightful lady who gave the invocation, Amy Hardy-McAdams, has done this before. Back in June 2021 she gave more or less the exact same invocation, and at that the time, nobody cared, absolutely nobody was bothered. Life just went on as normal.
This time it is different.
An X account tweeted it out her Invocation and called it “Satanic”, and from there it rapidly went viral. Those that stand ready to be offended rapidly sprung into action and quickly expressed their outrage that Satan was apparently roaming the halls of the Tulsa City Council.
OK, let’s take this a step at a time, because honestly their outrage is quite frankly hilariously funny, and is akin to being genuinely terrified of the easter bunny or the tooth fairy.
The Trigger Tweet
Here is the trigger tweet along with a clip of the invocation …
So what exactly was her invocation?
Well, we can see it in the above. Here below is a transcript …
As a Priestess of the Goddess, I invoke the Gorgonaea, champions of equality and sacred rage. I call to Medusa, monstrous hero of the oppressed and abused. I open the Eye of Medusa, the stare that petrifies injustice.
I call upon the serpent that rises from this land to face the Stars, the movement of wisdom unbound.
May these leaders find within themselves the Embodied Divine, the sacred essence of the spark of the Universe and the breath of the Awen.
Place in the hands of these leaders the sacred work of protecting the sovereignty and autonomy of all our people.
Gorgon Goddess, make them ready and willing to be champions for all in this city, not just those in power.
Shine a light for them, that they may walk the path of justice, protected and prepared, illuminating the darkness.
Endow them with the fire of courage, the waters of compassion, the air of truth, and the strength of the earth itself.
As Above, so below.
As within, so without.
As the universe, so the soul.
May there be peace among you all.
And so it is.
Nah, that’s not how any of this went down.
Absolutely no mention of Satan. In fact, no Christian imagery is utilised at all, and so rather obviously it is a very different belief system.
To be specific, she describes herself as follows …
“a Third-Degree High Priestess of the Artemisian Faerie Faith Tradition of Witchcraft, and has Certifications in Usui Reiki Level 5, Crystal Chakra Healing, Herbalism, Medical Astrology, Medicinal Mushrooms, Homeopathic Remedies, Pendulum Divination, Akashic Record Readings, Flower Essences, and the 9 Rites of the Munay-Ki”
Yea I know, a lot of that stuff is objective nonsense. For example …
- Reiki – Made up by Mikao Usui in Japan in the early 1900s. There is no evidence it does anything.
- Homeopathy – Dreamed up by Samuel Hahnemann in 1796. Again, there is no credible evidence that it does anything.
- etc…
We should also be fair and balanced here. Christian beliefs are also objective nonsense as well. A God supposedly gave birth to itself so that it could kill itself, as a sacrifice to itself to appease its own anger towards all humans because a talking snake tricked a distant ancestor into eating some fruit … er no, I really don’t believe any of it, not only because it is silly, but also because there is no credible evidence for any of this being factual.
The fact that there are people who believe things that I don’t is fine … as long as they don’t do any harm to others, and don’t strive to impose their beliefs upon others. The “Imposing beliefs” bit is of course very much an evangelical thing, but that’s perhaps a rant for another day.
The key observation is this – She was not rocking up to demand that others must adhere to her specific beliefs, nor was she claiming an exclusive hold upon “truth”. She did not even label those that do not believe what she beliefs as evil. Instead, she gave an invocation that simple bestowed good wishes upon those about to transact Council business.
In the real world I might indeed be faced with people who wish me a very Merry Christmas, and I in turn can happily also wish them a very Merry Christmas. It is simply a positive greeting and does not mandate that you actually believe anything.
In a similar manner her invocation simply wishes them well in all their endeavours.
What Comes Next?
You know how such stuff plays out when amplified on social media by right-wing religious nuts. Since it is not their preferred belief, the supposedly “true” one, then their right-wing intolerance kicks into high-gear and lets rip. It stirs up the mob and so out they come carrying digital pitchforks and torches, as they bay for blood.
I’m not kidding, even the Gov of Oklahoma felt compelled to join the mob with this batshit crazy declaration via his official account …
Wait what! … Tulsans need to “Stand Strong” against freedom of religion. Also, literally nobody voted for this, it’s in the constitution that he himself is pledged to uphold.
I should also of course point out that it is not Satan, but ancient Greek mythology. I mean honestly, you don’t need to be a classical cultures guru to work that out.
The irony truly runs deep. He himself wanted religion in government, and so now that’s exactly what he has got …
One other notable religious fanatic in Oklahoma is Ryan Walters.
Did he hold his peace and say nothing because he is too busy crying about missing out on a Trump Cabinet appointment?
Hell no, this was catnip for lunatics like him …
Once again, literally not Satanism, and sorry Ryan, but The Satanic Temple really is an officially recognised religion.
He also says “the person who allowed it should be held accountable” … er for what crime exactly?
Right now that is meaningless bluster that breaches basic human rights, but hey, come Jan 20 who the hell knows.
However, some notable commenters took the correct stance. The Oklahoma AG not only made the right call, but being Republican he also stuck his verbal knife into both the invocation and also Ryan Walters and Gov Stitt with this stance …
He may indeed be a Republican, but at least he knows what the law actually is and is sticking to it.
Final Thoughts
Freedom of Religion means freedom for any religion, not just your preferred one.
Tesla City Council did this to themselves by opening up their doors to religion by having a religious invocation. When you open your doors like that then legally you can’t exclude anybody or any religion.
There is of course the very obvious solution – do away with invocations, they don’t need them, and they do nothing.
Religion can inspire humans to be tolerant, decent, embrace empathy, and to do good, but it also enables intolerance, hatred, and bigotry. What manifests perhaps says far more about the individual than the belief.
What is also very common within most strands of religious belief is a deeply held intolerance for any and every other belief.
The founding fathers were very much steeped in the enlightenment and were well aware of all this. They embraced enlightenment ideals such as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and … yes this is the key bit here … separation of church and state. That was not theory, they had seen the social horror that state sponsored religion had inflicted upon the European political stage – It is all well documented, multiple centuries of violence and death at the hands of fanatics in the 1500s, 1600s, and 1700s. The founders very clearly embraced the thought – “We can learn from all that and do better“, hence we have the First Amendment.
As is very well-known, Jefferson very famously created the wall of separation metaphor within his letter to the Danbury Baptists …
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
You know the history of course. The Danbury Baptists were deeply concerned about their very existence because Connecticut’s state constitution would outlaw them. Jefferson replied, by not offering any direct help, but instead used his letter to send a very clear message regarding what the newly established constitution had done for them, and he made damn sure that the letter was published far and wide and that all became aware of this letter.
Today’s religious fanatics would do well to ponder over it all and understand that Church and State separation does not in any way oppress them, but instead grants them freedom. If they overturned it, then they might not be fans of the state religion that rises up and proceeds to oppress them as heretics opposed to the one true state sponsored faith.