A Catholic priest thinks that Oklahoma City should have shut down plans by local Satanists to hold a Black Mass on Sunday because it could potentially incite violence.
Earlier this year, a group of Satanists won a permit to stage a Black Mass at the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall’s CitySpace Theatre. For those who don’t know, a Black Mass is based on an inversion of the pre-1962 Latin Mass. Paul Coakley, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Oklahoma City and the spiritual leader of central and western Oklahoma’s Catholics, led efforts to stop the Black Mass from taking place on the grounds that it was “flagrantly inflammatory.” However, city officials told him–rightly–that since the Civic Center Music Hall is a municipal facility, the First Amendment to the federal Constitution can’t turn away events for content reasons.
However, that doesn’t sit well with Father Jonathan Morris, the program director for SiriusXM’s Catholic Channel and a frequent commentator on religious issues for Fox News Channel. On Sunday’s edition of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Morris made arguments against allowing the Black Mass to go forward that sounded a lot like those used by Coakley. Morris claimed that the Satanists’ “political right” to practice their religion was trumped by Oklahoma City’s duty to “defend the good governance of its people.” In Morris’ view, holding a Black Mass would be no different from shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater. “Do they have a right to do it? Yes,” Morris said. “Free speech? No! Why? Because you’re inciting violence.” To Morris’ mind, a Black Mass amounts to “provoking anger and hatred among the community” in the name of worship. In such cases, he said, the government would be well within its rights to step in and say, “That’s not worship. That’s not free speech. That’s mockery, and you’re inciting violence!”
Morris seems to be arguing for the return of blasphemy laws. Such laws have been held to be unconstitutional since 1952, as a sidebar to the landmark Supreme Court case Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson. While that case is best known for declaring that movies were protected under the First Amendment, it also held that state-level blasphemy laws violate constitutional protections on free speech.
Unless I’m very wrong, there really was no defensible reason to deny the permit. While I personally don’t like the idea of a Black Mass, I will resolutely defend their right to hold it. I’m glad that Oklahoma City–a place where conventional wisdom would suggest that this permit would have been rejected out of hand–came to the same conclusion.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC at Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
edited by hl
