Speaking in unequivocal terms, the governor of Oklahoma has issued a strong statement condemning the staging of a black mass next month at the Oklahoma City Civic Center.

“This 'Black Mass' is a disgusting mockery of the Catholic faith, and it should be equally repellent to Catholics and non-Catholics alike,” said Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin.

“It may be protected by the First Amendment, but that doesn't mean we can't condemn it in the strongest terms possible for the moral outrage which it is. It is shocking and disgusting that a group of New York City ‘satanists’ would travel all the way to Oklahoma to peddle their filth here. I pray they realize how hurtful their actions are and cancel this event.”

Fallin joins Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley in criticizing the event, scheduled for Sept. 21 at the Oklahoma City Civic Center. The archbishop said the black mass “is a satanic inversion and distortion of the most sacred beliefs not only of Catholics, but of all Christians.”

In response, Oklahoma City officials have said the Civic Center is a public building and the city must abide by the First Amendment and allow it to be leased to any group that agrees to abide by all laws and city ordinances.

Officials agreed to rent a small room at the Center to the event organizer, Adam Daniels, who hails from a self-made Satanic church named Dakhma of Angra Mainyu. The five-hour rental is costing $420.

Daniels claims the black mass will include a "female altar" which is normally a nude woman and include a consecrated host which has been "corrupted by sexual fluids".  This host then becomes the sacrifice of the mass.

Dusty Gates, writing for Crisis Magazine, reports that bishops from the U.S. and around the world have joined in solidarity with Archbishop Coakley in condemning this atrocity.

"His Excellency has called upon the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel for help in protecting God’s flock," Gates reports.

"Archishop Coakley recognizes the danger of this event not just for the sacrilege that its diabolical perpetrators have planned against the Body of Christ, but also, just as fearfully, as a public invitation for the devil to enter our midst. Anyone who has ever been frightened by stories of demonic possession caused by tinkering with a Ouija board ought to be absolutely terrified by the horrors that could come from an exhibition like the one planned at the Oklahoma City Civic Center. We know that Jesus answers when we knock on his door (Matthew 7:7)…what do we think the devil will do when we knock on his?"

He concludes with the chilling warning to those among us who have not yet been willing to fight for what we believe, even in a culture where religion is being pushed further and further into the background.

"As long as we advocate the sort of society which is unable to explicitly state and defend its belief in, and obedience to, the God of Christians, we abandon that society to the dominion of his Enemy by default."

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