Chaos at the Kansas Capitol: Satanists arrested during Black Mass protest

Religious protesters clashed with Satanic Grotto members in a chaotic display of intolerance

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When I last wrote about the “Black Mass” that the Satanic Grotto was planning to hold at the Kansas Capitol, there were several open questions about what would happen at the actual event. Would anyone get arrested? Would the Black Mass even be allowed to take place? What would the protests (and counter-protests) look like?

In case you need a reminder, the Satanic Grotto, an independent group that’s not affiliated with The Satanic Temple or the Church of Satan, said they wanted to hold the event in response to anti-abortion zealots who routinely get permits for their events inside the Capitol. (They were hoping to do it in front of lawmakers… except the legislature had already wrapped up its work and gone home the day before. Oops.)

Anyway, they all obtained the necessary paperwork… only to have Republican leaders, Catholic bishops, and the Democratic governor flip out.

Gov. Laura Kelly said all events that day would have to take place outside the Capitol, capitulating to voices who didn’t want the Satanists inside the building. Archbishop Joseph Naumann filed a lawsuit insisting that the Satanists had stolen consecrated wafers for use in their Black Mass, even though the truth was the leader of the group, Michael Stewart, purchased regular wafers on Amazon and just said they were consecrated. Lawmakers passed a resolution insisting the Black Mass was a “despicable, blasphemous and offensive sacrilege to not only Catholics but all people of goodwill, and it runs contrary to the spiritual heritage of this state and nation.”

All Hell was breaking loose… and that’s before the event even took place.

Then, adding fuel to the fire, Stewart told me he planned to go inside the Capitol anyway—contrary to the governor’s new rules—because he believed he had every right to be in there just like his original permit said. He was willing to get arrested if it meant proving a larger point about inclusivity.

Michael Stewart (screenshot via YouTube)

So how did it go?

Well, this is the headline at the Associated Press:

While “about 30 members” of the Satanic Grotto came for the event, there were hundreds of Christians protesting the idea of… other religious groups daring to exist.

… About 100 Christians stood against yellow police tape marking the Satanic Grotto’s area. The two groups yelled at each other while the Christians also sang and called on Grotto members to accept Jesus. Several hundred more Christians rallied on the other side of the Grotto’s area, but further away.

To be clear, those Christians weren’t mad about anything the Satanists had done. They were mad because the Satanists weren’t ashamed of identifying with Satan, even though none of them actually believe in a literal Satan.

If they bothered listening to the Mass, though, or just speaking with Stewart, they might have learned something:

“The point of the Black Mass was to… just to show our space in the public circle,” Stewart said on the south side of the Kansas Statehouse… “To express our feelings and our hurt that’s come from past traumas and really to give voice to our community in the public square here.”

At one point about two hours after the outdoor event began, Stewart went inside the Capitol as he promised he would. While he was legally allowed to come in, he was prohibited from demonstrating in the building, per the governor’s orders.

But that wasn’t what got him arrested.

After he entered the Capitol, he began making a dedication to Satan—in other words, demonstrating. He was clearly wanting the cops to stop him to make a point.

Video then shows a Christian protester trying to snatch Stewart’s script out of his hands… leading Stewart to punch back in retaliation.

Several Kansas Highway Patrol troopers wrestled Stewart to the ground and handcuffed him. They led him through hallways on the ground floor below and into a room as he yelled, “Hail, Satan!”

Stewart’s wife, Maenad Bee, told reporters, “He’s only exercising his First Amendment rights.”

The protester was an idiot. Trying to punch him when you know all the cameras are on you doesn’t help. It sure doesn’t endear you to potential allies. After cops took him away, two of his colleagues attempted to continue the demonstration, and then they were also stopped for “unlawful assembly.”

Online records showed that Stewart, 42, was jailed briefly Friday afternoon on suspicion of disorderly conduct and having an unlawful assembly, then released on $1,000 bond.

The Kansas Highway Patrol, which provides security at the Statehouse, said two others who entered the building with Stewart also were arrested for unlawful assembly, Jocelyn Frazee, 32, and Sean Anderson, 50. Frazee had no bond set; information for Anderson was not available online.

The protester was Marcus Schroeder, a 21-year-old jackass who was also arrested for disorderly conduct and whose bond was also set at $1,000. All because someone was saying words he didn’t like.

“He was trying to give a satanic chant. I tried to take his paper out of his hand and he punched me twice in the face,” Schroeder said.

The same Christian zealot, by the way, was arrested two years ago for threatening to bomb a Pride parade.

None of the Christians who were demonstrating inside the Capitol in response to Stewart were arrested.

There was another incident that didn’t appear in the AP story. Before Stewart entered the building, and when he was just speaking outside, he was planning to stomp on his Amazon-purchased wafers as a symbolic critique against the Catholic Church. One man tried to grab his legs before he could do that, leading Stewart to fight back against him too.

“He was was trying to tackle me to get to the cracker underneath,” Stewart said. “I was able to kind of fend him off. I do think he may have picked up the crumbled cracker and ate it. Did I get physical with him? Yes.”

While that guy was taken away, law enforcement was on edge, eager to punish anyone who caused any other kind of altercation.

I don’t think Stewart helped his case by physically reacting to the morons around him. That said, the religious reaction to anything he was doing was completely overblown. One man who spoke outside the Capitol on behalf of one of the more extremist Catholic groups said, “Today is the saddest day in the history of Kansas.”

"Nothing in our past compares with what is happening today," he said. "For God is being directly challenged on state Capitol grounds. The state Capitol represents all of us, all citizens of Kansas. It's in our name.

"Sacred objects and perhaps the blessed sacrament itself — we don't know what they're going to do — are being allowed to be profaned by public authorities, some who have a misguided notion of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Today's horrific event, the first of its kind in the history of Kansas, is a sacrilege."

This is the state that inspired a fight over slavery known as “Bleeding Kansas.” There have been scores of natural disasters. The freaking BTK Killer lived there. But Satanists existing? Clearly the worst thing to ever happen in the state… if you’re historically ignorant of everything that happened before this week.

Stewart did not respond to my multiple requests to talk about what happened. Last night, he briefly told me he needed time to “process” everything that had taken place.

In the meantime, there’s a GoFundMe to raise money for the Satanists’ legal fees. This morning, Stewart and his partner posted a video outside the detention facility where they were waiting for their fellow Satanist who had been held there overnight. He also shared a video of himself returning to the “scene of the crime”—the Capitol—talking about what happened.

Stewart admits he “popped” the guy who came after him, but lamented that “those police inside the building when we were in there allowed me to get mobbed by Catholics who were legitimately pushing up on me and trying to stop me, basically trying to take on the role of the cops themselves.”

Toward the end of the video, he says “we can prove without a doubt an incredible pattern of abuse and neglect… and bigotry” suggesting he may file a series of lawsuits in response to his treatment.

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