Abstract
Hail Satan?, directed by Penny Lane, seriously addresses Christian supremacy in America with a satirical smirk. The question mark in the title celebrates the tongue-in-cheek methods of the organization the film revolves around: the Satanic Temple. Founded in response to the dominance of Christianity in a country that celebrates religious pluralism, the so-called Satanists are clear that they do not worship the literal Satan, but rather, they embrace his representation of “rebellion against arbitrary authority” and “tyranny,” which calls them to political action. The documentary explains this nascent religious sect and follows the Satanists as they lead a crusade across the nation against Ten Commandments statues on public grounds. With nuanced presentation and appropriate content warnings, this film is accessible for students across all levels of instruction and in a wide array of sociological courses, including Introduction to Sociology, Sociology of Religion, and Social Problems, as well as any course exploring the topics of ideological hegemony or religious pluralism.
The central figure of the Satanic Temple, Lucien Greaves, narrates much of the tale of how what started as a political stunt became a legitimate worldwide organization. In the first act of the film, we see Lucien and other members of the Temple staging public events intended to incite Christian outrage and draw attention to the cause. The prolonged footage providing an unfiltered look into these vulgar stunts is a potential weakness of the film. The shock value of their performance art may achieve its aim of revolting the audience too well. Leading classroom discussions around these acts, their intended value by the organization, and the students’ responses both before and after the viewing enhance student comprehension of how the film shows the concepts of Marxian superstructure and ideological hegemony as part of their lived experience.
About 20 minutes into the documentary, we begin to learn about the Oklahoma Ten Commandments crusade. Mr. Greaves and the Satanic Temple challenged the Oklahoma legislature’s plan to install a Ten Commandments statue on the state capitol grounds. Their methods of doing so were unconventional. Mr. Greaves and the other anonymous leaders of the Satanic Temple worked with a sculptor to create an eight-and-a-half foot tall, 3,000-pound bronze statue of the Satanic goat-faced Baphomet with children at his feet. They crowdfunded over $20,000 in a campaign that brought new nationwide attention and supporters to the religion. The testimonials from a diverse array of individuals about their conversion to Satanism and their religious convictions is a particularly salient section for students.
The organization spread across the internet and the nation while it drew ire from conservatives lambasting its gall to ask for a statue representing its religion be included on government property. There is no hint of irony in these conservatives’ own support for the Ten Commandments statue. The audience learns the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that allowing the Ten Commandments statue would be unconstitutional, and the Satanic Temple celebrated their victory by taking their plans for a Baphomet statue elsewhere.
The film then begins to show us more about what the Satanic Temple means and does. We see Temple chapters doing a charity car wash, environmental cleanup, and homeless outreach. They focus on “The After School Satan Club,” an organization Temple members set up as an alternative to Christian clubs that hold meetings in public schools. The club teaches children about consent and agency with an intent to “broaden the mindset of students through critical thinking skills.” This fleeting part of the whole film is another learning point for postviewing discussion that will help students connect the film to their own lives as well as to sociological concepts such as socialization.
These chapter stories conclude with the Phoenix City Council flare-up. Satanists from an Arizona chapter explain to the audience that the City Council allowed local religious organizations to lead the opening prayers for their meetings. The Satanic Temple put in a request to give the opening prayer, and the backlash it received, including death threats, was overwhelming. Phoenix opted to get rid of the rotating inclusive prayer policy altogether rather than allow the Satanists to take part. The vitriolic comments of fellow Phoenix citizens against the Satanists’ inclusion are stunning, but the connection to how religious minorities feel about the infusion of Christianity into Americanness could have been made clearer.
Our focus is redirected to Arkansas, where the same Ten Commandments/Baphomet statue debate is set to play out for much of the remainder of the film. The audience watches as Mr. Greaves argues before a government committee that, in a nation that recognizes religious plurality, his Baphomet statue is a necessary complement to any installation of a Christian statue on the capitol grounds. He informs the committee that if the Ten Commandments statue request is withdrawn, he will withdraw his request as well, as “what we’re trying to avoid is the appearance of one religion’s viewpoint apparently co-opting the power and the authority of a government institution.” The battle rages on, with it appearing that both statues will be erected. In interviews, the excited Satanists tell the audience dejectedly of a man who rammed his car into the Ten Commandments statue within 24 hours of its erection and destroyed it. The filmmaker and her subjects are clear that not only is this not their desired outcome but it harms their cause as well. The man who destroyed the Ten Commandments statue was not affiliated with the Satanic Temple. Another monument was quickly reinstalled, but the film then switches to the Temple facing another serious complication.
One of the leaders shown extensively throughout the film, Jex Blackmore, is seen engaging in performance art, including nudity, bondage, and alcohol. The voiceover playing over graphic scenes of her escalating tactics has Jex quoting Angela Davis, crying out that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” before she calls for the execution of the president. The movie, and the Satanic Temple, recover by severing ties with Jex. This moment feels like a full-scale turn from the performative direct action of the opening scene to the legislative direct action of the monument fight. To prepare the students for the intensity of these scenes, I take time before the viewing to discuss with the students that they are adults with agency, and with the rare exception, such as the criminal justice system, they can get up from any situation that makes them uncomfortable and leave. This is an important sociological lesson that many of our students never fully learn; the Asch conformity experiments tell us how difficult this can be for anyone.
In the end, both the Ten Commandments and the Baphomet are revealed to the waiting crowds in Arkansas, and the viewer is left to contemplate the meaning of religious liberty in the United States. Instructors should exercise caution when using this film in the classroom, not only due to the personal sensitivity of Christian students who may find it offensive but because it contains scenes of fully nude adults. With this warning, the material remains appropriate for university students of all levels and would fit well in any course discussing the social construction of religion, hegemonic values, or social movements. This film pairs well with Tal Peretz’s (2015) activity “A Cost/Benefit Analysis of Religion’s Effect on Society” in the TRAILS database. This activity asks students to conceptualize religion structurally rather than individually and to move beyond the binary good/bad framing of religion to a critical analysis of how religion impacts people.
On the first day of instruction on religion, Peretz’s framing conversation asks students to consider the concrete impacts of religion on society. These discussions can link to concepts of superstructure, socialization, and hegemony as appropriate with other class content. I conclude this day with detailed content warnings about Hail Satan? After the viewing, I have the students write a short personal reflection in class and think-pair-share it until we have a robust conversation going. It is important here to keep in mind Peretz’s advice about gently redirecting the conversation from the individual to the empirical and from the personal response to the critical reflection.
Student comments on the film frequently include a new awareness of the ubiquity of Christian symbolism in their daily lives and a newfound appreciation for how that may impact their non-Christian neighbors. This can lead to conversations about the role of religion in child socialization, in family formation and recognition, and in criminal justice. The edgy nature of the film primes the students for discussion and the Peretz activity creates the space for the students to engage with religious pluralism in new ways. In this film, inclusive and encouraging instructors have an opportunity to aid students in utilizing sociological concepts to reevaluate their prior understandings of religion and to examine the historical and cultural contexts those understandings are part of.