On Sunday, April 30th, Devil’s Mark Ministries held its latest outreach in Birmingham, UK.
Throughout our time doing these outreaches, we’ve found that we tend to get a similar assortment of visitors. There is always an evangelist or two, there are people who are disdainful, and a few who are skeptical but curious. And there are some who are genuinely interested in what we’re doing.
You never know what you’re going to get when someone approaches you at one of these events. We’ve had the most remarkable conversations, and we’ve also been treated like we’re insane. But the positive encounters more than outweigh the negative ones.
Over the course of these outreaches, we’ve met a variety of different people, from a Christian who felt marginalized in his own religion because of his sexuality to a Sikh man who was genuinely delighted that we were out bringing attention to lesser-known religions and shared some of his own struggles with stigma, to a Norse Pagan man who just wanted to compare notes. In this last event, we had a lengthy (and slightly frustrating) debate with a Muslim man, recommended The Satanic Bible to an enthusiastic trio of young people, and received an unexpected “Hail Satan!” from a child who we doubt had permission from his parents to come and talk to us. People of all kinds approach us to take flyers. And every time, another handful of people know who we are and who our Gods are.
Our goal with these events is, in a nutshell, to reach everyone we can. We want to connect with other Diabolists and Satanists and let them know that we exist, as we want to create a community where serious practitioners of Satanism feel they belong. And we also want to let the world, in general, know we exist and that our God is not just a metaphor.
But most importantly, we’re trying to let everyone know that there are people out there who care about Satan and his cause—people who are willing to do the work and represent the Devil, no matter the circumstances. We are not all Atheists. Some of us are actually serious, unapologetic devotees of the Devil, and we want the world to know his name.
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