Tensions flared at the Kansas Statehouse on Friday, culminating in the arrest of the leader of a Satanic group and at least one other person during a clash over religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
The confrontation stemmed from the group's attempt to hold a "Black Mass" inside the building, an act met with fierce opposition from Christian counter-protesters.
About 30 members of the Kansas City-area Satanic Grotto, led by president Michael Stewart, assembled outside the Statehouse to protest what they viewed as preferential treatment of Christians by the state. The group pointed to the allowance of religious events within the Statehouse as evidence of this bias.
Their planned indoor ceremony, however, was thwarted by Governor Laura Kelly's temporary ban on all protests inside the building, an order implemented weeks after the Grotto's scheduling.
The outdoor rally became a flashpoint, attracting hundreds of Christian counter-protesters. The Grotto's Satanic imagery and planned denouncement of Jesus Christ during the initially scheduled indoor ceremony fueled the opposition.
About 100 Christians gathered directly across from the Grotto's designated area, separated by police tape. The two groups engaged in a heated exchange, with Christians singing hymns and urging Grotto members to convert.
Several hundred more Christians rallied on the opposite side of the Grotto's area, maintaining a greater distance but adding to the charged atmosphere. The resulting scuffle inside the Statehouse, the details of which remain unclear, led to the arrests.
Kelly issued her order earlier this month after Roman Catholic groups pushed her to ban any Satanic Grotto event. The state’s Catholic Bishops called what the group planned “a despicable act of anti-Catholic bigotry” mocking the Catholic Mass. Both chambers of the Legislature also approved resolutions condemning it.
“The Bible says Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy, so when we dedicate a state to Satan, we’re dedicating it to death," said Jeremiah Hicks, a pastor at the Cure Church in Kansas City, Kansas.
Satanic Grotto members, who number several dozen, said they hold a variety of beliefs. Some are atheists, some use the group to protest harm they suffered as church members, and others see Satan as a symbol of independence.
Amy Dorsey, a friend of Stewart's, said she rallied with the Satanic Grotto to support free speech rights and religious freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, in part because Christian groups are allowed to meet regularly inside the Statehouse for prayer or worship meetings.
Before his arrest, Stewart said his group scheduled its Black Mass for Friday because it thought the Kansas Legislature would be in session, though lawmakers adjourned late Thursday night for their annual spring break. Stewart said the group might come back next year.
“Maybe un-baptisms, right here in the Capitol,” he said.
Video shot by KSNT-TV showed that when Stewart tried to conduct his group's ceremony in the first-floor rotunda, a young man tried to snatch Stewart's script from his hands, and Stewart punched him. 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.”
Online records showed that Stewart was jailed briefly Friday afternoon on suspicion of disorderly conduct and having an unlawful assembly, then released on $1,000 bond.
Witnesses and friends identified the young man trying to snatch away the script as Marcus Schroeder, who came to counterprotest with fellow members of a Kansas City-area church. Online records show Schroeder was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, with his bond also set at $1,000.
Dorsey said two other Satanic Grotto members also were detained, but didn't have details. The Highway Patrol did not immediately confirm any arrests or detentions.
A friend of Schroeder's, Jonathan Storms, said he was trying to help a woman who also sought to snatch away Stewart's script and “didn't throw any punches.”
The woman, Karla Delgado, said she came to the Statehouse with her three youngest children to deliver a petition protesting the Black Mass to Kelly's office. Delgado said she approached Stewart because he was violating the governor's order and Highway Patrol troopers weren't immediately arresting him. She said in the ensuing confusion, her 4-year-old daughter was knocked to the ground.
“When we saw that nobody was doing anything — I guess just in the moment of it — it was like, ‘He’s not supposed to be allowed to do this,’ so we tried to stop him," she said.
