of town. dakota and xander drove 14 hours from oklahoma to witness the unveiling. i can t imagine it s the easiest thing to be a satanist in oklahoma. how were you guys raised? my parents are both missionaries. as you can imagine there s a lot of bible study and going to church on sundays, but as i got older it was sort of something didn t really comply with who i was as a person. and was there something in your life that kind of propelled you to turn your back on the church? i came out, and i was basically shunned after everybody in my church found out. do you feel like you were really hurt by the church? i wouldn t say that i was hurt by the church. i would just say that it s very difficult to want to be a part of something that is so against what you believe in. you both grew up in the church. do you believe that there s a god? no. we let religion warp our minds into believing that there could
i can t imagine it s the easiest thing to be a satanist in oklahoma. how were you guys raised? my parents are both missionaries. as you can imagine there s a lot of bible study and going to church on sundays, but as i got older it was sort of something didn t really comply with who i was as a person. and was there something in your life that kind of propelled you to turn your back on the church? i came out, and i was basically shunned after everybody in my church found out. do you feel like you were really hurt by the church? i wouldn t say that i was hurt by the church. i would just say that it s very difficult to want to be a part of something that is so against what you believe in. you both grew up in the church. do you believe that there s a god? no. we let religion warp our minds into believing that there could be a god or a devil. i don t discount the possibility of there being a
started exploring as a young boy in sunday school. michael was raised lutheran but struggled to see the bible as more than just a story. by the time he became a teenager, he was ready to walk away. i was definitely looking into the other side of life i wasn t exposed to. i went to my parents and said that i just don t believe any of this and i would really appreciate it if i didn t have to go here on sundays. and they were furious. it s one thing to walk away from the church, and it s another to say that you are a satanist. it s a very big leap. three years ago michael started exploring a form of satanism first popularized in the 1960s. hail satan. the church of satan is an exclusive group of atheists known for their hedonistic and self-centered beliefs. attitudes and practices that
faith cleansed me of my sins, and faith will see me through. that s all there is to it. when we visited iowa state penitentiary, we found the prison attempts to provide services for a wide range of religious beliefs. a lot of the religions are a quieting, mellowing, peaceful type of thing. is for them to pray, to see god answer something, is just something very special, very empowering. then we met an inmate named travis wolfkill. in the name of satan, ruler of the earth, the king of the world, i command the forces of darkness to bestow the infernal power upon me. i m in a satanic group here. there s only about four of us here. it s a real small community. the church of satan is about enjoying life. it s about doing what you want to do. we believe in indulgence rather than abstinence. we believe in doing what makes us happy and what improves the quality of our life.
when we visited iowa state penitentiary we found the prison attempts to provide services for a wide range of religious beliefs. a lot of religions are just a quieting, mellowing, peaceful time and so for them to pray to see god answer something is just very, very special, so it s empowering. then we met an inmate named travis wolfkill. in the name of satan the ruler of the earth, the king of the world, i command darkness to bestow the eternal power upon me. i m in a satanic group here. only about four of us here. it s real small community. the church of satan is about enjoying life. it s about doing what you want to do. we believe in indulgence rather than abstinence. we believe in doing what makes us happy, and what improves the quality of our life. such an attitude may have been what led wolfkill to a life sentence without the possibility