The Guardian

Hell freezes over: how the Church of Satan got cool

Thanks to a canny social media presence – which has included messages to Chelsea Clinton – and progressive politics, satanism is an unlikely spiritual antidote to the Trump era
The late Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey and his partner, Diane Hegarty, at a ceremony in California. Photograph: Bettmann Archive

Disappointingly, Chelsea Clinton has denied she and her husband practise satanism. Her tweet wishing the folks at the Church of Satan a happy new year should not be taken as endorsement of the dark lord’s manifold heresies.

One hopes that, like her father’s of having had “sexual relations with that woman”, Chelsea’s disclaimer isn’t for real. Doesn’t she realise that the radical power of Satan is having a moment unparalleled since Milton unwittingly made him the badass rebel hero of Paradise Lost?

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