Hail Satan?

The Sundance Film Festival is all about taking risks. This year the festival highlighted filmmakers who were willing to “Risk Independence” and offer vivid new insights into topics and discussions that are too quiet in American society.

Hail Satan?, the latest documentary from filmmaker Penny Lane, certainly fits this description. It is an uncompromising look at the inner workings of the Satanic Temple, the latest iteration of institutionalized Satanism. At various times Hail Satan? moves its audience through laughter, empathy, and inspired rebelliousness by highlighting the stories of this church (truly it is a church) and giving unbelievable access to some of the Temples’ most legendary political battles. Lane compiles footage from the cell phones and cameras of the earliest Temple members with her own footage to craft a narrative that moves from the church’s initial public displays to their work today as a political advocacy and humanitarian group. With this narrative she manages to challenge any preconceived notions surrounding the Satanic Temple and invites viewers who are people of faith to expand the limits of that faith.

Hail Satan? is not a perfect documentary but it is one that sparked a tremendous amount of conversation throughout the week of Sundance, especially within my own Christian community. As one might expect, the film details the struggle between the Satanic Temple and the conservative Christian political community. The documentary paints its targets clearly, leaving no question about the identity of its “bad guys”. While this clarity helps streamline the film, it also causes Hail Satan’s most glaring misstep. This documentary operates under the assumption that this narrow, closed minded group comprises the entirety of the Christian community. Any attempt to “risk independence” by allowing the voice of another Christian viewpoint to be heard would have introduced much needed nuance into the film. As it is, though, Hail Satan? crafts a clear narrative and one must consider that nuance may not have been in the filmmakers plans at all.

While the depiction of Christian communities in the film may not be unexpected, the realities of the Satanic Temple will surely be new to many viewers. After its initial founding as a satirical, political advocacy group, the Temple soon found itself at the center of a rapidly growing community and -of course- controversy. The film details how the Temple grew from an organization that worked to expose the hypocrisy of the “Separation of Church and State” in American government to a secular humanist movement that spans the globe. The testimonies of Satanic Temple members are as profoundly moving as any from within a Christian church and scenes of charity drives and community service expose the true, humanist heart of this group. Surprisingly absent within the Temple is any true belief in Satan or theism of any kind. The namesake is instead adopted to evoke “the opposer”. The Temple lives fully into this title, thumbing their collective nose at authority and pointing out hypocrisy in ways that offend and distress non-members.

This creates a formula for a documentary that is at times difficult to watch. The shock factor is high and people may be repulsed by what they see on screen. Naked bodies covered in wine, demonic imagery, and (obviously) lots of “Hail Satan’s!” stand opposed to Sunday school lessons, kitschy Bible Instagram posts, and traditional American morals. The gap between the validity of the Temples’ political ideals and the questionable ways they express these ideals leaves plenty of room for critique. There are surely more effective ways to change government practices than choking fellow members with wine during “services”, but then again, their community is growing and they are positively impacting communities around the world. Maybe I’m just far too closed minded.

Within my own Christian context, I believe that Hail Satan? is essential viewing. While the depiction of Christians in the documentary is one sided at best, God is not absent from the film because God is never absent. The political and humanist goals of this group are a direct reaction to a worldly American Christianity that believes political power is a more worthwhile investment than forming accepting communities. This group, in some strange way, is rectifying our sins and righting our wrongs. Through their opposition they are exposing our hypocrisy, leading us to (hopefully) ask for redemption, so that we may once again see God’s Truth, the only Truth creation knows. There is no truth outside of God’s self just as there is no beauty outside of God’s Beauty and no goodness outside of God’s Goodness. The Father of Creation gave his Son to redeem all creation. So let us watch and celebrate the redemption of this seemingly oppositional institution who asks us to expand our ideas of what is beautiful and what is good. Ours is a broken, sinful, and human church. We must accept this before we can ask the question Hail Satan begs its viewers to ask: is the opposer of our sin truly the enemy?

Can even Satan be redeemed?