Chaz Stevens is an activist whose temper goes hot and cold, as does my affinity for him.

At one point, in 2012, I supported him when he fought to place a Festivus Pole near a Deerfield Beach, Florida fire station that already had a Nativity scene and menorah out front.

He wanted to do the same thing this past winter, this time in the state Capitol building.

I was still with him then… until he unleashed a tirade of profanity against other religious displays that were outside the fire station.

The video he took has since been deleted, but the transcript is below:

Just crazy… the baby fucking jesus. Oh, and an angel! How fucking clever is that? A goddamn fucking angel. Jesus H. Christ. Oh, Jesus Christ, look… someone stuck their finger up the little baby’s ass. Look at this. How [Mary] convinced [Joseph] that “I’m a virgin,” ha!… Jesus Christ. People don’t fucking learn. Told ya’ I was gonna sue. Stupid. [Spits.] Shit. Oh, and there’s our little deer. Why don’t we do something about this deer? Looks like he’s got fucking herpes. And there it is. Baby Jesus Motel 6. Brought to you by the stupid people at Deerfield Beach.

He may have been legally right, but it’s hard to defend someone who speaks like that and plays into the Christian Right’s “persecution” myth

Anyway, there’s good news: Stevens may not even be an atheist anymore! Nope. He’s a Satanist now, he says, and he’s fighting to deliver an invocation at a future Deerfield Beach City Council meeting:

In a short phone interview, Stevens tells us he had just recently converted to Satanism. It was the first time, he says, that he had committed to any god. … “If the Supreme Court wants to open up the door to this, Satan and I will walk through,” he adds. … … He even provided an example of what he might read. “O mighty Lord Satan, / teach us to become strong and wise! / Teach us to vanquish the enemies / of our freedom and well-being!” he proposes to say. … Stevens says that even some of his family doesn’t understand what he’s trying to do with his request. He says that this is not about Satan. “It’s a comic gag, a satirical gag, an extreme gag that draws attention at the greying of the separation of church and state,” Stevens says.

I can’t tell if he’s joking about the Satanism thing or not… either way, it’s probably a dumb thing to tell a reporter you’re pulling a fast one over the local government before you’ve actually done it. It makes it that much easier for them to dismiss you as a joker than as a real Satanist who sincerely wants to deliver an invocation.

Still, I’m curious to see how city officials respond. Ignoring that line about the “gag,” how could they say no to Stevens but yes to all the other people who want to deliver an invocation? There would be no basis for it.



