Back in the 1990's, the Norwegian Black Metal scene was notorious for murders and church-burnings. (See various pages linked in the section on Maniacal musicians in my article Tabloid prophecy fulfillers: Satanism's real-life criminal fringe: How should law-abiding Satanists respond? on my website Against Satanic Panics.)
The Village Voice quotes Beste as saying:
"In comparison to the early behavior, they aren't terribly violent anymore," he says. "They maintain similar [political and social] views, but they just . . . well, I think they mostly just kind of grew up. They saw that burning churches didn't really serve a purpose — if anything, it made the Christian community stronger. To rid Norway of Christianity . . . it's just not a realistic goal."
I'm glad they now realize that burning or otherwise vandalizing churches serves no valid purpose whatsoever. Indeed, if the point is to attack Christianity, it's completely counterproductive even in terms of that goal, for exactly the reason Beste mentioned: It just makes the Christian community stronger, if anything. I too made that very same point several years ago in my article The purpose of blasphemy in Satanism on my Theistic Satanism website.
Private rites of blasphemy can be a good catharsis. But there is no good reason to destroy or damage other people's property in the name of Satan or Satanism.
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