The Church of Azazel proto-congregation has been featured in a mass-media documentary, one of the "Special Features" in the DVD release of Supernatural Season 5. I recently received -- finally! -- my complimentary copy of the DVD's, a 6-disk set.
It took me a while to figure out where to find the interview with Church of Azazel members. So, to make it easier for others to find:
On disk 6, click on "Special features." Then click "Apocalypse survival guides." Wait a bit, until eventually you are taken to an old cassette player with a taped label on it saying "Play Me." Click the red button. After a brief monologue, you'll then be taken to a room containing an old TV set and a pair of double doors. Click the double doors. The doors open to a library, giving you a choice of three places you can click: an exit corridor, a bookcase, and a desk. Click the bookcase. You are then taken to a pile of VHS videotape documentaries. Click on "Search for Lucifer," the second tape from the bottom.
One part of this documentary is an interview with three members of our local group, including myself. I'm in shadow in this one. (I'm gradually rerranging my life so that I can more safely show my face in the future.) The interview is preceded by some annoying ookey-spookiness, including a reference to our group as a "cult." Hello? We're certainly not a "cult" in the perjorative sense in which that word has been used since the 1970's, i.e. an authoritarian group which aggressively proselytizes, isolates its members, etc. On the contrary, members and prospective members of the Church of Azazel are specifically encouraged to explore a wide-variety of religions and worldviews.
The interview is interspersed with a mini-ritual, the Affirmation of our common purpose. I have to say I'm not entirely happy with our performance. We sound awfully stilted. Then again, it's the first time we ever tried to do a ritual in front of a camera. Hopefully we'll do better next time.
The interview itself was pretty good, and was edited reasonably well.
The segment on the Church of Azazel is followed by an interview with a Church of Satan member who makes the usual CoS distinction between (atheistic symbolic) "Satanism" and "theistic Devil worship," claiming that that all "theistic Devil worshipers" are what I call Christian-based duotheists. Hopefully most viewers will have noticed that the Church of Azazel is a counter-example to his claim.
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2 comments:
Thats the problem with the media, they will create a stereotypical and sensationalist spin to their reporting.
Are these videos available somewhere? I would be interested.
Thank you.
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