March 28, 2025
Satanists do not turn the other cheek
Some context for what happened today inside the Kansas State capitol
There will be people making lots of claims about what happened inside the Kansas State Capitol today and what led to The Devil Of Kansas (Michael Stewart) getting tackled by state police, arrested, and charged with a crime, along with two other members of The Satanic Grotto — Sean Anderson and Jaee Crazee. As of this writing, Jaee is still in a Kansas cage, by the way. But this video by journalist Grace Hills really shows clearly the physical dynamic and a lot more context leading up to cops deciding, “Oh, now is when we’ll intervene.”
See also reporting by the Kansas Reflector:
In the rotunda, Stewart began delivering the rebellious alternative mass and was interrupted by three people intent on stopping what could be interpreted as a mockery of their faith. An unidentified man and woman, with young kids at their side, physically intervened to interrupt Stewart. He spun away from them. Counter-protester Marcus Schroeder joined the fray and twice reached to rip papers from Stewart’s hand. Stewart responded by punching Schroeder in the face twice. More than half a dozen Capitol Police wrestled Stewart to the floor to make the arrest.
“I’m not resisting. I’m not resisting. I’m not resisting,” Stewart repeatedly yelled.
Schroeder, who wore a shirt declaring “death is not welcome here,” defended his intervention to thwart Stewart during an interview.
“He was trying to give a satanic chant. I tried to take his paper out of his hand and he punched me twice in the face,” Schroeder said.
After the area cleared, two other satanists tried to pick up where Stewart left off and were taken into custody. One other person was cuffed and led away by law enforcement outside the Capitol. An individual had grabbed Stewart by the legs in a bid to stop Stewart from stomping on crackers intended to represent those used in a Catholic mass. In that brief exchange, Stewart also punched the guy before law enforcement ended the fracas.
So that video is showing the second time Stewart had to defend himself from someone bodily interfering with him while gobs of cops around him did noting about it, although we haven’t run across video of that one yet (edit: here it is; edit 2: here is the video of Sean Anderson’s and Jaee Crazee’s arrests).
See also reporting by the Associated Press:
Video shot by KSNT-TV showed that when Stewart tried to conduct his group’s ceremony in the first-floor rotunda, a young man tried to snatch Stewart’s script from his hands, and Stewart punched him. Several Kansas Highway Patrol troopers wrestled Stewart to the ground and handcuffed him. They led him through hallways on the ground floor below and into a room as he yelled, “Hail, Satan!”
Stewart’s wife, Maenad Bee, told reporters, “He’s only exercising his First Amendment rights.”
Online records showed that Stewart, 42, was jailed briefly Friday afternoon on suspicion of disorderly conduct and having an unlawful assembly, then released on $1,000 bond.
The Kansas Highway Patrol, which provides security at the Statehouse, said two others who entered the building with Stewart also were arrested for unlawful assembly, Jocelyn Frazee, 32, and Sean Anderson, 50. Frazee had no bond set; information for Anderson was not available online.
Witnesses and friends identified the young man trying to snatch away the Black Mass script as Marcus Schroeder, who came to counterprotest with fellow members of a Kansas City-area church. Online records show Schroeder, 21, was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, with his bond also set at $1,000.
A friend of Schroeder’s, Jonathan Storms, said he was trying to help a woman who also sought to snatch away Stewart’s script and “didn’t throw any punches.”
Again, it is really important to note here that Marcus Schroeder is not just “some guy” who happened to be there and felt compelled to help out. Schroeder is a Christian Nationalist domestic terrorist who pleaded guilty last year to disrupting a Pride event in Wisconsin in 2023 by calling in a bomb threat:
WATERTOWN (WKOW) — A member of a Christian preacher group, who was arrested after a Watertown pride event, is facing new accusations.
19-year-old Marcus Schroeder is charged in Dodge County for making a bomb scare, a class I felony.
Schroeder was previously arrested following a permit violation at the pride event in July.
He told Fox News he was reciting scriptures from the bible when he was arrested for resisting and “amplified music in the park without a permit.”
He was released with a warning and charges weren’t filed.
Fast forward nearly two months and Schroeder was back in custody for a felony charge pertaining to the same event.
“Mr. Schroeder you’re charged with one count of making a bomb scare and as a class I felony it could carry fines of up to $10,000 or imprisonment of up to three and a half years,” the court commissioner said.
Court records show, Schroeder is accused of calling 911 and reporting a bomb was going to go off while he was attending Watertown’s Pride in the Park event
According to the criminal complaint, Schroeder told the operator “I’m at the park right now for a drag queen event in Watertown and a guy just came up to me and said there is a bomb set to explode at 12:05.“
This may be a violation of the year probation he pleaded down to in August last year, actually, according to the Watertown Daily Times:
(Edit: per EisenbergLaw.org with h/t to @CoffeeDrinker on Bluesky, two operative Winconsin probation rules this may have “Avoid all conduct that violates federal or state statute, municipal or county ordinances, tribal law or which is not in the best interest of the public welfare or your rehabilitation” and “Obtain approval and a travel permit from your agent prior to leaving the State of Wisconsin”.)
Schroeder’s no contest plea will see him sentenced to serve 90 days in Dodge County Jail – though that sentence is stayed and will not be served if he can meet the other conditions of his sentencing – and also see him sentenced to a year of probation. In exchange for the no-contest plea, a felony charge of making a bomb threat was dropped by the office of District Attorney Andrea M. Will.
So if you expected a Satanist to turn the other cheek when a guy like that put hands on him, sorry friend, you must have been thinking of the other guy.
All of this is to say, being willing to stand behind your principles is commendable, but this ain’t a movie. Sometimes bad things will happen to you for doing it, and when they do, you’d better hope people show up for you when you need them.
So if you want more people fighting Christian Nationalists, including bodily, support the ones doing it now.
Donate to Help Michael, Jaee, and Sean’s Legal Battle, organized by Maenad Bee
If you can spare $6 to chip in (or $666), consider helping them out.
The Satanic Temple's Boogeyman
Queer Satanic
TST sued us from April 2020 to September 2024, and we are still here.
