The Atlantic says pro-abortion protesters who chant “Hail Satan” aren’t really hailing Satan, but only mocking religious people.

The Atlantic is naïve.

To be sure, the chanters are baiting religious people, but they are not mocking them.  One mocks people by making their cause seem ridiculous.  One does not make their cause seem ridiculous by portraying one’s own cause as evil.

I haven’t the slightest doubt that not everyone who chants “Hail Satan” really thinks that he is hailing Satan.  Yet he is doing it.  If he is not adoring the prince of the powers of darkness, then he is saluting the supreme symbol of these powers.  He is celebrating the commission of evil to spite God.

Christians are sometimes told that they should be careful what they pray for, because they may get it.  This is good advice for abortion proponents too.  If they hail darkness, it will come to them.