South African Religionists Allege That Slipknot Are Competing Unfairly, Using Poetry to Brainwash Youth

This is a follow up to my recent blog about the religious twit who (still) insists that heavy metal band, Slipknot and Satan are responsible for leading a kid into killing a fellow pupil at a Krugersdorp school earlier this week. The title for my follow-up blog is an indication of how I would report the incident, if I was a newspaper editor.

Almost a week has passed, and the consensus of opinion, both written and verbal (broadcast and socialized) is that Slipknot and Satan cannot be held responsible for the behaviour of the kid who committed the atrocity. However, there are many commentators, with a religious leaning who still hold on to the preposterous notion that the kid was influenced by Satanic lyrics from Slipknot's recordings. To my utter disgust, it has also been revealed that Pierre Eksteen (my twit of the week), originally reported as a community leader, is in fact a member of the local clergy (Pastor).

In further developments, it seems that the Ninja kid has "given his heart to God" and "accepted Jesus" after appearing in Court yesterday. I viewed an online video of him leaving the court buildings and he looked particularly happy. Maybe he had already found Jesus by then, or maybe he was just basking in all the media attention; one can never tell. Let me just comment that I'm not the only person asking why he did not "find Jesus" last week, which would have resulted in the victim still being alive today. As one blogger commented "I just have to shake my head in amazement. Turn to the devil when you want power, turn to God when you are in 'shit'? Religion of convenience."

I've been following the online commentary during the week as the story unfolded, and they range from extremely intelligent and insightful from the non-religious or moderate segment of the community, to utter banality and outright rubbish from religious dimwits. One guy from the religious loony brigade went so far as to suggest that non-religious persons are "too thick" to understand how Satan works. Therefore Satan infects only the minds of intelligent (and presumably religious) people. According to him Satan plies his trade by "dividing and conquering" the intelligent, and so he does not bother with "thick" (non-religious) people. I'll leave you to ponder how intelligent this guy (and the thinking) is.

I cannot understand how the band members from Slipknot can be regarded as evil (Satanists) by merely expressing themselves through poetry. Would you automatically consider an artist who paints a nude study, a pervert or rapist? If, as these religious delinquents believe, people are inspired by mere words (Slipknot's lyrics) to perpetrate horrendous acts of violence and even murder, then you have to question the Bible (and other religious texts, most notably those from the Abrahamic religions) to do the same. In fact you don't have to go further than the Old Testament to be inspired to commit all sorts of atrocities. Richard Dawkins wrote in his book The God Delusion, "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." And yet, these writings are considered as the basis for morality.

So, what's that about Slipknot's lyrics again?