You can watch this program and more on the Satanic Temple’s very own streaming platform, TST TV. Subscribe today: https://thesatanictemple.tv/programs/wwp-207-satans-bible-study

Welcome back to Worldwide Panic. In this episode, Scott Whiteman from the Boys’ Bible Study podcast joins Lenny and Lucien for a deep dive into the bizarre world of Christian entertainment, beginning with Darren Wilson’s Finger of God, a documentary featuring miraculous healings, resurrections, gold teeth, and other alleged demonstrations of divine intervention.

The conversation wanders through evangelical filmmaking, Christian rock, celebrity conversions, the peculiar logic of salvation, and the wildly inconsistent beliefs of American Christians. Scott discusses his fascination with religious media and what it reveals about the people who produce and consume it.

Plus: Sid Roth, Kevin Sorbo, the problem with hell, and the pleasures and perils of watching terrible Christian movies.

Check out Boys’ Bible Study wherever you get your podcasts.

Boys’ Bible Study on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boysbiblestudy

Lucien Greaves on Substack: https://luciengreaves.substack.com/

Failed State Update: lennyflatley.substack.com

Theme music: “Satanic Planet” by Satanic Planet

This is from Lenny's other podcast, The Inner Empire.

In this episode, I read my recent article, “The Uses of Manson,” originally published in ⁠Failed State Update⁠.

Charles Manson has been used to explain everything from the collapse of the 1960s counterculture to the supposed workings of a CIA mind-control program. But the stories people tell about Manson often reveal more about the storytellers than their subject. In that sense, his story gets at one of the central concerns of The Inner Empire: how beliefs are manufactured, circulated, and eventually mistaken for reality.

Be sure to subscribe to Failed State Update at: ⁠https://lennyflatley.substack.com/⁠

And be sure to listen to The Inner Empire wherever you get your podcasts.

Watch this episode on TST TV!

https://thesatanictemple.tv/categories/worldwide-panic

In this episode of Worldwide Panic, we catch up after Lenny's launch of a new podcast, The Inner Empire, an investigation into why people believe what they believe, featuring cult members, magicians, and Christian evangelicals. Lucien discusses the value some Satanic Temple members find in tarot reding and other ritual practices they don't take literally.

From there we turn to the main topic: a recent Open Global Rights report, "The Devil Wears Handcuffs: How Russia Invents International Extremist Movements," and Lucien walks through the surreal history of Russia's campaign against the Satanic Temple — from Putin's early digs at the Baphomet monument, to state media falsely tying TST to financing the Ukrainian military, to Russia's 2023 "undesirable organization" designation and the diplomatic scramble that followed.

Subscribe to Failed State Update: http://lennyflatley.substack.com/

Lucien's newsletter: https://luciengreaves.substack.com/https://luciengreaves.substack.com/