This is last week's news to some, but I've been meaning to post about a the Spiritual Battle (TM) that went down on Mount Ainslie last Saturday.

Here's the lowdown. Catch The Fire Ministries are hard at work putting the 'mental' back in fundamentalism. They call themselves spiritual warriors. They alone can stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. Etcetera. A while ago, some school kids tipped them off that there was a Satanic altar up on Mount Ainslie, from which Satan and his minions exerted their evil power over all of Canberra and a good portion of Australia. So, CTFM did what any good Christian warriors would do. They alerted the press, converged on Canberra and staged a colossal exorcism, and threw Satan's dark kingdom into complete confusion. (Seriously, read the article. It does the story so much more justice than I ever could.)

Meanwhile, the social scene in Canberra being rather bland, a horde of assorted sex workers, homosexuals, wiccans, satanists and other Ungodly Folks decided to rock up and spend the day partying, getting naked, and singing It's Raining Men. Sadly I wasn't among them (actually I was taking my kid sister shopping that day...lesbian orgy on Mount Ainslie would have been my second choice), but it sounds like it shaped up as the most amazing spectacle.

The media had a field day.

Honestly, things like this set me wondering what it must be like to believe what CTFM believe. I mean, come on, they're living in a city infested by Evil Incarnate! It's like Sunnydale, except at least in the Buffyverse demons are (by and large) visible.

I'm trying to put myself in their shoes for a minute. I get on my bus in the morning, and sit across from the most blatantly lesbian woman I've ever seen. The bogan guys up the back are swearing and talking loudly about sexual intercourse, which is for procreation only, and I know full well that those guys aren't procreating. The metalhead across the aisle has his ipod volume too loud, and his Devil's Music is audible to everyone on the bus. At the bus interchange, druggies are stumbling around with glazed eyes, trying to bum cigarettes. People are wearing immodest clothing, and some of them are even wearing pentagrams and other various satanic symbols. The newsagent on the corner is selling pornography. Goths and Satanists  are everywhere. The bins are full of empty beer bottles. Several women in the vicinity are probably divorced or have had abortions, and those two men over there are holding hands!

I've been out of the house less than an hour and Satan is already in my face, visibly permeating every facet of public life.

Guess it explains why CTFM are so batshit. It must be hard having to look the Forces of Darkness in the face every single day, work among them, live among them, Resist Temptation among them. Hell, I'd go crazy.

Ahh, fundamentalists.