Lil Nas X's "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" has simply taken the world by storm over the past week.
Alongside the video, Lil Nas X released a shoe line that has been dubbed the "Satan Shoes," which sports a pentagram on each foot and is alleged to be made with a real drop of human blood.
And though his production studio is being sued by Nike because the shoes contain the Nike symbol and are not official Nike products, the Church Of Satan have given their stamp of approval.
Satan is infamously featured in Lil Nas X's video as getting a lap dance from the rapper.
The Church of Satan, however, don't actually worship Satan. They don't even believe in Satan.
It is in fact completely secular; Satanism was only named as such because of Satan's story in the bible. In Hebrew, Satan means "adversary," "opposer," "accuser," or "inquisitor."
Satanism adopted his name as a model of their behavior, as the congregation was founded to directly oppose the bigoted views and oppression of Christianity.
David Harris, the magister of the Church Of Satan, said the Church were such big fans of the shoes because they promoted the very model of Satanism itself.
According to TMZ, Harris and other Satanists alike are "digging the way Lil Nas X is turning against religion to market his customized Nike Air Max 97 shoes."
Giving a blatant middle finger to people who condemned Lil Nas X to hell for his sexuality is perfectly in line with the values of the Church of Satan, according to Harris.
And anyway, people linking the literal Satan to either entity are missing the point, according to Alicia T. Crosby, a queer minister from Durham, North Carolina.
"What Lil Nas X did was so significant, because not only do queer kids get to say, 'Hey, there's someone who looks like me out there.' Black queer kids, and specifically Black queer boys and young men get to say 'There is someone who looks like me,."
Nas' comment on the opposition he's faced to the video was simple:
"I spent my entire teenage years hating myself because of the sh*t y'all preached would happen to me because i was gay,...so i hope u are mad, stay mad, feel the same anger you teach us to have towards ourselves."
And that's all he needs to match The Church Of Satan's point.
@GregAbbott_TX/X
