Comments on: Costello: OKC Should Stand Against Satanic Mass

By: Theresa

Theresa — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 19:46:23 +0000

Harvard University a private institution, receives Federal Funds, taxpayer funds… and lots of money in jeopardy from alumni at risk of being pulled, had they not cancelled. The continual ad nauseam response from Oklahoma City leaders, redundantly repeated by Civic Center in response to requests from patrons to cancel, will see as Harvard realized, when underwriters pull funds from productions, and patrons no longer attend events money talks. The First Amendment, much the same as the Holy Bible is misinterpreted to assuage many to use as defense for evil.

By: David

David — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 18:09:17 +0000

Harvard is a private institution, not a public one, and is therefore not bound by the First Amendment, which only impacts governments, including the City of Oklahoma City and its Civic Center. The entire point of this piece is based on a mistake.

By: Michael Dodson

Michael Dodson — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 10:38:37 +0000

Costello is fuller of it than I had thought. I wondered why Harvard officials had been able to cancel permission for Lucien Greaves’ group to use Harvard facilities. It’s because Harvard is a PRIVATE university. Harvard is not government-owned. Thus, it is not subject to the same U.S. constitution first amendment requirements that the Oklahoma City government is bound by.

I suggest that Oklahoma’s Labor Commissioner return to the Oklahoma middle school of his choice to enroll in and pass a remedial government/civics course. His need to do so is glaring.

By: Michael Dodson

Michael Dodson — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 10:23:02 +0000

As is usual, Costello is full of it. The Oklahoma City government is sanctioning nothing. It is merely abiding by the first amendment of the United States constitution. Whether I like it, whether Mark ‘Full of It’ Costello likes it, the group that will conduct the ‘Black Mass’ is a religion. If it can be prevented from using government-owned facilities, then any and all religious groups have to be prevented from using Oklahoma City government-owned facilities.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 04:44:57 +0000

Harvard is a private university and thus not under the same constraints against restricting freedom of speech as a government entity. Further, Harvard and most other universities are not in the habit of renting out their facilities to the general public. If a government entity that offers a venue to any group in the general public to discriminate against a group because their views are unpopular it is repression of freedom of expression and to do so because the unpopular views are religious in nature violates the right to free exercise of religion.

Costello’s comparison of these purported satanists and the KKK is also of questionable relevance. The KKK was powerful enough at one point just a few years prior to Alfred Smith’s visit to Oklahoma City to be able to get a Governor(Jack Walton) removed from office. No one in their right mind thinks that these yahoos putting on the Black Mass have any influence at all in the earthly realm.

What is true is that virtually no one, not even the people who are willing to defend their right to have their silly ritual, thinks that these ‘satanists’ represent anything positive. The Labor Commissioner is merely practicing his own ritual of unwholesome provenance, that of the politician pandering to the people.