A physical altercation inside the Kansas Statehouse on Friday ended with Capitol Police arresting Satanic church leader Michael Stewart, capping off a morning of inflammatory religious demonstration.

Stewart punched a man who repeatedly attempted to rip a booklet out of his hands while he called out to Satan from the Capitol’s first-floor rotunda.

Less than an hour earlier, police apprehended a man who charged across the Capitol lawn and tackled Stewart, grappling with him over the communion wafer he was stomping on.

Around 30 members of the Satanic Grotto church and their supporters demonstrated in front of the east steps of the Capitol before Stewart entered the building around 11:30 a.m. As he walked in, Lt. Greydin Walker, with the Capitol police, warned Stewart that he could be inside but that law enforcement would have to take action if he “performed any type of event or disruption.”

In the lead-up to the Black Mass event, Gov. Laura Kelly said no demonstrators — Satanic, Christian or otherwise — would be allowed inside Friday. Dozens of Capitol police officers set up barricades separating the groups and monitored their actions from inside and outside the Statehouse.

As Stewart walked down the hallway, he was followed by a Catholic priest and state Rep. Angela Stiens, a Shawnee Republican, repeating the words of the “Hail Mary” prayer.

Hundreds of counter demonstrators who gathered in front of the north and south steps spent Friday morning hoisting signs, singing and shouting into megaphones at Satanists across the lawn.

Efforts to prevent the Black Mass from taking place failed after a Leavenworth District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by Kansas City, Kansas, Catholic Archbishop Joseph Naumann demanding the immediate return of holy items that Stewart was able to prove he purchased online.

The House passed a bipartisan resolution earlier this month denouncing the ritual as “an explicit act of anti-Catholic bigotry and an affront to all Christians.”

A group of legislative leaders called on Kelly to ban the event, tightened assembly restrictions inside and outside the Capitol, and asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to look into whether Stewart had threatened an unnamed lawmaker.

William Hendrix, a spokesperson for Attorney General Kris Kobach, who showed up Friday to take in the spectacle, said that investigation is ongoing.

Stewart previously told The Star that his group is non-violent but that he was fully prepared to be arrested Friday. In the aftermath of the rotunda altercation, police apprehended Stewart, leading him back downstairs to a room by the visitor center. Walker declined to comment on what law enforcement plans to do with the Satanic church leader.

Religious clash

Kyle Francis of Rose Hill traveled two hours to protest the Satanic demonstration. He wore military fatigues, a vest and a helmet, and held a Knights Templar flag.

“They were a Catholic military organization from about a thousand years ago. They would protect Christians en route to the Holy Land, protect the Holy Land, that sort of thing,” Francis said.

Air Force veteran Mark Mendon of Blue Springs, Missouri, showed up to lend his support to the Satanic Grotto’s cause. He identified himself as an atheist.

“I don’t think any of them believe in Satan. We don’t believe in Satan. It’s more of a separation of church and state, religious rights (movement),” Mendon said.

He joined the small group of Satanists as their worship director took out a guitar and began singing: “If you think you’re right, you’re probably wrong. Whatever you believe in, we’re against it.”

Rep. Silas Miller, a Wichita Democrat, was one of the few lawmakers to make an appearance on the Statehouse lawn the morning after the Legislature adjourned for its first recess.

Miller, who voted against the resolution condemning the Black Mass, said it’s hypocritical to deny Satanists access to the Capitol when other religious groups are allowed in and a Christian minister leads lawmakers in prayer every morning.

“It’s not a religious freedom issue. It’s a Christian preference issue,” Miller said.

Brandon Fast of Cure Church in Kansas City, Kansas, crossed the police barricade to talk with Mendon, the Air Force veteran.

“I don’t agree with the moral standpoints. I don’t agree with the signage,” Fast said. But as a former atheist who explored a number of faiths before becoming a Christian, he said he does support religious freedom.

“If you think about any conversation — me screaming at you, you screaming at me — it isn’t going to do much,” Fast said. “So if we can come together and have a civil dialogue like this, having open ideas and not condemning each other, not rebuking each other, then conversations can be had.”

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