Under a canopy of live oaks, Tristen Cleve prepared for spiritual battle as screaming guitars split the silence of the Texas Hill Country.
Cleve, executive director of the watchdog group County Citizens Defending Freedom (CCDF) in Hays County, heaved a large wooden cross into an upright position against a tree trunk—maybe 30 yards from the fence separating an outdoor concert venue where black metal bands, associated with Satanic images and songs, were warming up.
When Cleve got wind of a music festival sponsored by Nuclear War Now!, an extreme metal music production company that uses Satanic imagery on its website, he decided to rally the community with a faith-based event.
Cleve said he had wanted to hold a “prayer picnic” for some time, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Another member of the CCDF happened to know the property owners adjacent to the outdoor venue and asked them for permission to hold a picnic from around 3 p.m. to midnight on April. 1.
So they fired up their smoker grill and set out a Texas-sized spread of hamburgers, hotdogs, fixin’s, chips, cookies, and iced tea for everyone to enjoy while sharing fellowship and prayer on a covered patio.
They planned for volunteers to stand near the venue’s entrance and offer prayer and bottled water to anyone going inside while others prayed for every hour for those at the music festival.
Jim, a local pastor who didn’t wish for his last name to be used, said Christians needed to be ready to wage spiritual warfare calling the next-door event an “occult recruitment festival.”
“This is a spiritual battle, and God wants us here,” he told those gathered in a prayer circle and thanked them for coming out.
Jim told the crowd that Jesus was given authority over Heaven and earth and would be with his followers until the world’s end.
Cleve also told those gathered they must be “fishers of men” like Jesus.
“Well, the fish are on the other side of that gate,” he said, explaining some of the people coming to the festival would be walking along the ranch road.
The group had a giant sign reading: “Cold H2O & a prayer.”
Loving and praying for all who were going to the other side of the gate into the festival was a way of planting a seed that could grow and change their hearts one day, he said.
“This is what we should do to counter everything they do,” he said, referring to “Satanic” events.
“We are here to push back and hopefully to show people as this group goes on the march here in America, that this is what their response should be,” he said of the Christian community.
Picnic goers who wanted to stand on the main roadway and greet anyone walking to the festival entrance were also given cards to pass out, saying the gift of God is eternal while the wages of sin is death.
The property owners where the picnic was held, Dan and Kathy Misiaszek, said blaring music from their neighbor had tormented them for five years.
The Misiaszeks said the music, which tends to be heavy metal or rap, is so loud it shakes the windows of their home and forces them to stuff pillows up the chimney to block the noise that sometimes lasts until 3 a.m.
The couple, former law enforcement officers, said they have complained to the local sheriff’s office, like many other homeowners in the area, to no avail. They said the venue owner was hostile and used to scream at them across the fence and shoot firearms.
When they and others would complain about the noise, the sheriff’s office told them the bands perform under the allowed decibel level of 85 when checked, so there’s little recourse. The outside venue also has a liquor license, the Misiaszeks said, adding they frequently find beer or liquor bottles on their property.
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“It sounds like someone’s vomiting in the microphone,” Kathy Misiaszek said of the guttural sound.
According to the online flier, 10 bands from as far away as Japan, with names such as Witches Hammer, were scheduled to play at the festival, expected to last into the wee hours of the night.
Cleve said people shouldn’t believe these are harmless garage bands or just musicians seeking attention and record sales.
In the ‘70s, the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, with bat-biting lead singer Ozzy Osbourne, used dark imagery to gain notoriety and sell albums, for example.
In recent interviews, Osbourne has said he doesn’t worship the devil and that the dark image of the ‘70s British band was a joke.
But Cleve sees it as more than a publicity stunt, saying Satanists operating in the open is an indication of the evil America faces. He pointed to the sexualization of children in schools and the peddling of destructive gender and race ideology.
“I don’t think a lot of people realize what’s going on,” he said. “Anyone who thinks these people are going to go away is asleep.”
Cleve said the hills around Wimberly are rumored to cater to witches, with locals saying the unGodly are attracted to the place because of the 666 in the zip code. According to the Bible’s Book of Revelation, that number is the mark of the Beast or the anti-Christ.
A local man, who claims to be the former head of the Satanic Temple, San Marcos Chapter on his Facebook page, can frequently be seen riding a black horse around town dressed in black or as a knight. His Facebook page is filled with photos and references to Satan.
At the roadside, around 4 p.m., cars were starting to fill up the parking area at the festival. At one point, someone got on the microphone and began making deep growling noises.
Colby Wiltse, state director of the CCDF Texas, and San Marcos resident Guy Hennager, stood with a sign facing the venue’s entrance offering water and a prayer.
Wiltse said an older man came out on a dirt bike and drove by yelling: “God bless you, too.” Another person came out and took a photo.
Hennager said he volunteered “just because of the darkness associated with this kind of event.”
Hennager said sharing a message of hope would have an impact.
“If this is all they’ve ever known, then they have no idea what true love is all about,” he said.
The Epoch Times attempted to contact Nuclear War Now! but didn’t receive a response.
