Oklahoma City’s News 9, citing court records, in 2010 reported that Daniels was a registered sex offender and was convicted of sɛҳuąƖ battery on a person over age 16.
Lindsey-McClintock said the music hall was aware of Daniels’ status.
She said that the 2010 mock exorcism event had an attendance of about 50, including the music band. A second event the following year had 12 attendees, and there were no attendees at last year’s event.
“We are a city-funded facility. In that vein, we must operate in a position of neutrality,” the music hall spokeswoman said. “Any group that wishes to come to us and host a production may do so.”
She said the government policy would mean the center would be willing to host a racist or anti-Jєωιѕн event “as long as it was not hosting something specifically illegal in nature, or that during the production they were taking part in illegal activities.”
“We do not discriminate against any group based on the content of their message.”
She said that about 300,000 people attend the music hall facility annually and “98 percent” of the shows at the music hall are “family-friendly” in nature. The facility also hosts “religious-themed events,” including theater productions, church services and weddings, she added.
Asked how she would respond to concerns that the black mass event might make Catholics or other Christians feel unwelcome at the venue, she replied, “That’s something that is up to them that they are going to have to think about. We cannot be the arbiter of messages that come into our facility.”
Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City on July 1 said that if the event proceeds, “we will have to consider other peaceful, prayerful and respectful options to demonstrate our opposition to this publicly supported sacrilegious act.”
He called on Catholics and others to pray for “a renewed sense of the sacred” and for God to change “the hearts and minds of the organizers of this event.”
Catholic News agency.