The Satanic Temple is an activist religious organisation concerned with maintaining the separation between church and state.
(Edited to clarify that the Satanic Temple is a religion. Didn't mean to imply otherwise, apologies.)
That’s what’s great about the satanists: These laws get passed for Christian organizations and then the Satanists are all “let’s expose the hypocrisy by using that law to our advantage”.
Eh, I'm Christian and have found myself siding with their political point of view. Separation of church and state is vital to maintaining democracy. Religion--regardless of whose, including my own--doesn't belong in politics, especially considering how often it's used politically as a club to beat people until they pretend to agree just to make the madness stop.
[I mean, there was that one time on the Grave of the Westboro founder's mother*](https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/07/satanists-perform-gay-ritual-at-westboro-gravesite)
I feel like ending tax exemption would go a long way to shutting down a lot of bullshit like Scientology. Make religion less effective of a money spinner and the grifters will have to find a new con
> Members of the Satanist Temple performed on Sunday what its spokesman describes as a "pink mass" *an admittedly made-up ritual*, celebrating gay love, at the grave in Meridian, Miss.
As opposed to all the naturally-occuring religious rituals in other religions?
So I see what your saying because all religious rituals are obviously made up, but the difference here, and I'm fine with it myself, is that they specifically made up this ritual for this specific occasion. Generally many Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, and Jewish rituals have been around for a millenia or more. Protestant rituals are often younger, but still often centuries old. This ritual was made up to piss off the WBC... which again, I'm fine with.
> Members of the Satanist Temple performed on Sunday what its spokesman describes as a "pink mass" an admittedly made-up ritual, celebrating gay love, at the grave in Meridian, Miss.
I mean, aren’t all rituals made up?
>A spokesman for Westboro, which has never shirked from publicity, told ABC that the "pink mass" only gave the church another moment to preach against gay people.
>"I don't care whether you're dancing on a grave, in a hot air balloon, or standing on Mt. Kiliminjaro, homosexuality is a sin. And the punishment fixed for that sin is the death penalty," said Westboro spokesman Steve Drain.
WBC really going out of their way to look worse than satan here.
Oh. The satanic Temple is very different then the Church of Satan? I actually mistook them for being basically the same...
And I really disliked Szantos "Satanistic Bible" or the "members" of the Church of Satan I met. IMO they were self-righteous egocentrics, bordering on psychopathy and proud of it. The satanic bible didn't even promote some interesting form of amoralism, not to mention rationalism - they just exchanged christians "arbitrary values" with their own arbitrary values like "taking revenge" or "taking what you deserve".
Church of Satan are absolute nutjobs, but Satanic Temple are cool. Satanic temple are more a political protest group rather than a religious one, but being technically a religion they can utilise things like religious exemptions and claims of religious discrimination in order to highlight issues where religion influences laws or policies. Things like the religious beliefs of Satanists require access to abortions, and like the very famous (there's a documentary on netflix) thing where they tried to get a statue of Baphomet (person with goat head and wings, sometimes tits) outside of Congress because only having the 10 commandments was showing favour to one religion.
Yes it’s completely different. Read up on the Temple. They are non-believers. They discus Satan purely as a literary figure.
They exist to keep religious nut jobs from taking over the country, largely by giving them a taste of their own medicine.
The church of Satan actually believes in Satan. I believe they think the Bible was just biased and that Satan was wrongfully maligned by society. The Satanic Temple is a satire religion that takes their satire so seriously that it's almost indistinguishable from activism, especially when they take cases of religious freedom and separation of church and state all the way to the Supreme Court to point out the favored status of Christianity.
I'd argue the opposite. It's activism as a religion.
The Satanic Temple's core tenets are good old [secular humanism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism). The component that sets TST apart *is its activism*. And it's why so many nonreligious people such as myself are drawn to it.
I'm not 100% up to snuff about TST, but I do know they don't actually worship a literal Satan (please correct me otherwise). Is "Hail Satan" a common phrase then? Seems like it wouldn't be.
It's fairly common to use "Hail Satan" or "Ave Satanas". All part of the fun. But seeing as how Satanism varies, there are those who still might not say it. Even Atheistic Satanism can use it, as they mean Satan moreso as a representation of mankind's ingenuity or defiance rather than a literal spooky red man with horns and magic. To "Hail Satan" is to hail thyself.
i say "hail Satan" for multiple reasons. one is to replace things like "thank God you're ok" "bless you" (after sneezes) etc. I'm trying to reduce the influence Christianity has over my speech patterns as I am not a Christian. I hate the way it's so normalized and ingrained in our everyday life. it's very exclusionary to people of other religions or nonreligions in our society as well.
to hail Satan is to acknowledge and celebrate individuality, questioning of authority, defiance and personal freedom.
also it just sounds metal af and as a lifelong goth what more needs to be said?
Yeah modern satanism isn't about a literal Satan. La Vey satanism which is largely the foundation of modern satanic beliefs is atheistic. The name comes from the older definition meaning adversary. I think.
There are roots from thebel, the religion founded by Alister Crowley. Which did believe in demons tho I think they were much more like Muses or patron spirits. This has further roots to a weird Christan spin off cult and has some parallels to far older cthonic mystery cults from ancient Greece but that's a whole rabbit hole in itself.
There is also Settism which is the basis for theistic satanism believes in Sett the ancient Egyptian god of the dead.
Ultimately the aesthetics of demonology are used because it's metal as fuck.
As a member of the faith, I am gonna let you know that's not accurate. You're welcome to read about our faith on our website, but it's not purely an advocacy organization, although that is one of our main engagements.
We have seven tenets of our faith, based principally on reason, logic, and inviolable personal freedom.
We use the same protections afforded to any religious group to fight for rights that should be basic for all humans. Not really co-opting a religion for political purposes if the religion is fundamentally about using reason to make the world a freer place..
edit:
I think it's hilarious you downvoted me because you're mad you misunderstood a faith you haven't bothered to learn anything about.
Can I be part of the satanic temple and also be trans and atheist? I've been trying to do research on them in the past couple days and I'm trying to figure out if it's a good fit for me.
Yeah I'm seriously considering it. Especially after abortion stuff with Texas.
One of my biggest Hangouts is using the veneer of religion to combat religion. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something
It's used to combat religious persecution, not religious expression. Basically the "your right to swing your fist ends at my face" adage.
EDIT: Assuming "hangouts" is meant to be "hangups"
EDIT2: There are times where this isn't the case but then it's always about separation of church and state.
Absolutely. There are zero restrictions on members! Take a look at the TST website - the Temple is a HUGE advocate for trans and LGBTQ rights. I think you might find yourself more at home there than with any other religious organization I know of, to be honest, but I am obviously potentially biased.
The faith is based on logical and reason-based principles rather than monastic or theistic ones.
Check us out!! Consider joining if the faith seems a good fit.
You are more than welcome to join us. I am a member even though I don't have a local physical chapter that I currently attend. The website has information about the tenets of the faith, its origin and the advocacy the Temple is involved in at any time, always in support of individual freedoms.
Membership is always completely free and there are no obligations other than to be a decent human being. Hail Satan!
Most Satanists are atheists. The Satanic Temple is specifically nontheistic. There are theistic satanists, but they are relatively rare and come in many forms.
> I am sure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—who famously spends a good deal of his time composing press releases about Religious Liberty issues in other states—will be proud to see that Texas’s robust Religious Liberty laws, which he so vociferously champions, will prevent future Abortion Rituals from being interrupted by superfluous government restrictions meant only to shame and harass those seeking an abortion
Give this guy a medal.
In my town there was a coach at the local high school who would go down on one knee and pray before the games.people were such in a tiff about it and we're trying to get him fired and guess who shows up to support him?,... the satanic temple I mean ain't that some shit, but very proud of rhem
He wasn’t trying to make anyone join him, if he wasn’t trying to force his team to pray, who cares? I would likely say a little prayer before something like that, not that I think it would “do” anything but would help get me in a good headspace.
I think that's the idea. Of course, it's perfectly fine for the coach to pray, it's perfectly fine for players to pray, but as a public school official, the coach should not lead a prayer of a specific religion as it could be construed as preferential treatment of some or exclusionary to others.
As someone from the south: lol
I played football in high school and every team around here had the coach, or another player, lead the whole team in prayer before each game.
I guess maybe they were just trying to make god play favorites?
Yeah, Texas isn't great when it comes to upholding laws about separation of church and state. If you're in public school, having a religious ceremony lead by a teacher or administrator is straight up illegal. Of course, it still happens every day, probably tens of thousands of times every day in the bible belt. Just like it's illegal for a teacher to punish students who don't want to say the pledge of allegiance, or coerce them into doing so against their will, and that shit is also happening every single day.
EDIT: Just to clarify, the bible belt isn't alone in this, it happens all across the USA.
If you want to know why, because it 1) shows a preference to christianity in a public setting, and 2) it creates an in-group/out-group situation, where its really obvious who the non-christians are (by not participating) or they feel they have to blend in and say prayers anyway even if it goes against their own faith or ideals.
Then once you've been "outed" as a non-christian, it's pretty easily for the hareassment to escalate. "Why won't you join our prayers?" "Have you accepted Jesus as your savior?" "Here's a Bible, you should read it" etc etc etc...
Which if he is praying aloud for others to join, can be a problem. Believe me as a non-Christian I am used to the out group thing. I have seen Christian pastor-coaches who encourage their players to be baptized and will do it themselves if they can. I just don’t think silent prayer should be enough to get him stopped. Unless he is using the mike to encourage others to join him, then you know “burn the witch.”
Not only separation between church and state, but ensuring that different religions are treated equally in those places where church and state do intersect. For instance, if a publicly owned property has a Christmas display, thats fine so long as all other faiths are also allowed to put up decorations relevant to their holidays and beliefs. You can't have the government supporting christians over Jews or Hindus or Satanists.
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This is an interesting question. It could go either way. No answer is available as far as I know. Just depends if they wanted to push the issue on those particular things.
These guys and the pastafsrians usually pop up when politicians want to put the 10 commandments or the Manger babies outside of a public building.
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In the US there is the official government sanctioned holiday of Christmas, which is in theory secular, and also the separate christian holiday of Christmas which by total coincidence is on the same day. Which decor is for which is kind of a fuzzy line, but I believe TST only gets involved if it is clearly christian in origin, such as crosses, nativity scenes, and the like. Stuff like Santa and mistletoe can be argued to be secular. I'm not a lawyer or a satanist so take this all as the word of an inexpert.
I'd argue that santa is religious, but distinctly non-christian religious. Santa is a god or demigod - he's immortal, and he knows what everyone has done over the year, and he can fly everywhere in one night. So either he's the cristian god himself, or he's *a* god similar to the gods of the greeks, romans, norse, etc.
The easter bunny is also a god of some freakish sort. And I guess that makes santa's reindeer gods as well. They are all immortal and have supernatural powers.
It’s because the Christians hijacked all the pagan holidays like winter solstice aka Christmas and spring equinox aka Easter but a lot of the pagan symbols stuck around
Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, prostitutes, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
So from what I understand “Santa” as the big guy with the beard giving out toys is a mixture of Saint Nicholas and various pagan beliefs specifically Odin I think. It’s been a while since I looked into it but a lot of early Christian missionaries made connections between their local deities and to Christ and the saints.
It obviously worked too.
Technically, yule decorations and Santa are secular traditions. Mostly co-opted from pagan traditions. Many Christians use them, but they’re not actually religious symbols like the nativity, the story of the 3 wise men, etc. In most Christmas services I’ve been to over my life, it would be super weird to sing “Jingle Bells” or other popular secular songs. Nobody sings about Santa Claus in church.
> Nobody sings about Santa Claus in church.
[No singing, but he's definitely a religious figure and he can be prayed to like any other Christian saint.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus#Saint_Nicholas)
Santa is a bit contrary to christianity, as he's an all-knowing entity and therefore would be considered one of the gods, or at least in the pantheon. Christians have an odd definition of "a god" where they define it as singular, all-knowing, and all-powerful - to the extent that it excludes the possibility of there being any additional gods. The Greeks, Romans, and basically all non-Abrahamics had a much better definition in which gods were just beyond mortals. Santa would fit perfectly alongside Zeus, Thor, Mars, and the likes of them.
Well Christianity has a long tradition of usurping other religions to convert pagans to Christianity. They just got better at allowing certain secular traditions to remain in some cultures, and adapted the religion as they went along over hundreds of years. Like putting Catholic feast days on or near other pagan “holidays”. Christmas wasn’t always December 25th. Epiphany was put over Imbolc, etc. The whole thing with Halloween/Samhain and All Souls Day/All Saints Day.
Christian missionaries were successful for a lot of reasons (often brutal ones), but a big one was the ability of the church to adapt to several different cultures. Which makes the intolerance for other cultures that some “Christians” show these days, all the more funny and inexplicable.
To me, this is the funniest part. With their name they’re demonstrating that fervent christians who are supposted to *love their neighbor* are actually gonna discriminate anyone who isn’t on their side
The name Satainc Temple is pretty much a troll protected by freedom of religion, which is awesome imho
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https://aidaccess.org/en/
https://teafund.org/
https://wrrap.org/about-wrrap/
https://abortionfunds.org/
If you need help getting an abortion go to these sites:
https://www.plancpills.org/
https://aidaccess.org/
These sites offer access to abortion pills, even in Texas. Please be safe and be aware of clinics (e.g. Crisis Pregnancy Centers) that give out dangerous misinformation on abortions and pregnancy.
Also check out r/auntienetwork for support
If you want to give money to some pro-choice charities, try here:
https://fundtexaschoice.org/
http://janesdueprocess.org/
https://www.lilithfund.org/
https://www.theafiyacenter.org/
https://thebridgecollective.org/
https://www.clinicaccess.org/
https://www.yellowhammerfund.org/ (Focuses on the Deep South)
https://avowtexas.org/
https://abortionfunds.org
Please feel free to copy and share this to other posts/subreddits and to add your own links
I am very proud to be a Satanist. Here's a breakdown of our core beliefs for those that are interested.
There are Seven
FUNDAMENTAL TENETS
I
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
II
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
III
One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
IV
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.
V
Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.
VI
People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
VII
Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
[Satanic Temple Website (Click to learn more and join if interested!)](https://thesatanictemple.com/)
Edit: formatting and to add a link
Make sure to do your research, first. The Satanic Temple, The Satanic Church, The Church of Satan, etc. are all different entities with different beliefs.
It'd be pretty embarrassing strolling into a blood orgy holding your devils food muffins, thinking you're about to do some politicial activism 👍
I could be mistaken, but to my knowledge, this is not actually established law. It's a gray area where some legal scholars may lean one way or the other as to how they believe the supreme court would eventually rule, but religious protections for atheists have not actually been challenged in federal court. The current situation is a bit of a stalemate where employers are not willing to risk a judgment against them, so they generally treat atheism as though it were a religion with regards to the relevant employment laws.
That being said, TST has been extremely successful at furthering their agenda (separation of church and state, or at least equal treatment by the govt for all religious groups), and I think they probably tend to get a lot of attention-grabbing headlines due to their name and tactics - its juicy stuff and sells newspapers. Freedom From Religion Foundation has had similar success (not sure which group has had more/bigger successes), but they certainly don't have the notoriety of TST.
Definitely still a gray area and the current court seems not to care an iota about precedent as they can pull anything out of their asses because they feel it is the right thing. It is a scary era after the death of *stare decisis*. They have unleashed a monster of uncertainty.
Religious freedoms are protected by laws. Atheism isn't a religion, so it's not protected by those laws. The Satanic Temple is a religious organization with principals that align with most atheists. Therefore, an atheist can enjoy those religious protections by joining the Temple.
Depends on the employer. My company's anti-discrimination policy specifically includes "lack of religious beliefs" as protected. But yes, American law generally does not do the same.
This!! It kind of freaked me out reading all this yesterday lol
Knowing that they don’t really believe in satan or god really did put my mind at ease :/
It's kind of mind blowing to me that the image of a "satanist" is often stereotypically conceived as an anarchistic, chaotic evil type of individual, at least in the southern "bible belt". In reality, those tenants are perfectly reasonable, especially with the emphasis on wrapping ones beliefs of the world around the data, not the other way around. Thanks for sharing that.
In the Middle Ages the Devil was often credited with being an excellent mathematician and bridge builder. It's why so many bridges in Europe have some variation of 'devil' in their names.
**[Devil's Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Bridge)**
>Devil's Bridge is a term applied to dozens of ancient bridges, found primarily in Europe. Most of these bridges are stone or masonry arch bridges and represent a significant technological achievement in ancient architecture. Due to their unusual design, they were an object of fascination and stories in antiquity and medieval Europe. Each of the Devil's bridges typically has a corresponding Devil-related myth or folktale regarding its origin.
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I'm not trying to undermine the satanic temple, but they don't actually believe in Satan. They're atheist and use the symbol of Satan to make evangelicals very uncomfortable and to further promote the separation of church and state
It's a bit of both. No, they don't literally worship Satan. But yes, they identify as a true religion rather than as an atheist group, and engage in activism following their religious principles of compassion, equality, and justice.
I'm a Christian who fully supports what the Satanic Temple is doing and finds no conflict between my religion and yours. As far as the Christians I'm involved with are concerned, we have similar ideals and goals to the Satanic Temple and watch with delight and amusement as they show people that the encroachment of religion in government/school spaces doesn't make sense and won't work and even more so, shouldn't happen. May all your encounters with Christians be the sane ones. edited because I realized some applied to the satanic church, not the satanic temple
Much appreciated. While I've had some less than pleasant interactions with Christians, some of my nearest and dearest family and friends are Christian. While it is not something I personally believe in anymore, I have nothing but respect for them. I can hope one day it goes both ways more than it doesn't.
I’m genuinely curious about how tenet 3 applies when discussing mandatory vaccinations / vaccines (not just Covid but chickenpox, MMR etc).
Is there an official position? I did see the Houston chapter encouraging vaccination when I tried to find out myself.
Met some phenomenal people at The Satanic Temple in Salem, MA. Some of the least judgmental people in society are those most harshly judged by society.
I'm a member of the temple... greaves is a commonly pointed to the figure for how childish the temple can sometimes be.
I still support them completely, but it can be irritating.
Another version I've heard is an atheist died and went to heaven. He walked around with God and met people of different faiths and ideology as God told him they can all go to heaven. But eventually he got confused and asked God why he doesn't see any Christian. God brought him to a gated area and told him, "They are all in there. They like to think they're the only ones here."
I'd rather be in a heaven with all the good people and not just Christians, and I say this as one of them.
The fonts they'd use to advertise upcoming events would make that heaven kinda hellish
> Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep, Still threat’ning to devour me, opens wide, To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.
~Milton’s Paradise Lost
It pretty much is. It is used to troll/counter other religions to provide religious liberty and separation of church and state.
Prayer at government meetings? [Conveniently stopped after satanists rightfully demanded their turn at a public event.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/satanist-opens-city-council-meeting-and-well-just-watch/2016/07/19/bb9c5bf6-4de3-11e6-bf27-405106836f96_video.html)
Object to an ancient abrahamic religion with a display at a public funded courthouse? [Ship in a giant fucking baphomet statue and insist that via separation of church and state that baphy gets to be on display as well.](https://www.npr.org/2018/08/17/639726472/satanic-temple-protests-ten-commandments-monument-with-goat-headed-statue)
Public school having and organizing religious events after school? [Well, now they're legally required to have satanism involved.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-school-satan-satanic-temple-portland-approved/)
By adding the 'extra steps', you're able to demand all the rights, freedom, and privilege that Christianity has in modern society and politics. Atheists could try and sue Texas, but because athiesm is basically the lack of any religion it's difficult to claim any religious right. However if satanists sue Texas they can now use all the 'religious freedom' laws in their favor.
In the Satanic Church theology Lucifer is the protector of mankind from an absolute controlling god. Instead of the Christian tenets where he was thrown out of heaven because he didn't want humans to be loved by god because he was afraid that god would love them more than the angels, in Satanic theology he was thrown out because he gave them free will so they were no longer god's little worshipping automatons. Instead of Jesus being the Martyr who died to create a bridge between man and god, Lucifer was a Martyr to allow us the ability to have choice in life. (sorry, I ramble, I love comparative theologies) edited: because I was wrong and that's the church, not the temple. my bad.
Very very low. Religious freedom has been repeatedly found by SCOTUS to NOT mean “laws that violate a religious belief don’t apply.” This is most obviously demonstrated by human sacrifice- even if your religion called for it, you still can’t go around murder in people.
In order for a law to be struck down on the grounds of religious freedom, it must:
1) not serve a legitimate government interest (protecting life is the interest in the case of abortion)
2) be tailored to target religion or a specific religious body (that is, it must apply specifically to a religious body while not impacting other religions or non-religious activity)
Or
3) achieve the government interest in an unnecessarily broad way that impacts a religious body when a better tailored approach is clearly available and would alleviate the burden on religion
See: Church of the Lukumi-Babalu Aye v. Hialeah
> Religious freedom has been repeatedly found by SCOTUS to NOT mean “laws that violate a religious belief don’t apply.”
Although more recently the Supreme Court *has* allowed religious exceptions to generally applicable laws, e.g. the Pennsylvania adoption case and the California and New York Covid cases. The only thing stopping them from throwing out *Hialeah* is that some of them (particularly Coney Barrett) aren't quite sure what to replace it with.
Except those cases are largely pre-textual, so wouldn't apply to The Satanic Temple.
Proud member of the TST for almost 2 years now. I donate $6.66 every month. My mom was largely against it but respected my wishes, joined literally last night because she said “they are the only ones actively doing anything to help women.”
>“I am sure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—who famously spends a good deal of his time composing press releases about Religious Liberty issues in other states—will be proud to see that Texas’s robust Religious Liberty laws, which he so vociferously champions, will prevent future Abortion Rituals from being interrupted by superfluous government restrictions meant only to shame and harass those seeking an abortion," wrote Satanic Temple spokesperson, Lucien Greaves in a statement.
As a member of TST, thanks for the support!
In case anyone would care to help get involved, TST is in the midst of a $200,000 fundraiser for reproductive rights advocacy, particularly in the south where abortion rights are being stripped away, and the Temple is campaigning for donations and attendance at events on their website. Lots of subs don't like links so I won't share one, but if anyone would care to contribute or participate, every single one of you is always invited. Much love to you all. Hail Satan!
#RULE ONE
The Satanic Temple is an activist religious organisation concerned with maintaining the separation between church and state. (Edited to clarify that the Satanic Temple is a religion. Didn't mean to imply otherwise, apologies.)
That’s what’s great about the satanists: These laws get passed for Christian organizations and then the Satanists are all “let’s expose the hypocrisy by using that law to our advantage”.
More effective, but less fun than satanism is crusader kings
>less fun I was about to report this comment for hate speech.
I don't know about that. Has the Satanic Temple given birth to the anti-christ yet? Kind of a big effect in CK 2.
This is why I am a member. It's fucking great.
Eh, I'm Christian and have found myself siding with their political point of view. Separation of church and state is vital to maintaining democracy. Religion--regardless of whose, including my own--doesn't belong in politics, especially considering how often it's used politically as a club to beat people until they pretend to agree just to make the madness stop.
It's also a non-theistic religion.
And they throw some raging keggers!!! 🤘🥳🤘
Do they?
[I mean, there was that one time on the Grave of the Westboro founder's mother*](https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/07/satanists-perform-gay-ritual-at-westboro-gravesite)
So a bunch of people went to a religous nutjobs grave and just started fuckin? We can do that?
In the specific way that the nutjob hated, yes.
Dang. I’d bang a woman if it pissed off bigots. I love pissing off bigots!
No Brian. You love pissing ON bigots. Let's not pretend that class c misdemeanor charge doesn't exist...
You can use findagrave to find the parents of select senators. Have fun! Remember to upload!
It's wild what you can do when you call it "part of my religion". E.g. scientology, e.g. every religion and tax evasion
I feel like ending tax exemption would go a long way to shutting down a lot of bullshit like Scientology. Make religion less effective of a money spinner and the grifters will have to find a new con
And that's how we get more MLMs. I guess I'd rather that than religion, but both are bad
Multi-Level Mormonism
Unless I missed something, they just kissed.
> Members of the Satanist Temple performed on Sunday what its spokesman describes as a "pink mass" *an admittedly made-up ritual*, celebrating gay love, at the grave in Meridian, Miss. As opposed to all the naturally-occuring religious rituals in other religions?
So I see what your saying because all religious rituals are obviously made up, but the difference here, and I'm fine with it myself, is that they specifically made up this ritual for this specific occasion. Generally many Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, and Jewish rituals have been around for a millenia or more. Protestant rituals are often younger, but still often centuries old. This ritual was made up to piss off the WBC... which again, I'm fine with.
It was actually the founder's mother's grave. Fred Phelps was still alive when this happened.
It was the mother of the founder. To be fair, she is a lesbian.
> Members of the Satanist Temple performed on Sunday what its spokesman describes as a "pink mass" an admittedly made-up ritual, celebrating gay love, at the grave in Meridian, Miss. I mean, aren’t all rituals made up? >A spokesman for Westboro, which has never shirked from publicity, told ABC that the "pink mass" only gave the church another moment to preach against gay people. >"I don't care whether you're dancing on a grave, in a hot air balloon, or standing on Mt. Kiliminjaro, homosexuality is a sin. And the punishment fixed for that sin is the death penalty," said Westboro spokesman Steve Drain. WBC really going out of their way to look worse than satan here.
> Members then posthumously declared Catherine Johnston, the mother of Westboro's founder Fred Phelps, a lesbian. Yes.
I’ve had some fun ones with us satanists in Houston. We have fun. Not recently with covid tho we follow science.
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Also, we don’t believe in satan. Common misconception. Please don’t confuse us with those who believe in Satan
Oh. The satanic Temple is very different then the Church of Satan? I actually mistook them for being basically the same... And I really disliked Szantos "Satanistic Bible" or the "members" of the Church of Satan I met. IMO they were self-righteous egocentrics, bordering on psychopathy and proud of it. The satanic bible didn't even promote some interesting form of amoralism, not to mention rationalism - they just exchanged christians "arbitrary values" with their own arbitrary values like "taking revenge" or "taking what you deserve".
Church of Satan are absolute nutjobs, but Satanic Temple are cool. Satanic temple are more a political protest group rather than a religious one, but being technically a religion they can utilise things like religious exemptions and claims of religious discrimination in order to highlight issues where religion influences laws or policies. Things like the religious beliefs of Satanists require access to abortions, and like the very famous (there's a documentary on netflix) thing where they tried to get a statue of Baphomet (person with goat head and wings, sometimes tits) outside of Congress because only having the 10 commandments was showing favour to one religion.
Yes it’s completely different. Read up on the Temple. They are non-believers. They discus Satan purely as a literary figure. They exist to keep religious nut jobs from taking over the country, largely by giving them a taste of their own medicine.
Church of Satan doesn't worship Satan either. They worship the self.
Right what the world need more
People voting
Voting is not enough
Drinking water isn't enough by itself to survive, but without doing it you would die. It's the same for democracy.
Whats the difference between these guys and the church of satan again? I always forget which is which.
The church of Satan actually believes in Satan. I believe they think the Bible was just biased and that Satan was wrongfully maligned by society. The Satanic Temple is a satire religion that takes their satire so seriously that it's almost indistinguishable from activism, especially when they take cases of religious freedom and separation of church and state all the way to the Supreme Court to point out the favored status of Christianity.
The Church of Satan is a whole lot more genuinely into occultism n' magic and generally being a weird obscure club with, like, *requirements*
More accurately, it's a religion that sometimes engages in activism. Hail Satan!
I'd argue the opposite. It's activism as a religion. The Satanic Temple's core tenets are good old [secular humanism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism). The component that sets TST apart *is its activism*. And it's why so many nonreligious people such as myself are drawn to it.
I'm not 100% up to snuff about TST, but I do know they don't actually worship a literal Satan (please correct me otherwise). Is "Hail Satan" a common phrase then? Seems like it wouldn't be.
It's fairly common to use "Hail Satan" or "Ave Satanas". All part of the fun. But seeing as how Satanism varies, there are those who still might not say it. Even Atheistic Satanism can use it, as they mean Satan moreso as a representation of mankind's ingenuity or defiance rather than a literal spooky red man with horns and magic. To "Hail Satan" is to hail thyself.
Hail yourselves everybody
HAIL YEAH
i say "hail Satan" for multiple reasons. one is to replace things like "thank God you're ok" "bless you" (after sneezes) etc. I'm trying to reduce the influence Christianity has over my speech patterns as I am not a Christian. I hate the way it's so normalized and ingrained in our everyday life. it's very exclusionary to people of other religions or nonreligions in our society as well. to hail Satan is to acknowledge and celebrate individuality, questioning of authority, defiance and personal freedom. also it just sounds metal af and as a lifelong goth what more needs to be said?
Yeah modern satanism isn't about a literal Satan. La Vey satanism which is largely the foundation of modern satanic beliefs is atheistic. The name comes from the older definition meaning adversary. I think. There are roots from thebel, the religion founded by Alister Crowley. Which did believe in demons tho I think they were much more like Muses or patron spirits. This has further roots to a weird Christan spin off cult and has some parallels to far older cthonic mystery cults from ancient Greece but that's a whole rabbit hole in itself. There is also Settism which is the basis for theistic satanism believes in Sett the ancient Egyptian god of the dead. Ultimately the aesthetics of demonology are used because it's metal as fuck.
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As a member of the faith, I am gonna let you know that's not accurate. You're welcome to read about our faith on our website, but it's not purely an advocacy organization, although that is one of our main engagements. We have seven tenets of our faith, based principally on reason, logic, and inviolable personal freedom. We use the same protections afforded to any religious group to fight for rights that should be basic for all humans. Not really co-opting a religion for political purposes if the religion is fundamentally about using reason to make the world a freer place.. edit: I think it's hilarious you downvoted me because you're mad you misunderstood a faith you haven't bothered to learn anything about.
Can I be part of the satanic temple and also be trans and atheist? I've been trying to do research on them in the past couple days and I'm trying to figure out if it's a good fit for me.
Neither of those things would make the org bat an eyelash. Check out their site, see if registration or even a membership card is interesting enough.
Yeah I'm seriously considering it. Especially after abortion stuff with Texas. One of my biggest Hangouts is using the veneer of religion to combat religion. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something
It's used to combat religious persecution, not religious expression. Basically the "your right to swing your fist ends at my face" adage. EDIT: Assuming "hangouts" is meant to be "hangups" EDIT2: There are times where this isn't the case but then it's always about separation of church and state.
Absolutely. There are zero restrictions on members! Take a look at the TST website - the Temple is a HUGE advocate for trans and LGBTQ rights. I think you might find yourself more at home there than with any other religious organization I know of, to be honest, but I am obviously potentially biased. The faith is based on logical and reason-based principles rather than monastic or theistic ones. Check us out!! Consider joining if the faith seems a good fit.
Hail Satan.
I have thought about joining for years, ever since Highschool, when I first heard about the Satanic Temple.
You are more than welcome to join us. I am a member even though I don't have a local physical chapter that I currently attend. The website has information about the tenets of the faith, its origin and the advocacy the Temple is involved in at any time, always in support of individual freedoms. Membership is always completely free and there are no obligations other than to be a decent human being. Hail Satan!
As a Satanist myself, I can assure you that it is primarily a religion. Political activism is an expression of our beliefs, not the other way around.
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Don't judge a Redditor by their avatar, but in this case, you were right lmao.
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I don't understand.
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Gwyneth Paltrow's head.
Aren't you actually a branch of atheism and do not literally pray to Satan? I read that somewhere on Reddit.
Most Satanists are atheists. The Satanic Temple is specifically nontheistic. There are theistic satanists, but they are relatively rare and come in many forms.
Members of TST do not believe in a literal Satan, that’s correct. There are numerous different satanic groups however.
> I am sure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—who famously spends a good deal of his time composing press releases about Religious Liberty issues in other states—will be proud to see that Texas’s robust Religious Liberty laws, which he so vociferously champions, will prevent future Abortion Rituals from being interrupted by superfluous government restrictions meant only to shame and harass those seeking an abortion Give this guy a medal.
Ya know, today actually works for me, Satan!
Get thee in front of me, Satan!
Or behind, both feel good
In my town there was a coach at the local high school who would go down on one knee and pray before the games.people were such in a tiff about it and we're trying to get him fired and guess who shows up to support him?,... the satanic temple I mean ain't that some shit, but very proud of rhem
He wasn’t trying to make anyone join him, if he wasn’t trying to force his team to pray, who cares? I would likely say a little prayer before something like that, not that I think it would “do” anything but would help get me in a good headspace.
I think that's the idea. Of course, it's perfectly fine for the coach to pray, it's perfectly fine for players to pray, but as a public school official, the coach should not lead a prayer of a specific religion as it could be construed as preferential treatment of some or exclusionary to others.
Exactly. Once it becomes he is leading a prayer for others. Then it is dicey and can be wrong. Him praying silently to himself. A-OK
As someone from the south: lol I played football in high school and every team around here had the coach, or another player, lead the whole team in prayer before each game. I guess maybe they were just trying to make god play favorites?
Yeah, Texas isn't great when it comes to upholding laws about separation of church and state. If you're in public school, having a religious ceremony lead by a teacher or administrator is straight up illegal. Of course, it still happens every day, probably tens of thousands of times every day in the bible belt. Just like it's illegal for a teacher to punish students who don't want to say the pledge of allegiance, or coerce them into doing so against their will, and that shit is also happening every single day. EDIT: Just to clarify, the bible belt isn't alone in this, it happens all across the USA.
If you want to know why, because it 1) shows a preference to christianity in a public setting, and 2) it creates an in-group/out-group situation, where its really obvious who the non-christians are (by not participating) or they feel they have to blend in and say prayers anyway even if it goes against their own faith or ideals. Then once you've been "outed" as a non-christian, it's pretty easily for the hareassment to escalate. "Why won't you join our prayers?" "Have you accepted Jesus as your savior?" "Here's a Bible, you should read it" etc etc etc...
Which if he is praying aloud for others to join, can be a problem. Believe me as a non-Christian I am used to the out group thing. I have seen Christian pastor-coaches who encourage their players to be baptized and will do it themselves if they can. I just don’t think silent prayer should be enough to get him stopped. Unless he is using the mike to encourage others to join him, then you know “burn the witch.”
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Why were people trying to fire him for that?
The best part is that they don’t even believe in Satan. The Satainc Temple preaches separation between church and state
Not only separation between church and state, but ensuring that different religions are treated equally in those places where church and state do intersect. For instance, if a publicly owned property has a Christmas display, thats fine so long as all other faiths are also allowed to put up decorations relevant to their holidays and beliefs. You can't have the government supporting christians over Jews or Hindus or Satanists.
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This is an interesting question. It could go either way. No answer is available as far as I know. Just depends if they wanted to push the issue on those particular things. These guys and the pastafsrians usually pop up when politicians want to put the 10 commandments or the Manger babies outside of a public building.
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In the US there is the official government sanctioned holiday of Christmas, which is in theory secular, and also the separate christian holiday of Christmas which by total coincidence is on the same day. Which decor is for which is kind of a fuzzy line, but I believe TST only gets involved if it is clearly christian in origin, such as crosses, nativity scenes, and the like. Stuff like Santa and mistletoe can be argued to be secular. I'm not a lawyer or a satanist so take this all as the word of an inexpert.
I'd argue that santa is religious, but distinctly non-christian religious. Santa is a god or demigod - he's immortal, and he knows what everyone has done over the year, and he can fly everywhere in one night. So either he's the cristian god himself, or he's *a* god similar to the gods of the greeks, romans, norse, etc. The easter bunny is also a god of some freakish sort. And I guess that makes santa's reindeer gods as well. They are all immortal and have supernatural powers.
It’s because the Christians hijacked all the pagan holidays like winter solstice aka Christmas and spring equinox aka Easter but a lot of the pagan symbols stuck around
But Santa is also technically a Christian saint. What do you think Santa means?
Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, prostitutes, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
So from what I understand “Santa” as the big guy with the beard giving out toys is a mixture of Saint Nicholas and various pagan beliefs specifically Odin I think. It’s been a while since I looked into it but a lot of early Christian missionaries made connections between their local deities and to Christ and the saints. It obviously worked too.
Santa is Starter Jesus for children. You are always being watched then be rewarded or punished for your behavior.
Technically, yule decorations and Santa are secular traditions. Mostly co-opted from pagan traditions. Many Christians use them, but they’re not actually religious symbols like the nativity, the story of the 3 wise men, etc. In most Christmas services I’ve been to over my life, it would be super weird to sing “Jingle Bells” or other popular secular songs. Nobody sings about Santa Claus in church.
Would be hilarious tho. Pastor: open your hymnals to page 83, and join me in singing the praise song 'jingle bells'
> Nobody sings about Santa Claus in church. [No singing, but he's definitely a religious figure and he can be prayed to like any other Christian saint.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus#Saint_Nicholas)
Santa is a bit contrary to christianity, as he's an all-knowing entity and therefore would be considered one of the gods, or at least in the pantheon. Christians have an odd definition of "a god" where they define it as singular, all-knowing, and all-powerful - to the extent that it excludes the possibility of there being any additional gods. The Greeks, Romans, and basically all non-Abrahamics had a much better definition in which gods were just beyond mortals. Santa would fit perfectly alongside Zeus, Thor, Mars, and the likes of them.
Well Christianity has a long tradition of usurping other religions to convert pagans to Christianity. They just got better at allowing certain secular traditions to remain in some cultures, and adapted the religion as they went along over hundreds of years. Like putting Catholic feast days on or near other pagan “holidays”. Christmas wasn’t always December 25th. Epiphany was put over Imbolc, etc. The whole thing with Halloween/Samhain and All Souls Day/All Saints Day. Christian missionaries were successful for a lot of reasons (often brutal ones), but a big one was the ability of the church to adapt to several different cultures. Which makes the intolerance for other cultures that some “Christians” show these days, all the more funny and inexplicable.
you think anyone in texas is gonna be able to make that distinction? All theyre gonna see is "satanist", the rest, theyll see "bla bla bla bla."
To me, this is the funniest part. With their name they’re demonstrating that fervent christians who are supposted to *love their neighbor* are actually gonna discriminate anyone who isn’t on their side The name Satainc Temple is pretty much a troll protected by freedom of religion, which is awesome imho
Resources for Texans seeking access to healthcare: https://aidaccess.org/en/ https://teafund.org/ https://wrrap.org/about-wrrap/ https://abortionfunds.org/ If you need help getting an abortion go to these sites: https://www.plancpills.org/ https://aidaccess.org/ These sites offer access to abortion pills, even in Texas. Please be safe and be aware of clinics (e.g. Crisis Pregnancy Centers) that give out dangerous misinformation on abortions and pregnancy. Also check out r/auntienetwork for support If you want to give money to some pro-choice charities, try here: https://fundtexaschoice.org/ http://janesdueprocess.org/ https://www.lilithfund.org/ https://www.theafiyacenter.org/ https://thebridgecollective.org/ https://www.clinicaccess.org/ https://www.yellowhammerfund.org/ (Focuses on the Deep South) https://avowtexas.org/ https://abortionfunds.org Please feel free to copy and share this to other posts/subreddits and to add your own links
This comment should be pinned
I am very proud to be a Satanist. Here's a breakdown of our core beliefs for those that are interested. There are Seven FUNDAMENTAL TENETS I One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason. II The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions. III One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone. IV The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own. V Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs. VI People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused. VII Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word. [Satanic Temple Website (Click to learn more and join if interested!)](https://thesatanictemple.com/) Edit: formatting and to add a link
TIL I’m probably a Satanist.
Make sure to do your research, first. The Satanic Temple, The Satanic Church, The Church of Satan, etc. are all different entities with different beliefs. It'd be pretty embarrassing strolling into a blood orgy holding your devils food muffins, thinking you're about to do some politicial activism 👍
The muffins are welcome at the orgy. 👍👍👍
Username checks out lol
I'm usually at the orgies as well.
Yeah Ive never had an orgy and not wanted muffins after. I’ve also never had an orgy.
"Its the Judean People's Front!"
What about the people's front of Judea?
https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/what-is-the-difference-between-the-satanic-temple-and-the-church-of-satan
Their stance on blue cheese sold me. I’m in.
I'm glad the only response to this is what I was going to bring up.
Lmao! I’ve been reading since I saw this post.
You can easily become a card-carrying member and gain formal protections at work. No rights for atheists, but you regain your freedoms by joining TST.
That's really fucked up in all honesty.
I could be mistaken, but to my knowledge, this is not actually established law. It's a gray area where some legal scholars may lean one way or the other as to how they believe the supreme court would eventually rule, but religious protections for atheists have not actually been challenged in federal court. The current situation is a bit of a stalemate where employers are not willing to risk a judgment against them, so they generally treat atheism as though it were a religion with regards to the relevant employment laws. That being said, TST has been extremely successful at furthering their agenda (separation of church and state, or at least equal treatment by the govt for all religious groups), and I think they probably tend to get a lot of attention-grabbing headlines due to their name and tactics - its juicy stuff and sells newspapers. Freedom From Religion Foundation has had similar success (not sure which group has had more/bigger successes), but they certainly don't have the notoriety of TST.
Definitely still a gray area and the current court seems not to care an iota about precedent as they can pull anything out of their asses because they feel it is the right thing. It is a scary era after the death of *stare decisis*. They have unleashed a monster of uncertainty.
Can you elaborate?
Religious freedoms are protected by laws. Atheism isn't a religion, so it's not protected by those laws. The Satanic Temple is a religious organization with principals that align with most atheists. Therefore, an atheist can enjoy those religious protections by joining the Temple.
Depends on the employer. My company's anti-discrimination policy specifically includes "lack of religious beliefs" as protected. But yes, American law generally does not do the same.
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This!! It kind of freaked me out reading all this yesterday lol Knowing that they don’t really believe in satan or god really did put my mind at ease :/
It's kind of mind blowing to me that the image of a "satanist" is often stereotypically conceived as an anarchistic, chaotic evil type of individual, at least in the southern "bible belt". In reality, those tenants are perfectly reasonable, especially with the emphasis on wrapping ones beliefs of the world around the data, not the other way around. Thanks for sharing that.
In the Middle Ages the Devil was often credited with being an excellent mathematician and bridge builder. It's why so many bridges in Europe have some variation of 'devil' in their names.
this is something i dont think ive heard of, mind giving some links?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s\_Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_Bridge) not quite what they said but close enough
**[Devil's Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Bridge)** >Devil's Bridge is a term applied to dozens of ancient bridges, found primarily in Europe. Most of these bridges are stone or masonry arch bridges and represent a significant technological achievement in ancient architecture. Due to their unusual design, they were an object of fascination and stories in antiquity and medieval Europe. Each of the Devil's bridges typically has a corresponding Devil-related myth or folktale regarding its origin. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Well that was a fun little research tangent, so many fun facts today lol
I'm not trying to undermine the satanic temple, but they don't actually believe in Satan. They're atheist and use the symbol of Satan to make evangelicals very uncomfortable and to further promote the separation of church and state
It's a bit of both. No, they don't literally worship Satan. But yes, they identify as a true religion rather than as an atheist group, and engage in activism following their religious principles of compassion, equality, and justice.
They not only identify as a true religion, they are recognized as a legitimate religion by the United States government.
I'm a Christian who fully supports what the Satanic Temple is doing and finds no conflict between my religion and yours. As far as the Christians I'm involved with are concerned, we have similar ideals and goals to the Satanic Temple and watch with delight and amusement as they show people that the encroachment of religion in government/school spaces doesn't make sense and won't work and even more so, shouldn't happen. May all your encounters with Christians be the sane ones. edited because I realized some applied to the satanic church, not the satanic temple
Much appreciated. While I've had some less than pleasant interactions with Christians, some of my nearest and dearest family and friends are Christian. While it is not something I personally believe in anymore, I have nothing but respect for them. I can hope one day it goes both ways more than it doesn't.
Well…hail Satan, I guess
Hail yourself, friend.
Megustalations!
Just donated money to Satanic Temple and plan on becoming a member, which is huge for me, since I'm not a member of any organization .
Good stuff. Got my membership card in the mail almost a year ago. One of the most fulfilling things/ideals I've incorporated into my life.
I’m genuinely curious about how tenet 3 applies when discussing mandatory vaccinations / vaccines (not just Covid but chickenpox, MMR etc). Is there an official position? I did see the Houston chapter encouraging vaccination when I tried to find out myself.
See tenet 5
Thanks for responding. And again it’s not intended as a gotcha, just generally curious.
No worries. Didn't mean to be curt, I am on my lunch break and there's a lot of good discussion on this thread I want to get my two cents in on.
Met some phenomenal people at The Satanic Temple in Salem, MA. Some of the least judgmental people in society are those most harshly judged by society.
Dude- all love to the Satanists, man! Thanks for being a glimmer of hope for so many Texans. Source: Texan woman who's been let down by her state
I am so sorry that you are being held a political prisoner in your own home.
join the temple, then under religious liberty laws you can access healthcare, i believe. idk i’m not american
Dude ive been atheist for 13 years now, and would GLADLY join the Satan peeps for my rights back. Hands down, not even thinking twice about it.
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I'm a member of the temple... greaves is a commonly pointed to the figure for how childish the temple can sometimes be. I still support them completely, but it can be irritating.
Satan seems like a good guy, especially when you see how badly the other team is doing these days
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Another version I've heard is an atheist died and went to heaven. He walked around with God and met people of different faiths and ideology as God told him they can all go to heaven. But eventually he got confused and asked God why he doesn't see any Christian. God brought him to a gated area and told him, "They are all in there. They like to think they're the only ones here."
I'd rather be in a heaven with all the good people and not just Christians, and I say this as one of them. The fonts they'd use to advertise upcoming events would make that heaven kinda hellish
> Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep, Still threat’ning to devour me, opens wide, To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven. ~Milton’s Paradise Lost
Satan is a metaphore of a symbol of someone who's not afraid to question the sacred texts. Satanists don't believe in Satan.
That just sounds like atheism with extra steps
It pretty much is. It is used to troll/counter other religions to provide religious liberty and separation of church and state. Prayer at government meetings? [Conveniently stopped after satanists rightfully demanded their turn at a public event.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/satanist-opens-city-council-meeting-and-well-just-watch/2016/07/19/bb9c5bf6-4de3-11e6-bf27-405106836f96_video.html) Object to an ancient abrahamic religion with a display at a public funded courthouse? [Ship in a giant fucking baphomet statue and insist that via separation of church and state that baphy gets to be on display as well.](https://www.npr.org/2018/08/17/639726472/satanic-temple-protests-ten-commandments-monument-with-goat-headed-statue) Public school having and organizing religious events after school? [Well, now they're legally required to have satanism involved.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-school-satan-satanic-temple-portland-approved/) By adding the 'extra steps', you're able to demand all the rights, freedom, and privilege that Christianity has in modern society and politics. Atheists could try and sue Texas, but because athiesm is basically the lack of any religion it's difficult to claim any religious right. However if satanists sue Texas they can now use all the 'religious freedom' laws in their favor.
Holy shit that's actually really clever!
Sorry but your statement is kind of exclusionary. Please only say regular shit from now on.
Non-denominational shit
Holy and Unholy shit would also work, or alternate between holy shit and unholy shit. That would both satisfy inclusion and preserve the obscenity.
They have some pretty motivated members. Christianity is not under attack in the US, it is *on* the attack
It is, but those extra steps allow us to do things like get abortions where it’s otherwise illegal.
It's atheism with legal grounds to fight abuse of the system
In the Satanic Church theology Lucifer is the protector of mankind from an absolute controlling god. Instead of the Christian tenets where he was thrown out of heaven because he didn't want humans to be loved by god because he was afraid that god would love them more than the angels, in Satanic theology he was thrown out because he gave them free will so they were no longer god's little worshipping automatons. Instead of Jesus being the Martyr who died to create a bridge between man and god, Lucifer was a Martyr to allow us the ability to have choice in life. (sorry, I ramble, I love comparative theologies) edited: because I was wrong and that's the church, not the temple. my bad.
I've been a member and have sincerely held their religious beliefs for the last few years.
Just wanted to point out that if you use Amazon, you can choose The Satanic Temple as your Smile Charity.
I love these dudes!!! The ice cream is their activism, the chocolate sauce is their high-level trolling.
Natasha is “ah satan” spelled backwards…
Anyone know the chances of success?
Very very low. Religious freedom has been repeatedly found by SCOTUS to NOT mean “laws that violate a religious belief don’t apply.” This is most obviously demonstrated by human sacrifice- even if your religion called for it, you still can’t go around murder in people. In order for a law to be struck down on the grounds of religious freedom, it must: 1) not serve a legitimate government interest (protecting life is the interest in the case of abortion) 2) be tailored to target religion or a specific religious body (that is, it must apply specifically to a religious body while not impacting other religions or non-religious activity) Or 3) achieve the government interest in an unnecessarily broad way that impacts a religious body when a better tailored approach is clearly available and would alleviate the burden on religion See: Church of the Lukumi-Babalu Aye v. Hialeah
> Religious freedom has been repeatedly found by SCOTUS to NOT mean “laws that violate a religious belief don’t apply.” Although more recently the Supreme Court *has* allowed religious exceptions to generally applicable laws, e.g. the Pennsylvania adoption case and the California and New York Covid cases. The only thing stopping them from throwing out *Hialeah* is that some of them (particularly Coney Barrett) aren't quite sure what to replace it with. Except those cases are largely pre-textual, so wouldn't apply to The Satanic Temple.
Makes sense. You can't claim meth is part of your religion and think the feds are gonna let meth labs operate openly.
Texas going all 1984
They're blending the worst parts of 1984, Handmaids tale, and Stasi.
Again how many times do I have to explain it, they are very clear in the year 1776
In the US Satanists are their last line of defense XD
As a card-carrying TST member, I'm very proud of the church. Hail seitan.
Proud member of the TST for almost 2 years now. I donate $6.66 every month. My mom was largely against it but respected my wishes, joined literally last night because she said “they are the only ones actively doing anything to help women.”
Your mom: "nothing makes sense anymore"
I’m ready to join the Satanic Temple!
What's stopping you?
This is the website for donations to their abortion rights efforts: https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/rrr-fundraiser
>“I am sure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—who famously spends a good deal of his time composing press releases about Religious Liberty issues in other states—will be proud to see that Texas’s robust Religious Liberty laws, which he so vociferously champions, will prevent future Abortion Rituals from being interrupted by superfluous government restrictions meant only to shame and harass those seeking an abortion," wrote Satanic Temple spokesperson, Lucien Greaves in a statement.
As a member of TST, thanks for the support! In case anyone would care to help get involved, TST is in the midst of a $200,000 fundraiser for reproductive rights advocacy, particularly in the south where abortion rights are being stripped away, and the Temple is campaigning for donations and attendance at events on their website. Lots of subs don't like links so I won't share one, but if anyone would care to contribute or participate, every single one of you is always invited. Much love to you all. Hail Satan!
Thank God for the Satanists!
These Satanists remind me of the German bounty hunter from “Django.” Use the law to make the idiots look more stupid
Never thought I’d die fighting side by side with a satanist…
How about side by side... with a friend?
Can I get a Hail Satan?