The Satanic Temple is the perfect religion for progressives. You can believe anything you want, as long as you hate what Donald Trump, Christians and conservatives believe. Unlike the Church of Satan, the Satanic Temple doesn’t even believe in a supernatural entity called Satan.
Instead, they celebrate Satan as “the ultimate rebel,” and they relish in using the symbol of Satan to greatly upset Christians. The Satanic Temple was founded in 2013, and from the very beginning it was clear that they were primarily a political movement. In fact, they openly tell prospective members that the only real requirement for joining is to believe “in the political and secular actions” of the group:
If there’s a local chapter where you are, to join you do have to be accepted, but there’s no initiation or anything. You don’t even have to be a Satanist, you can just be a strong ally who believes in the political and secular actions without being super stoked about all the aesthetic aspects.
Previously, Satanism in America had always been a shadowy underground movement, but the Satanic Temple has changed all that.
Instead of avoiding the public eye, they believe that their rebellion against conservatives and Christians “requires a level of political participation”:
Traditionally, Satanists practice very privately, closed doors, black candles, black metal music, but with the Satanic philosophy being where Satanism represents rebellion against arbitrary authority, we believe it requires a level of political participation. I think that we need to go into the public sphere and announce ourselves without shame.
The organization grew rapidly after it was founded, but if Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 election, that probably would have put a damper on their political activism.
But once Donald Trump won the election, interest in the group absolutely exploded:
The Satanic Temple attracted “thousands” of new members in just the first 36 hours after the election of Donald Trump,” the group reported. “The 4-year-old temple, which had a pre-Trump membership of around 50,000, has never before seen a spike in registration nearly this big.”
“We’re definitely a resistance movement,” spokesperson and co-founder Lucien Greaves said after a speech outside the University of Colorado Boulder. “We stand in stark opposition to this idea that we must unify under a single religious banner.”
Thanks to a favorable new documentary about the group, it is getting a lot of attention right now.
And even many leftists who have absolutely no intention of joining the Satanic Temple are saying very positive things about the organization. For example, the following comes from a Huffington Post article titled “Satan Is Having A Moment”:
Satanists, it turns out, are everything you think they’re not: patriotic, charitable, ethical, equality-minded, dedicated to picking up litter with pitchforks on an Arizona highway.
That much is clear in the fantastic new documentary Hail Satan?—which chronicles the rise of the Satanic Temple, a movement that has little to do with its titular demon. Founded in 2013, the organization is equal parts modern-day religion, political activist coalition and meta cultural revolution. By reclaiming the pop iconography that has long frightened evangelical America―devil worship, ritualistic sacrifice, horns, pentagrams, the so-called black mass―the Satanic Temple aims to catch people’s attention and then surprise them with messages of free speech, compassion, liberty and justice for all.
Positive articles like that make members of the Satanic Temple sound like civic-minded do-gooders who just want to make a positive impact on society, but the truth is that they absolutely loathe everything conservatives and Christians stand for.
They really hate President Trump, and they really, really hate Vice-President Pence. Just consider what one of the co-founders of the Satanic Temple recently said about Pence:
“[President Trump] is too stupid to predict; the guy has no concept of his own limitations. The thing that makes me most comfortable with Trump is the fact that he has no vision. Mike Pence really scares me,” Lucien Greaves told The Daily Beast in an interview published on Wednesday. “Pence has a clear, theocratic vision for the United States.”
And despite the fact that they claim that they “don’t worship Satan”, the group does celebrate the black mass, it does conduct Pentagram rituals, and it does seek to put statues of Baphomet up in prominent public locations.
As the group continues to grow, its national influence undoubtedly will as well.
Perhaps it is appropriate that the Satanic Temple has gained such prominence. In our society today, we are literally locked in a battle of good versus evil for the future of our nation, and it seems quite fitting that Satan has become a key symbol for the other side.
To me, the Satanic Temple is more than just a little bit hypocritical. They claim to not believe in any supernatural entities, and yet they were just granted tax-exempt status “as a church” by the Internal Revenue Service:
The Satanic Temple has been officially recognized as a church by the Internal Revenue Service, three months after taking Sundance by storm as the subject of the documentary Hail Satan? According to an announcement from Hail Satan? distributor Magnolia Pictures, the temple is now eligible for the tax-exempt status given to other religious institutions.
Either they are a “faith” or they are not.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling that there is a lot more to the Satanic Temple than meets the eye.
Just like their hero, the leaders of the Satanic Temple appear to be experts in deception, and they are leading thousands upon thousands of people down a very dark path.
This article originally appeared on the End of the American Dream blog. Reprinted with permission.
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