In Defense of The Satanic Temple
Before You Flame Me, Make Sure You Know What It Is
So, “Hail Satan” recently popped up in my Netflix recommendations. I hadn’t heard about the 2019 documentary about The Satanic Temple until then, but thought I’d give it a try. I didn’t know much about The Satanic Temple except that members fight passionately for separation of church and state, which makes them okay by me. After all, they don’t really worship Satan. They don’t even believe in a literal Satan (neither does the Church of Satan, another Satanic organization with which The Satanic Temple is frequently confused.)
In fact, the tenets of The Satanic Temple are as follows:
1. One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason.
2. The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
3. One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
4. 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.
5. Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs.
6. People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and remediate any harm that may have been caused.
7. 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.
I don’t have a problem with any one of these, as an atheist or as a human being generally.
And as a religious group with a political message, they’re fucking brilliant.
I Don’t Use The Word “Brilliant” Lightly
TST pushes the buttons of the “America is a Christian Nation” crowd just by existing. They’d barely have to do anything at all to provoke the government, the Church, and the media into showing the hypocrisy around “freedom of religion.” But the resistence to TST events and to its insistence that it be allowed to put Satanic monuments on government property where Christian monuments are present, the media editorializing about its intentions, the social judgement that because Christianity is a “good” religion its activities can be condoned but that because Satanism is a “bad” religion TST’s activities can’t be allowed put that hypocrisy on full display with floodlights. It’s bizarre and terrifying, funny but so not-funny.
Because for a “bad religion”, TST is doing some pretty awesome stuff:
- Food, sock, and menstrual product drives for the poor
- Blood drives
- Highway adoption
- After school programs
- Advocacy for women’s reproductive rights, child safety, and freedom of religion for all religions (including filing lawsuits when necessary.)
If it weren’t for the Satan thing, I’d imagine that most people would have little to no problem with the Satanic Temple, which is really the point of the whole thing. Like I said, the TST doesn’t believe in a literal Satan, but a symbolic one:
Satan is symbolic of the Eternal Rebel in opposition to arbitrary authority, forever defending personal sovereignty even in the face of insurmountable odds.
Satan is a metaphor, and an embrace of the outsider status. But because Satan is a loaded concept, on both the religious and non-religious level, people find it difficult to see past their knee-jerk reactions to the word.
Even I do a little bit, and that’s difficult for me to admit.
Surprised By My Reaction
I moved past the idea of a literal Satan almost 20 years ago, and as a baby atheist I’m delighted by The Satanic Temple and its mission. However, I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’m simultaneously unnerved by the footage of the members protesting in horns and capes, by the imagery on their merchandise, by the idea of “The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities” (relax — it was literature for the After School Satan campaign, which put after-school groups designed to teach children critical thinking skills in schools where the Christian Evangelism Fellowship had established after-school evangelical clubs for children.)
I do understand why the group chose Satan — co-founder Lucienne Greaves explains it very clearly in “Hail Satan”, and further explains in this interview with Tucker Carlson about how the group’s name absolutely isn’t intended to be a giant “Fuck You” to Christianity. But on one level I get it. I struggle with this nagging thought: “Y’all really had to choose Satan?”
Deprogramming
But that’s my issue. I’ve been learning since I became an atheist earlier this year that I still have some religious deprogramming to do, and the fact that I’m still a bit squirmy about Satan after 20 years out of Christianity, fully behind TST’s mission otherwise, says to me that this. Group. Is. Needed. Exactly as it is.
Doing What I Can For The Moment
I support them the way I support the smokers in my apartment building. I don’t smoke myself, I’m not interested in becoming one for my own reasons. But (and I have made this known): If anyone tried to close down the area on property where they can go to smoke, I’ll raise hell on their behalf. I understand not being allowed to smoke in apartments, but as far as I know no one else is required to give up a legal substance in order to live here, which people would have to do if there was no smoking area on property.
Because there’s sweating the small stuff, and there’s being on the right side of history, and I know where I want to be when the rubber meets the road. So I while I’ve still got some religious shit to work out until I can comfortably throw my lot in with The Satanic Temple, I’m happy be an ally and to toss some money their way every now and then in support of their activities until I can.
Hopefully you’ll support them in some way too.