In the past couple of months, the New-York based Satanic Temple has been drumming up a great deal of publicity for their fight for what they believe is a violation in some of their Amendment Rights. At the center of a heated community battle are the Satanists who are looking for more public ways to express themselves, including during religious-related holidays and celebrations, such as Christmas. With what started with the rejection of the Satanic Temple’s interpretation of a Nativity scene during this past holiday season has fueled the group’s desire to make a legal point that it’s within their right to become a more vocal ‘religious’ fixture within their communities. Do you know what their latest plans are?
When the Satanic Temple requested to create a holiday display at Florida’s state Capitol, and were denied, it set the wheels in motion for the group to contemplate taking action against the state of Florida for violating their rights. However, the proposed display involved a diorama that depicted an angel falling into Hell. The idea was referred to as being “grossly offensive during the holiday season.”
However, after being rejected, the Satanic Temple says they reached out to the Department of Management Services – the people in charge of reviewing and giving the ‘OK’ for proposed displays that are placed on state property – in an attempt to come to an agreement as to how they could “rework” the concept of the display so that it would be more acceptable to the board. But, there attempts supposedly went unanswered, prompting Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves to say: “Because of their objections and their failure to respond, we and the ACLU believe their denial was based on viewpoint discrimination.”
The department then received a letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida which called the rejection a violation of the temple’s free-speech rights. In addition to a Christian nativity scene, some of the displays that passed the test were a Festivus pole, a Flying Spaghetti Monster display, and a banner from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The American Atheists and Tallahassee Atheists also had displays at the Capitol.
Just when you think that the dust has settled after the holiday display uproar, the Satanic Temple is once again pushing to become a more visible presence in their communities. The same group has recently revealed a design that shows the seven-foot-tall statue meant to celebrate Satanism that they would like to have placed on the lawn of the Oklahoma State Capitol. A huge issue that detractors have with the monument is that it depicts a goat head (which represents Satan).
The Satanic Temple would like to make a statue that functions as a chair “where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration and contemplation.” Additionally, the statue would wear a large pentagram (a very common and well-known symbol of Satanism). The likenesses of two children with smiles on their faces would also flank the Satanic statue on both sides.
The Satanic Temple has moved forward in making the statue a reality – currently raising funds for its creation through the crowdsourcing site called Indigogo. The group has since raised more than $11,000 of the $20,000 goal that they have set for themselves.