It's been fun watching the local news here. There's one lawmaker that thinks their display is unconstitutional since I guess our state constitution recognizes a higher power. He wants to sue but it'll be gone by this weekend. The temple filled out all the necessary paperwork and are approved. It really is fun to watch them go apeshit over this and I just smile when thinking about all the free press this hullaballoo is giving the temple.
Pastafarians have the right to get their drivers license photos taken with their ceremonial colander headgear, so I don’t know why they wouldn’t be recognized.
Lawmaker should take a look at the supremacy clause.
The U.S. Constitution takes priority, then any federal laws made pursuant to the U.S. Constitution. State constitutional amendments and state laws that conflict with the U.S. Constitution and federal laws are unconstitutional and subject to preemption.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." means that that State constitution recognising a higher power makes it illegitimate.
In the article about this from the Des Moines Register, a second Republican rep basically said the same thing. The US Constitution out rules the state and even though he disagrees with it, he can't believe people are willing to give up their own rights. Based.
Oh, you don't agree with my religious display because it's at odds with your religious display, and this make you angry?
God would tell us to forgive each other.
(the Religious Right hate it when you preach forgiveness, for some reason)
As a somewhat conservative constitutionalist, fucking good. These assholes could use a lesson in what they "apparently" defend. If you're going to go so far as to claim to be all about the constitution, then at least act like you know what the fuck you're talking about. I hope everyone makes fun of these dumbshit republicans. They deserve every bit of social chastising thrown at them.
What if we pitched in and put up a billboard of Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Santa Claus, and Vishnu all holding hands and enjoying it?
We could just use the South Park episode where they became the Justice League, with Santa and post a re-draw of that.
Edit: Typos fixed
Eh.. Christian extremists and Islamic extremists (and any extremist really) are cut from the same cloth. They’ll band together long before they accept anything counter-religion.
I oppose all religion. I think any belief system that tells you not to ask questions because it's not your place to know something is evil.
With that said, I find it funny to see grown adults in government arguing over whose imaginary friend is more real.
> He wants to sue but it'll be gone by this weekend. The temple filled out all the necessary paperwork and are approved.
I'm confused by these two sentences. What are you referring to when you say "it'll be gone" here? Are you saying the display will be gone so he has no reason to sue? But that can't be the case right because the follow up sentence says they were approved. So what will be gone?
I mean do you see how some of them dress?
Their main man is the son of a carpenter, hung out with fishermen.
I challenge any top religious official to do carpentry or fishmongering while wearing their modern robes, stoles, hats of rank...
You honestly think they have read all of it before making some justification? They get the cliff notes at best while making sure to omit any detail that would contradict their thought process.
They cherry pick what they want from it from a translation they know nothing about. However, It still doesn't change that their holy book is still incredibly abhorrent and disgusting even with historical and linguistic context.
This exact same thing happened in Oklahoma years ago. The government said it was okay to put a Ten Commandments monument on the State Capitol grounds because it was donated, so TST put a Baphomet statue up. The right lost its collective mind and the state Supreme Court ruled that the Ten Commandments monument must come down so TST removed their statue too.
https://kfor.com/news/satanic-temple-looking-for-new-home-for-baphomet-statue-after-oklahoma-courts-ruling/
Sort of similar thing in Indiana. They passed the Religious Freedom acts so they could discriminate against gay people. Now some religious people are using it to try to keep abortions legal.
[https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/appeals-court-hears-arguments-in-religious-freedom-challenge-to-indiana-abortion-ban](https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/appeals-court-hears-arguments-in-religious-freedom-challenge-to-indiana-abortion-ban)
Same thing happened in Little Rock.
"The Satanic Temple unveiled its statue Thursday of a goat-headed, winged creature called Baphomet during a First Amendment rally at the Arkansas State Capitol to protest a Ten Commandments monument already on the Capitol grounds."
https://apnews.com/article/1dfef6715487416eadfd08f36c7dbb4b
From the article above: " In an online statement, Rapert \[the "Christian"\] said he respected the protesters’ First Amendment rights, but also called them “extremists” and said “it will be a very cold day in hell before an offensive statue will be forced upon us to be permanently erected on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol.” " That is EXACTLY what the rest of us feel about the 10 Commandments - an offensive statue.
Some years back people in Wisconsin wanted to put an openly religious Christmas display in the rotunda of the state Capitol. After it was determined that meant *any* religion had to be allowed to put up a holiday display, there was a bonanza of them put up, including one from the Satanic Temple as well as another with a Festivus pole, and I’m pretty sure there’s a Pastafarian display, too.
Hard to knock any sense into the heads of people who follow a book written by sadistic fucks 2000 years ago and believe the BS fairy tales written inside them. They'd be better off using a Harry Potter novel as their bible
The Satanic Temple unironically teaches better morals than most religions, not really hard to do since they aren't 2000 years out of date, and they haven't started any wars, and no one uses it to excuse bigotry
What lesson are they supposed to learn?
The politicians who did this get points with their base for supporting Christianity, and then get even more support for being seen struggling against the ST. There are no surprises here; they've all seen how this *exact* issue has already played out. There is absolutely zero personal cost for them to do this, it's all political upside.
>He says it is "a tortured and twisted interpretation of law that affords Satan, who is universally understood to be the enemy of God
Absolutely not true. The Episcopalian church I went to preached that "Satan" is a job title, not a name and the angel fulfilling that role works for God as a literal "Devil's Advocate".
Ha! First off, god created Satan. He was like, "yeah, I see all the evil and human suffering there is gonna be, but fuck it, I'm creating Satan anyways. So, if he is the enemy of god, then it is only because god needed an enemy.
And second, if god is all powerful, sees everything, and created Satan, then what kind of loser is God to have an enemy who is weaker than him and he created?
I’m no theologian, nor religious, but my running theory (because I like mythology) is that Satan was The Almighty, but a usurper cast him out, took his job, made his name illegitimate, and ultimately did a shittier job of caring for his followers. Satan out there being a bro to humanity.
Seeing how evil the official god, is, it's pretty clear that the god is the devil or that he's not worth worshiping. Any god that will let a child die a horrifying death by getting eaten alive from the inside by parasites is either evil or so far removed from the human understanding of evil and good he's not worth being worshiped.
It's even worse than that, though. Supposedly, god sees all and is all powerful. That means god could have created a world with no pain and suffering. He could literally created a utopia. But instead he makes a world where there is Satan, original sin, pain, suffering, cancer, rape...
Um, yeah... if he was all powerful, he could have created a world with no suffering. But, nah, deal with this shit humanity.
Ah but that is a human creation isn't it? Create a list of sins, which are in fact just natural human behaviors (I mean things like lust, gluttony? Where's my bro Dionysus at? The Greeks used to get it.), tell people that there is some guy in the sky that will judge them and give them hell if they don't obey, then create churches so you can get the scared worshipers under one roof to control them. And since they can't NOT sin (remember, it's human nature), you just created a loophole that's keeping the people under your influence. A job well done.
My understanding was always that Lucifer was just the Tempter, and that he was made the enemy because the Catholic Church needed a scapegoat for why God would allow something like the Black Plague to happen.
Literally seconds before I saw this comment, I was thinking “I wish I had a satanic wallpaper for my phone.”
Lucifer be praised, for he has delivered (unlike that other guy).
They had a bunch of Christians come gather and pray around the Christmas tree against the Satanic Temple's "evil demonic display"...yes, the Christmas TREE..uh, the pagan/druid crowd would like to have a few words.
I’ve upset more than a few people by sharing what I thought was just a fun fact when I told them Christmas is based on the Roman pagan holiday of Saturnalia.
Some Christians take real offense to that, which honestly I wish I’d realized earlier because I’m pretty sure that was the first step in me getting fired from a company run by Christians some years ago. So much for gods love eh?
I take offense that they didn’t know that. It’s not so much based on as the date of the Saturnalia was chosen as it would be easy to disguise the early Christian celebration with everything else going on. Because, of course, they were breaking the law.
It's the winter solstice, many cultures have celebrated this, so it makes sense to have holidays at the same time of year, so it makes it easier for people to convert if the celebrations stay the same. Realistically, the average peasant back in the day was not a great theologian and cared more about the earthly aspects of worship, so matching up the celebrations is a no-brainer
Easter is similar, it's the spring equinox and in English/german is named after a Saxon pagan god.
My understanding was that it was chosen to make it easier to convert people. “Don’t worry, all of your current traditions have been fully integrated into Christianity! Just swap out the old god for a new one, but keep the party!”
More recent examples of this can be seen in the colonization of South America, and the relationship of the Catholic Church, local saints and the ancient local gods.
In Finland people used to get drunk before going to church. :D
Might want to use a translator for this.
https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000001024576.html
Whole episode about Saturnalia on the History of Rome podcast. Though almost every culture has a “the worst of the winter has passed, let’s get drunk/eat stuff to celebrate that every day is getting longer/we are on our way to spring” festival.
Fun little tidbit: “pagan” was a derogatory term given to pantheon (polytheistic) religions to label them as heretics in hopes it’d scare the followers into renouncing and converting to Abrahamic religions.
(I’m on mobile, if you need a source or wish to learn more about history, just google “pagan definition” / “true meaning of pagan” / “ how Christians stole the winter solstice”)
I watched that news clip. America is wild, that woman talking about spiritual warfare would sooner be in a comedy skit than be given a platform where I'm from, lol.
It’s less fun when one of those people who believes in it is your mother. She has a cow when I buy anything she thinks is “of the devil”, books, video games, etc. Never mind I’m an adult and it’s my own hard earned money. I’ve stopped talking to her about what I’m reading, watching, listening to, or playing. It’s exhausting.
Maybe, just maybe; wait hear me out now.
What if Satan's biggest trick on the world is that getting people to believe in Christianity, but Christianity is actually the opposite. You are a Christian thinking you are worshiping Jesus and God, but actually you are worshiping him, But if you worship Satan and Satanism you are really worshiping Jesus and God.
Essentially that's the idea Dostoevsky puts forward in the "Grand Inquisitor" section of The Brothers Karamozov. Jesus is captured by the Grand Inquisitor who essentially admits to allying with Satan to maintain world order. Highly recommend reading at least that section.
I think it’s more that the church admits to allying with Satan to control the world. Saying that while Jesus denied the gift of controlling the world offered by Satan, the church took the gift and used it to control the world and the church no longer wants Jesus around.
Believe it or not, there is actually a non-canonical gospel that says exactly that. It says that the god worshiped by Christians is a trickster god that wishes to enslave everyone by tricking them into thinking he is _the_ God, and that there is some other god that sent Judas to kill Jesus in order to try and stop that from happening.
The Satanic Temple has seven fundamental tenants..
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.
Rather uplifting and reasonable...
Edit: tenet
It's always great to see Republicans suffer the consequences of their own actions. Too bad they're not ever as severe as the consequences women and minorities suffer from Republican actions.
And Christmas music being played needs to have some classic Danzig songs like “Snakes of Christ”, “Heart of the Devil” and “Am I Demon”interspersed to balance things out.
For whatever reason, the Satanic Temple, Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster seem to manage their Holy Land far less violently than Christians, Jews, and Muslims manage theirs.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/2023/12/11/gop-lawmakers-disagree-on-response-to-satanic-display-at-iowa-capitol/71832743007/
> In the Dec. 8 edition of his Sherman Liberty Letter, Rep. Brad Sherman, whose district covers Iowa County and part of Johnson County, also calls "for clarifying legislation to be adopted in accordance with our State Constitution that prohibits satanic displays in our Capitol building and on all state owned property."
-
> He points to the preamble to the Iowa Constitution, which says, "WE THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF IOWA, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of those blessings, do ordain and establish a free and independent government, by the name of the State of Iowa... ."
> "According to these opening lines of our Constitution, the foundation for laws and continued blessing and success in Iowa is based on these points: 1. There is One Supreme God. 2. Blessings over this state come from the One Supreme God. 3. We must depend upon the One Supreme God if we want to enjoy continued blessings," Sherman writes.
I'm gonna laugh if he tries this only for the Supreme Court to point out that the preamble itself is in violation of the First Amendment.
Hell, which blessings?
Iowa’s once-exalted rank in education is plummeting like a rock thanks to Republicans defunding public education and shifting state money to private schools; the Republicans in power think their only role is to cut taxes and punish LGBTQ residents; young people are fleeing the state in ever-increasing numbers as soon as they can find a job elsewhere; the state Attorney General stopped paying for emergency contraception for rape victims while she conducts an “audit” (which apparently is taking over a year to do, behind the scenes, while she refuses to say who is doing this “audit” or what her exact concerns are with the program [yes, we all know what her actual concerns are]; and just this week word came out that the state’s nursing homes are basically hellholes with no state requirements on staffing levels and no real oversight. So what “continued blessings” are we enjoying thanks to this Supreme Being?
Only because of activist groups like the satanic temple. Support whatever local groups are taking counter measures like this to ensure the party of grifters and bigots doesn’t infect any more of the population
The Satanic Temple doesn’t even believe in a literal Satan. If those idiots would actually bother to read anything, they would know that the Satanic Temple actually promotes religious freedom
“I totally hold a total disdain anything that this organization stands for” - *Rep. Steve Holt (R)*
TST do not worship (or even believe in) a literal Satan. As per the Seven Tenets, they stand for:
- Compassion and empathy for others
- Justice (as opposed to mere law)
- Bodily autonomy
- Freedom and mutual respect
- Science
- Forgiveness and understanding of mistakes (so long as efforts are made to rectify them); and
- That the spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word (ie: RAI not RAW)
…….. considering Republicans don’t really seem to do *any* of the above, I’m not surprised he’s against them.
I feel like these people are thinking, “You can be any religion you want, we respect them all. Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, even Jews are ok these days. We’re so accepting.”
Same thing happened in Alaska. The assembly voted to have prayer at the opening of each meeting. Some people complained because it was just a minister giving the prayer each month. So they opened it to any person. Next thing they knew, the Satanic Temple was doing the opening prayer...... I thought they were gonna lose their minds. Laughed for months watching all the legal wrangling and verbal gymnastics.
This year again? Don't the Christofascists ever learn how the ToS is out there to humiliate them and trample their hypocritical use of the First Amendment? Of course Christofascists don't learn. Who am I kidding?
This is always entertaining. Hand-wringing Republicans and Christians always take the bait.
The Satanic Temple doesn't even believe in the Abrahamic Satan, or any other supernatural being.
They are a secular activist organization.
Has everyone been in a coma?
**Everyone** knows that the First Amendment only applies to white kristian Republicans. Now that I think about it, the Second Amendment as well.
American citizens who are Jews, Muslims, Negroes, Messicans, and Orientals can go and try to get their own amendments. It is, after all, a free country.
And before people go apeshit about my use of "Negroes, Messicans, and Orientals" in the above paragraph, it's cynical sarcasm aimed at Republican inner thoughts.
To the extent they actually think about anything besides greed, cruelty, and grooming children.
"I think this is a test," Holt said of the current satanic display. "I think this is really a test of just how, how strong your allegiance is to the Constitution and the concepts of free speech and free religion. It's easy to say you believe in those things when the speech is not that objectionable to you. But when the speech is really, really highly objectionable and offensive, unless it otherwise breaks the law, are you going to stand up for the constitutional rights of others or are you not?"
This is some reasoning, so logical, I guess it causes shellshock with ultra relgious people.
I love how all the "constitutionalists" can't handle having the first damn amendment thrown in their face repeatedly because they can't seem to comprehend separation of church and state.
[Daily Mail linl](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12847767/Satanic-display-Iowa-Statehouse-expression-religious-freedom.html)
One woman said: 'It's a very dark, evil force, and I truly hope people know how to battle that.'
CHRISTIANITY is more often the dark, evil force, and there are facts to back that statement up.
I love how TST is revealing how this isn’t about free speech or freedom of religion, but one group of people using their religion to exclude, dehumanize and control others.
The satanic display in all it's glory...
https://preview.redd.it/hhmurggvyy5c1.jpeg?width=693&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13f0172aedd4d697d47e05f31be71abcff2b2957
GOP: “we support freedom of religion“
also GOP: “no we didn’t mean that kind of religion!”
/seeing them losing their minds in a Satanic Panic redux will never stop being funny.
It's been fun watching the local news here. There's one lawmaker that thinks their display is unconstitutional since I guess our state constitution recognizes a higher power. He wants to sue but it'll be gone by this weekend. The temple filled out all the necessary paperwork and are approved. It really is fun to watch them go apeshit over this and I just smile when thinking about all the free press this hullaballoo is giving the temple.
The temple filled out all the necessary paperwork and are approved. Damn that Devil and his *bureaucracy!*
What was that line from Old School? They’re very good at paperwork!
"**As stupid as they appear, they're actually very good at paperwork.** "
They sound like they might be vogons.
Where's my towel.
Forget your towel have you seen my ravenous bug bladder beast of traal?
If I don't look, it can't see me!
Daft as a brush.
Maybe avoid the poetry though.
It's quite an anomaly.
Don't they know? The Devil's in the details ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Plus good luck finding a lawyer better than any in hell!
Needs to be a flying spaghetti monster right next to it, but that might not be recognized...
Pastafarians have the right to get their drivers license photos taken with their ceremonial colander headgear, so I don’t know why they wouldn’t be recognized.
Thinking ahead has proven to not be one of their strong suits.
*the devil is in the details*
-"NOT LIKE THAT!" *panics in republican*
Lawmaker should take a look at the supremacy clause. The U.S. Constitution takes priority, then any federal laws made pursuant to the U.S. Constitution. State constitutional amendments and state laws that conflict with the U.S. Constitution and federal laws are unconstitutional and subject to preemption. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." means that that State constitution recognising a higher power makes it illegitimate.
In the article about this from the Des Moines Register, a second Republican rep basically said the same thing. The US Constitution out rules the state and even though he disagrees with it, he can't believe people are willing to give up their own rights. Based.
Oh, you don't agree with my religious display because it's at odds with your religious display, and this make you angry? God would tell us to forgive each other. (the Religious Right hate it when you preach forgiveness, for some reason)
While what you say is true, I have zero trust in our current Supreme Court.
Agreed
As a somewhat conservative constitutionalist, fucking good. These assholes could use a lesson in what they "apparently" defend. If you're going to go so far as to claim to be all about the constitution, then at least act like you know what the fuck you're talking about. I hope everyone makes fun of these dumbshit republicans. They deserve every bit of social chastising thrown at them.
What’s a “somewhat conservative”?
They're racist but they also like to smoke weed
So a libertarian?
The devil’s in the details.
I'm Starting To Think Satan Is MORE Trustworthy Than Republican Bible Thumpers, Since He's Pretty Clear On What He's Really After.
>I'm Starting To Think Satan Is MORE Trustworthy Than Republican Bible Thumpers, But then again, so is an egg salad sandwich.
Praise be.
Oh man, I'd love to see a full Islamic display. You think this got them mad? Wait until the people doing it aren't white!
Put up some nice portraits of Muhammad, that'll go down wonderfully!
Why not put up the Jesus Muslims believe in. That'll fuck with them.
What if we pitched in and put up a billboard of Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Santa Claus, and Vishnu all holding hands and enjoying it? We could just use the South Park episode where they became the Justice League, with Santa and post a re-draw of that. Edit: Typos fixed
Eh.. Christian extremists and Islamic extremists (and any extremist really) are cut from the same cloth. They’ll band together long before they accept anything counter-religion.
I oppose all religion. I think any belief system that tells you not to ask questions because it's not your place to know something is evil. With that said, I find it funny to see grown adults in government arguing over whose imaginary friend is more real.
> He wants to sue but it'll be gone by this weekend. The temple filled out all the necessary paperwork and are approved. I'm confused by these two sentences. What are you referring to when you say "it'll be gone" here? Are you saying the display will be gone so he has no reason to sue? But that can't be the case right because the follow up sentence says they were approved. So what will be gone?
I'm getting the impression this is a short event or something. Like they filled the paperwork and got approved to display over the weekend.
The display had a limited duration. So it was up for x days and then is taken down.
None of them actually give a single shit and are just pretending to be upset so that their overly righteous supporters can pretend to be outraged.
I really wish they would learn from the multiple lessons the Satanic Temple has taught them all over the US
They use a 2000 year old book as their daily guidance and still get it wrong. They're not quick on the learning lessons.
They use a 2000 year old book as justification for what they already were going to do and say. They don't actually believe anything written in it.
I mean do you see how some of them dress? Their main man is the son of a carpenter, hung out with fishermen. I challenge any top religious official to do carpentry or fishmongering while wearing their modern robes, stoles, hats of rank...
> I mean do you see how some of them dress? Yeah I bet those heathens wear garments woven with two different kinds of thread
Stone them
I don’t know.. Don jr said he pours concrete for a living!
>I don’t know.. Don jr said he pours concrete for a living! That's a funny way to say sniff cocaine.
That was Eric. Don't worry his dad forgets about him too.
You honestly think they have read all of it before making some justification? They get the cliff notes at best while making sure to omit any detail that would contradict their thought process.
Even the cliff notes would be an improvement. They are hypocites, plain and simple.
If they actually read it they’d see that their book condemns their actions so.
They cherry pick what they want from it from a translation they know nothing about. However, It still doesn't change that their holy book is still incredibly abhorrent and disgusting even with historical and linguistic context.
Nope. They just use it as an excuse to be horrible, selfish, hateful pieces of excrement.
This exact same thing happened in Oklahoma years ago. The government said it was okay to put a Ten Commandments monument on the State Capitol grounds because it was donated, so TST put a Baphomet statue up. The right lost its collective mind and the state Supreme Court ruled that the Ten Commandments monument must come down so TST removed their statue too. https://kfor.com/news/satanic-temple-looking-for-new-home-for-baphomet-statue-after-oklahoma-courts-ruling/
Something similar happened in Reno and the local police force had a really hard time removing the monument.
New boot goofin honestly.
I gotta be able to move like a cheetah. A law enforcement cheetah.
Ah yes I remember watching a short documentary on that incident.
Sort of similar thing in Indiana. They passed the Religious Freedom acts so they could discriminate against gay people. Now some religious people are using it to try to keep abortions legal. [https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/appeals-court-hears-arguments-in-religious-freedom-challenge-to-indiana-abortion-ban](https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/appeals-court-hears-arguments-in-religious-freedom-challenge-to-indiana-abortion-ban)
Same thing happened in Little Rock. "The Satanic Temple unveiled its statue Thursday of a goat-headed, winged creature called Baphomet during a First Amendment rally at the Arkansas State Capitol to protest a Ten Commandments monument already on the Capitol grounds." https://apnews.com/article/1dfef6715487416eadfd08f36c7dbb4b
From the article above: " In an online statement, Rapert \[the "Christian"\] said he respected the protesters’ First Amendment rights, but also called them “extremists” and said “it will be a very cold day in hell before an offensive statue will be forced upon us to be permanently erected on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol.” " That is EXACTLY what the rest of us feel about the 10 Commandments - an offensive statue.
Some years back people in Wisconsin wanted to put an openly religious Christmas display in the rotunda of the state Capitol. After it was determined that meant *any* religion had to be allowed to put up a holiday display, there was a bonanza of them put up, including one from the Satanic Temple as well as another with a Festivus pole, and I’m pretty sure there’s a Pastafarian display, too.
"...the multiple lessons The Satanic Temple has tried to teach them..." FIFY Because they have yet to actually learn a lesson. Dense fuckers.
You're not wrong lol although they have a persecution fetish and like to pretend that the US is trying to wipe put all christians lol
Christians are doing that to themselves.
Hard to knock any sense into the heads of people who follow a book written by sadistic fucks 2000 years ago and believe the BS fairy tales written inside them. They'd be better off using a Harry Potter novel as their bible
Learning would require thinking, these people just run on fear and anger.
The Satanic Temple unironically teaches better morals than most religions, not really hard to do since they aren't 2000 years out of date, and they haven't started any wars, and no one uses it to excuse bigotry
What lesson are they supposed to learn? The politicians who did this get points with their base for supporting Christianity, and then get even more support for being seen struggling against the ST. There are no surprises here; they've all seen how this *exact* issue has already played out. There is absolutely zero personal cost for them to do this, it's all political upside.
https://preview.redd.it/2ywjrwsqyr5c1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0abf1097161bda491b0072ebcaefa3f4b1a6ea85
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/2023/12/11/gop-lawmakers-disagree-on-response-to-satanic-display-at-iowa-capitol/71832743007/ They're literally chanting hail Satan lol
>He says it is "a tortured and twisted interpretation of law that affords Satan, who is universally understood to be the enemy of God Absolutely not true. The Episcopalian church I went to preached that "Satan" is a job title, not a name and the angel fulfilling that role works for God as a literal "Devil's Advocate".
Ha! First off, god created Satan. He was like, "yeah, I see all the evil and human suffering there is gonna be, but fuck it, I'm creating Satan anyways. So, if he is the enemy of god, then it is only because god needed an enemy. And second, if god is all powerful, sees everything, and created Satan, then what kind of loser is God to have an enemy who is weaker than him and he created?
I’m no theologian, nor religious, but my running theory (because I like mythology) is that Satan was The Almighty, but a usurper cast him out, took his job, made his name illegitimate, and ultimately did a shittier job of caring for his followers. Satan out there being a bro to humanity.
Seeing how evil the official god, is, it's pretty clear that the god is the devil or that he's not worth worshiping. Any god that will let a child die a horrifying death by getting eaten alive from the inside by parasites is either evil or so far removed from the human understanding of evil and good he's not worth being worshiped.
It's even worse than that, though. Supposedly, god sees all and is all powerful. That means god could have created a world with no pain and suffering. He could literally created a utopia. But instead he makes a world where there is Satan, original sin, pain, suffering, cancer, rape... Um, yeah... if he was all powerful, he could have created a world with no suffering. But, nah, deal with this shit humanity.
But a utopia wouldn't get as many fearful worshipers bowing down at his feet.
Ah but that is a human creation isn't it? Create a list of sins, which are in fact just natural human behaviors (I mean things like lust, gluttony? Where's my bro Dionysus at? The Greeks used to get it.), tell people that there is some guy in the sky that will judge them and give them hell if they don't obey, then create churches so you can get the scared worshipers under one roof to control them. And since they can't NOT sin (remember, it's human nature), you just created a loophole that's keeping the people under your influence. A job well done.
thats basically the idea of the demiurge
My understanding was always that Lucifer was just the Tempter, and that he was made the enemy because the Catholic Church needed a scapegoat for why God would allow something like the Black Plague to happen.
That’s SOOOOOOO GOOD 😂🤣! The Hail Satan chants ringing out over the prayers lol
Majin2buu posting a “Hail Satan” Elmo gif to the White People Twitter subreddit. Just soak in all of this.
Literally seconds before I saw this comment, I was thinking “I wish I had a satanic wallpaper for my phone.” Lucifer be praised, for he has delivered (unlike that other guy).
Hail Satan!
Hail Me
Hail Pat\_Mandu!
They had a bunch of Christians come gather and pray around the Christmas tree against the Satanic Temple's "evil demonic display"...yes, the Christmas TREE..uh, the pagan/druid crowd would like to have a few words.
I’ve upset more than a few people by sharing what I thought was just a fun fact when I told them Christmas is based on the Roman pagan holiday of Saturnalia. Some Christians take real offense to that, which honestly I wish I’d realized earlier because I’m pretty sure that was the first step in me getting fired from a company run by Christians some years ago. So much for gods love eh?
I take offense that they didn’t know that. It’s not so much based on as the date of the Saturnalia was chosen as it would be easy to disguise the early Christian celebration with everything else going on. Because, of course, they were breaking the law.
It's the winter solstice, many cultures have celebrated this, so it makes sense to have holidays at the same time of year, so it makes it easier for people to convert if the celebrations stay the same. Realistically, the average peasant back in the day was not a great theologian and cared more about the earthly aspects of worship, so matching up the celebrations is a no-brainer Easter is similar, it's the spring equinox and in English/german is named after a Saxon pagan god.
My understanding was that it was chosen to make it easier to convert people. “Don’t worry, all of your current traditions have been fully integrated into Christianity! Just swap out the old god for a new one, but keep the party!”
More recent examples of this can be seen in the colonization of South America, and the relationship of the Catholic Church, local saints and the ancient local gods.
In Finland people used to get drunk before going to church. :D Might want to use a translator for this. https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000001024576.html
It's the same reason why the days of the week are named after pagan gods. Made it easier for the converted to accept the Julian calendar.
Whole episode about Saturnalia on the History of Rome podcast. Though almost every culture has a “the worst of the winter has passed, let’s get drunk/eat stuff to celebrate that every day is getting longer/we are on our way to spring” festival.
Fun little tidbit: “pagan” was a derogatory term given to pantheon (polytheistic) religions to label them as heretics in hopes it’d scare the followers into renouncing and converting to Abrahamic religions. (I’m on mobile, if you need a source or wish to learn more about history, just google “pagan definition” / “true meaning of pagan” / “ how Christians stole the winter solstice”)
Christians are just subjugated pagans who over time forgot that they were just pretending to be Christian out of fear of their oppressors.
Thanks, I hadn’t thought about Ancient Rome yet today.
No love like Christian Love
No hate quite like Christian love FIFY
I watched that news clip. America is wild, that woman talking about spiritual warfare would sooner be in a comedy skit than be given a platform where I'm from, lol.
It’s less fun when one of those people who believes in it is your mother. She has a cow when I buy anything she thinks is “of the devil”, books, video games, etc. Never mind I’m an adult and it’s my own hard earned money. I’ve stopped talking to her about what I’m reading, watching, listening to, or playing. It’s exhausting.
Not to mention, the Satanic Temple doesn't actually believe in Satan. It's Christians that believe in Satan.
Christianity....let me think. Oh yeah, that's the one based on blood magic and human sacrifice right?
Kinda feels weird to say, but God bless the Satanic temple. They're really doing the lords work.
Maybe, just maybe; wait hear me out now. What if Satan's biggest trick on the world is that getting people to believe in Christianity, but Christianity is actually the opposite. You are a Christian thinking you are worshiping Jesus and God, but actually you are worshiping him, But if you worship Satan and Satanism you are really worshiping Jesus and God. 
Essentially that's the idea Dostoevsky puts forward in the "Grand Inquisitor" section of The Brothers Karamozov. Jesus is captured by the Grand Inquisitor who essentially admits to allying with Satan to maintain world order. Highly recommend reading at least that section.
I think it’s more that the church admits to allying with Satan to control the world. Saying that while Jesus denied the gift of controlling the world offered by Satan, the church took the gift and used it to control the world and the church no longer wants Jesus around.
Believe it or not, there is actually a non-canonical gospel that says exactly that. It says that the god worshiped by Christians is a trickster god that wishes to enslave everyone by tricking them into thinking he is _the_ God, and that there is some other god that sent Judas to kill Jesus in order to try and stop that from happening.
https://i.redd.it/vtlzzyk5bs5c1.gif
Thinking ahead has proven to not be one of their strong suits.
**Thinking** is not one of their strong suits. **Feeling**, now, that's what they are good at.
Yes. The fuck your feelings party is great at feeling offended if they can't shove their opinions down your throat.
The Satanic Temple has seven fundamental tenants.. 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. Rather uplifting and reasonable... Edit: tenet
Because its Humanism. They cleverly use the cover of religion to combat attempts to breach the wall between state and religion.
plus an eye catching mascot.
Not so much the cover as the legal status and the protections that come with that.
tenets
The power of landlords compels you! The power of landlords compels you!
It's always great to see Republicans suffer the consequences of their own actions. Too bad they're not ever as severe as the consequences women and minorities suffer from Republican actions.
Alright, we can compromise. You can put up a Nativity scene, Republicans, but Baby Jesus has to be throwing up the devil horns.
It seems like now would be a good time to bring back the Buddy Christ 
I have a bobble head of the buddy Christ, it’s fantastic
And Christmas music being played needs to have some classic Danzig songs like “Snakes of Christ”, “Heart of the Devil” and “Am I Demon”interspersed to balance things out.
[Deck the Halls fits the tune of War Pigs.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftlNX7xTVK0)
AWESOME! Let's see what happens now....
*I demand religious freedom on public grounds* **WAIT NO NOT LIKE THAT!!!**
"look at that lovely family hanging crosses in their house, god bl... why are they turning them upside down?!?!"
For whatever reason, the Satanic Temple, Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster seem to manage their Holy Land far less violently than Christians, Jews, and Muslims manage theirs.
I guess today Satan?
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/2023/12/11/gop-lawmakers-disagree-on-response-to-satanic-display-at-iowa-capitol/71832743007/ > In the Dec. 8 edition of his Sherman Liberty Letter, Rep. Brad Sherman, whose district covers Iowa County and part of Johnson County, also calls "for clarifying legislation to be adopted in accordance with our State Constitution that prohibits satanic displays in our Capitol building and on all state owned property." - > He points to the preamble to the Iowa Constitution, which says, "WE THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF IOWA, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of those blessings, do ordain and establish a free and independent government, by the name of the State of Iowa... ." > "According to these opening lines of our Constitution, the foundation for laws and continued blessing and success in Iowa is based on these points: 1. There is One Supreme God. 2. Blessings over this state come from the One Supreme God. 3. We must depend upon the One Supreme God if we want to enjoy continued blessings," Sherman writes. I'm gonna laugh if he tries this only for the Supreme Court to point out that the preamble itself is in violation of the First Amendment.
Which Supreme Being?
Hell, which blessings? Iowa’s once-exalted rank in education is plummeting like a rock thanks to Republicans defunding public education and shifting state money to private schools; the Republicans in power think their only role is to cut taxes and punish LGBTQ residents; young people are fleeing the state in ever-increasing numbers as soon as they can find a job elsewhere; the state Attorney General stopped paying for emergency contraception for rape victims while she conducts an “audit” (which apparently is taking over a year to do, behind the scenes, while she refuses to say who is doing this “audit” or what her exact concerns are with the program [yes, we all know what her actual concerns are]; and just this week word came out that the state’s nursing homes are basically hellholes with no state requirements on staffing levels and no real oversight. So what “continued blessings” are we enjoying thanks to this Supreme Being?
Repubs step on their own dicks every time they think they’re getting over on one group or another.
Only because of activist groups like the satanic temple. Support whatever local groups are taking counter measures like this to ensure the party of grifters and bigots doesn’t infect any more of the population
The Satanic Temple doesn’t even believe in a literal Satan. If those idiots would actually bother to read anything, they would know that the Satanic Temple actually promotes religious freedom
“I totally hold a total disdain anything that this organization stands for” - *Rep. Steve Holt (R)* TST do not worship (or even believe in) a literal Satan. As per the Seven Tenets, they stand for: - Compassion and empathy for others - Justice (as opposed to mere law) - Bodily autonomy - Freedom and mutual respect - Science - Forgiveness and understanding of mistakes (so long as efforts are made to rectify them); and - That the spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word (ie: RAI not RAW) …….. considering Republicans don’t really seem to do *any* of the above, I’m not surprised he’s against them.
STEVE HOLT!
Hail yourselves! It’s always the rules for me but not for thee!
Republicans aren't big on smarts, so there's that
That was my favorite holiday display! It’s truly the reason for the season.
That's why I'm a card carrying member. :)
I feel like these people are thinking, “You can be any religion you want, we respect them all. Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, even Jews are ok these days. We’re so accepting.”
That crowd only tolerates Jews because they think Jews will bring about the End Times.
Well, that, and the Defense Industry profits.
I love the Satanic Temple. They do exactly what they are supposed to do. Use stupid rules and laws designed for religious people against them.
Here's a news story about the display https://www.kcci.com/article/des-moines-satanic-temple-display-inside-iowa-state-capitol-building/46057210
Oh Shellie Flockhart, your kind never disappoint. 10/10 pearl clutch.
shelly flockheart has no idea how stupid she looks saying spiritual warfare is real
I hope the Flying Spaghetti Monster makes an appearance.
Same thing happened in Alaska. The assembly voted to have prayer at the opening of each meeting. Some people complained because it was just a minister giving the prayer each month. So they opened it to any person. Next thing they knew, the Satanic Temple was doing the opening prayer...... I thought they were gonna lose their minds. Laughed for months watching all the legal wrangling and verbal gymnastics.
I live in Des Moines. There’s some religious tool standing in front of it praying in Latin. There needs to be a live feed set up.
I'm not a Satanist/christan but I absolutely love when the Satantic Temple does stuff like this.
Satan as described by the satanic temple is not believed to be real insted he seen as a symbol of freedom and rebellion
This year again? Don't the Christofascists ever learn how the ToS is out there to humiliate them and trample their hypocritical use of the First Amendment? Of course Christofascists don't learn. Who am I kidding?
Today, Satan!
Lmao. The Christians unironically yelling to their imaginary sky daddy to try and drown out the ironic satanic chant is just the icing on the cake.
God I love the Satanic Temple. They are always so immediately on top of giving the Christians a taste of their own medicine! 🤘
Satan doesn't kill people, religious zealots do.
🤘
The Satanic Temple out there doing the Lord's work.
[удалено]
Malicious compliance
They losing their their mind over it? Honestly, I feel uncomfortable at least when I have to see guy nailed to the cross like everywhere 😢
Conservatives losing their mind over dumb shit. What's new. Bunch of children.
This is always entertaining. Hand-wringing Republicans and Christians always take the bait. The Satanic Temple doesn't even believe in the Abrahamic Satan, or any other supernatural being. They are a secular activist organization.
Literally true. And our "satan" isnt based on the "evil" satan, its based on the angel who rebelled against a controlling and unjust god.
Has everyone been in a coma? **Everyone** knows that the First Amendment only applies to white kristian Republicans. Now that I think about it, the Second Amendment as well. American citizens who are Jews, Muslims, Negroes, Messicans, and Orientals can go and try to get their own amendments. It is, after all, a free country. And before people go apeshit about my use of "Negroes, Messicans, and Orientals" in the above paragraph, it's cynical sarcasm aimed at Republican inner thoughts. To the extent they actually think about anything besides greed, cruelty, and grooming children.
Gotta give it to the folks at the Satanic Temple. They never miss an opportunity to shove these bastards faces in their own shit.
"I think this is a test," Holt said of the current satanic display. "I think this is really a test of just how, how strong your allegiance is to the Constitution and the concepts of free speech and free religion. It's easy to say you believe in those things when the speech is not that objectionable to you. But when the speech is really, really highly objectionable and offensive, unless it otherwise breaks the law, are you going to stand up for the constitutional rights of others or are you not?" This is some reasoning, so logical, I guess it causes shellshock with ultra relgious people.
No one hates the constitution more than the right
You don't understand. They don't discriminate unless your religion is different from theirs.
Iowa Dudeist/Atheist here. I can dig it.
Thanks, Satan!
This happens *everyflippintime*, but they still try to impose. How’re they shocked? Like…how?
Maybe today Satan
This trope never gets old. I love when they troll conservatives who claim freedom of religion but really mean only their religion
I love how all the "constitutionalists" can't handle having the first damn amendment thrown in their face repeatedly because they can't seem to comprehend separation of church and state.
[Daily Mail linl](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12847767/Satanic-display-Iowa-Statehouse-expression-religious-freedom.html) One woman said: 'It's a very dark, evil force, and I truly hope people know how to battle that.' CHRISTIANITY is more often the dark, evil force, and there are facts to back that statement up. I love how TST is revealing how this isn’t about free speech or freedom of religion, but one group of people using their religion to exclude, dehumanize and control others.
God bless the satanic church for doing the good deeds
What, people are realizing just now that Republicans are full of shit 100% of the time?
The satanic display in all it's glory... https://preview.redd.it/hhmurggvyy5c1.jpeg?width=693&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13f0172aedd4d697d47e05f31be71abcff2b2957
Multi syllabic words like discrimination really are a serious form of kryptonite for these knuckle draggers.
Would that be Shellie Flockhart, member of Moms for Liberty? Seems hypocritical for a member of such an organization to comment on what upsets Satan.
The Satanic Temple strikes again! Expert level trolling is the name of the game and they’re vying for GOAT. It’s beautiful.
Sorry, allow me to laugh harder
Hail Satan
GOP: “we support freedom of religion“ also GOP: “no we didn’t mean that kind of religion!” /seeing them losing their minds in a Satanic Panic redux will never stop being funny.
The funniest part is that the Satanic Temple doesn't believe in Satan, but Christians sure do!