The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled a week ago that the state must remove a 6-foot tall granite monument of the Ten Commandments from its capitol saying that it violated Oklahoma’s constitutional ban against the use of either public funds or property to benefit a single religion. Wile I suspect this case could have made it to the Oklahoma Supreme Court without the interference of Satanists, I don’t imagine it hurt that the Satanic Temple launched a successful Indiegogo campaign last year, raising $28,000 to construct a statue to stand alongside the Ten Commandments monument in Oklahoma… a statue (seen below) of two adorable children gazing upon the goat-headed deity Baphomet with adoration in their young, adoring eyes.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen with the Satanic statue now that Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has said that the Ten Commandments monument isn’t going anywhere, in spite of the ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, but, last week, when news of the high court’s decision came out, and everyone assumed that the Ten Commandments monument would be removed from the grounds of the state capitol, Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Graves said that he’d find another home for the Baphomet statue.
Here Graves is talking about the statue with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who seems to have some difficulty grasping the fact that Graves and company only wanted to have their statue placed in Oklahoma to make a point about the separation of church and state.
“The whole point of the statue was to complement the monument and reaffirm that we live in a pluralistic nation that respects diversity and religious liberty.” – Lucien Graves
For what it’s worth, it appears as though this man who calls himself Lucien Graves is really more interested in serving our founding fathers than he is in promoting Satanism.
When a friend of his interviewed him for Vice a while back, Graves was essentially asked if he’d just chosen Satanism because he knew it would serve as good platform from which to launch Yes Men-like attacks. “Yes,” he responded. “Just as the Yes Men use very catching theatrical ploys to draw attention to a progressive agenda, we play upon people’s irrational fears in a way that hopefully causes them to reevaluate what they think they know, redefine arbitrary labels, and judge people for their concrete actions. I believe that where reason fails to persuade, satire and mockery prevail. Whereas many religious groups seem to eschew humor, we embrace it.”
Graves went on to share the following background. “The Satanic Temple was actually conceived of independent from me by a friend and one of his colleagues,” he said. “They envisioned it more as a ‘poison pill’ in the Church/State debate. The idea was that Satanists, asserting their rights and privileges where religious agendas have been successful in imposing themselves upon public affairs, could serve as a poignant reminder that such privileges are for everybody, and can be used to serve an agenda beyond the current narrow understanding of what “the” religious agenda is. So at the inception, the political message was primary, though it was understood that there are, in fact, self-identified Satanists who live productive lives within the boundaries of the law, and that they do deserve just as much consideration as any other religious group. I was brought in originally as a consultant due to my expertise in the history of witch hunts and my understanding regarding conceptions of Satanism. While the original thinking was that the Satanic Temple needed to hold to some belief in a supernatural entity known as ‘Satan,’ none of us truly believed that. I helped develop us into something we all do truly believe in and wholeheartedly embrace: an atheistic philosophical framework that views ‘Satan’ as a metaphorical construct by which we contextualize our works. We’ve moved well beyond being a simple political ploy and into being a very sincere movement that seeks to separate religion from superstition and to contribute positively to our cultural dialogue. To this end, I am very much an activist.”
And the work of Graves and his associates, in case you haven’t followed their activities over the past few years, isn’t restricted to Oklahoma. In Florida, not too long ago, they came out in support of Governor Rick Scott, who’d signed into law a bill allowing for school prayer, thanking him for opening the door to in-class chants to the Dark Lord. And, more recently, they began exploring ways in which the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision could be exploited by those who, like them, feel as though they should exempted from anti-abortion laws based on the Supreme Court’s decision to exempt the Christian-owned business from providing reproductive health care for its female employees.
Who wold have imagined, back at the founding of our country, that it would be Satanists on the front lines, fighting to protect our rights as enumerated in the constitution?
By way of context, for those of you who many not be aware of the reasoning behind our long held belief that church and state should be separate, is a from Thomas Jefferson, taken from a letter he’d written to the Danbury Baptists in 1802.
…Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State…
So, the next time you see a Satanist, be sure to give them a big hug and thank them for their work to safeguard our constitution, OK?
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If the statue doesn’t go to Oklahoma, it could find a home in Detroit.
http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/archives/2015/06/18/the-satanic-temple-to-unveil-baphomet-monument-in-detroit
Can you paste your “six pack” face on this thing? That would be glorious and not at all give me nightmares.
Mark’s a Satanist!? O-m-G!
They tend to be more liberal than most democrats.
The ones I’ve met don’t actually believe that they’re worshipping the dark lord himself, but rather they enjoy antagonizing everyone who is self-righteous enough to believe that their way is the only way and their beliefs are the only valid ones.
More animal sacrifice on the Six Pack.
Another video to consider.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxKA4JBesB4
I gave them $100.
When you read Thomas Jefferson’s entire letter, in context, it has a much different meaning. There is no separation of church and state in our constitution, merely restrictions imposed on Congress preventing them from imposing a religious denominational choice. That power was reserved for the states. The wall of separation prevents government overreach while the 1st amendment free exercise clause gives the people the right to worship and conduct their lives in accordance with their beliefs. Not saying that is the way many interpret it today, just that it was the original intent of those who wrote our constitution. There will be massive civil disobedience if the lawsuits proliferate to deny Christians free exercise.
The Supreme Court has ruled on 4 separate occasions that we are a Christian nation.
http://firstprinciplespress.org/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/America-is-a-Christian-Nation.pdf
I am a 20 years man, living in Malawi. I want you to help to join Satanic. For the past 3 year,i have been searching for a person who can help me, but most of them were not willing to help me or i can say their were not real Satanist.
Today i believe that i have found my answer and my dream of being part of Satanic worship. Help me to join
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I don’t remember you at the Constitutional Congress, EOS. Where were you sitting?
Here’s something that I wrote back in 1787. You can look it up. It’s published in a piece titled, “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America.”
“The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.”
Hopefully that clears up any confusion you might have.
John,
Your memory suffers. The “simple principals of nature” is a refereence to natural law. He some more of your quotes:
Adams –President of the United States of America, First Vice President, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Signer of the Bill of Rights, and Signer of First Ammendment
The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.
– John Adams
The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.
– John Adams
The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.
– John Adams
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
– John Adams
I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.
– John Adams
The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.
– John Adams
[The Fourth of July] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.
– John Adams
As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him.
– John Adams
We recognize no sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus.
– John Adams and John Hancock (uncomfirmed quote)
Should I remind you of your wife’s quotes?
Your quote confirms exactly what I said. Those founding fathers who wrote our Constitution were no more religious than the rest of the inhabitants of our country at that time.
Poor Christians. So sad.
I think we should bring back Colonial punishments for sexual offenses and heresy to please EOS since she obviously believes that life was better in the 18th century than the 21st.
Complications in Detroit.
Read more:
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/17/lets_burn_it_down_detroit_christians_conspire_to_prevent_satanic_temple_from_unveiling_baphomet_statue/
That stature will be unveiled in Detroit Saturday night, but will not remain here.
Read more:
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2015/07/22/satanic-statue-revealed-detroit-saturday/30508189/
Church Militant, a conservative Catholic group, was on the scene in Detroit for the unveiling.
Read more:
http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/the-devil-in-detroit
The Satanist made famous when the statue was unveiled in Detroit is back again. Apparently he works at a Royal Oak Arby’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mlPE8pxs4
The weird Satanist guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hopeFgwApCM
Just saw EOS’ post. Had these in my back pocket, so why not counter? The founding fathers really knew how to throw a dope slap on religious zealots.
“The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
~1797 Treaty of Tripoli signed by John Adams
“I am for freedom of religion and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.”
~Thomas Jefferson, letter to Elbridge Gerry, Jan. 26, 1799
“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.”
~Thomas Jefferson: in letter to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec. 6, 1813
“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity.”
~Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, 1791
“The American states have gone far in assisting the progress of truth; but they have stopped short of perfection. They ought to have given every honest citizen an equal right to enjoy his religion and an equal title to all civil emoluments, without obliging him to tell his religion. Every interference of the civil power in regulating opinion, is an impious attempt to take the business of the Deity out of his own hands; and every preference given to any religious denomination, is so far slavery and bigotry.”
~Noah Webster, calling for no religious tests to serve in public office, Sketches of American Policy, 1785
The States should all make Christianity an official religion and compel all citizens to adhere to it, as EOS suggests.
Couple hundred years ago, those folks understood how religious persecution operates.
I can’t even stand a wallet in my back pocket
By back pocket, I meant i-phone.
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