Detroit Satanists say they won't sacrifice
animals
A new religious group aims to bring the devil to Detroit
The Satanic Temple today marks the launch of its first
chapter outside New York. But leaders say they don’t worship Satan. They don’t
practice cannibalism, or sacrifice people or animals.
“It’s peaceful,” said Jex Blackmore, 32, local leader and
part of the temple’s executive ministry. “The idea of sacrifice specifically is
to appease some demon or some god, and that’s a supernatural belief that we
don’t subscribe to.”
The group’s tenets include free will, compassion toward all
creatures, respect of others’ freedom — including freedom to offend — and
beliefs supported by scientific understanding: “We should take care never to
distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs,” according to the Satanic Temple’s
website.
Based on Western civilization’s most notorious evil
character, the sect is intrinsically controversial. The Satanic Temple was
started about two years ago and has drawn national attention for First Amendment-related
demonstrations in communities as far-flung as Florida and Massachusetts.
In Oklahoma, the group aims to erect a bronze statue of
Baphomet, a bearded, goat-headed deity posing with two children, in response to
Christians posting the Ten Commandments at the state’s capitol. Blackmore said
that if the Christians removed their monument, the push to install Baphomet
would end.
Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment
Center in Washington, D.C., said Friday that the Satanists reflect the
increasing diversity in America, a country founded on religious freedom, as
protestant Christianity’s influence has lessened.
“Groups that feel that the government often privileges the
majority faith are trying to find new ways to correct that, and to address
that,” he said, adding that the Ten Commandments illustrate Christians’ effort
to preserve their culture. “A lot of the culture war fights can be traced back
to the notion of ‘losing our country.’ ”
Blackmore, who was raised Lutheran in metro Detroit, said
the religion embraces individuality and equality. Wearing all black with an
upside-down cross necklace, she described the movement as a coming together of
atheists and outsiders.
“We believe in a metaphorical, literary construct of
Satan,” she said. “He’s a symbol for rebellion, a symbol of human nature, the
thirst for knowledge.”
The Rev. Chris Yaw of St. David’s Episcopal Church in
Southfield said Satanists worshiping Satan actually is quite rare; instead, it
tends to be a “back-to-nature kind of thing.”
He said the Bible is “really sketchy on who this person
Satan is,” and that the red pitchforks, horns and goat heads were all added
long after the Christian Bible was completed. Visit the Satanic Temple’s
website, thesatanictemple.com, and similar imagery abounds.
“You wonder who is drawn to celebrate evil,” Yaw said. “We
pledge not to honor those things that are working against the good.”
He’d happily go out to lunch with the Satanists to learn
why they’re drawn to it as he, too, is on a “spiritual journey,” Yaw said.
“The challenge of Christianity, that has been dominant
religion in this country, is to be accepting and loving of all people, and
whatever religion they want to practice,” Yaw said. “Jesus didn’t give me the
right to judge other people.”
Blackmore said the temple’s plans for Michigan include
offering same-sex wedding ceremonies and advocating for women’s rights — in
particular, opposing on religious grounds the informed consent laws requiring
that women receiving abortions be given certain information. She also is
working on plans to volunteer at local animal shelters and provide other needed
community service in Detroit.
Michigan’s law against same-sex marriage was struck down
earlier this year then appealed in federal court, with the state not allowing
for any such marriages in the meantime. Blackmore said she hopes the Satanic
Temple can use a same-sex marriage to challenge the law on grounds of religious
freedom.
There are about 20 local members, and she said people who
are interested in learning more are encouraged to visit the group’s Facebook
page. Detroit is the first of 15 chapters to be announced in the coming weeks.
There’s no set location for gatherings here, but Blackmore said she’s been
looking at some abandoned churches.
Doug Mesner, the founder of the Satanic Temple in New York,
who’s in his 30s, goes by the name Lucien Greaves. He said he grew up “in the
shadow of the Satanic Panic,” when a wave of media reports alleging Satanic
connections to crimes created fear and resentment.
Mesner said he studied the background of Satanic
organizations as he got older and was attracted to a number of the elements, including
the bizarre, the forbidden and the anomalous, and an independence from cultural
symbols.
Mesner said he finds references to Satanic magic
“embarrassing.”
The temple chapters allow for flexibility at the local
level.
“I do not like engaging in ritual,” Mesner said. “I know
some people do.”
