Nat Hentoff’s 1992 book Free Speech For Me -- But Not For Thee took certain right- and left-wingers to task for their willingness to restrict the First Amendment rights of their political adversaries. Amanda Marcotte’s AlterNet piece last Wednesday could have been called “Religious Freedom For Us -- But Not For You,” the “us” being conservative Christians and the “you” being pretty much everyone else, especially Satanists.
Marcotte detailed activism by Satanic groups that in her opinion has exposed the purportedly liberty-loving religious right as “the theocrats they always were, interested only in having government endorsement of their religion and often eager to demand that the government stomp out religious practices that offend them.”
Speaking of offensive, the antics of these groups include, in Marcotte’s words, “a coloring book with games that explain the ins and outs of Satanic rituals, as well as showing kids how to draw a pentagram,” and a parody of Communion that involves “stomping on bread and sexualizing the grape juice.”
From Marcotte’s post (emphasis added):
One of the favorite myths that Christian conservatives like to tell about themselves is that they are champions protecting “religious freedom” from the supposed oppressions of a secular humanist society. But that argument is increasingly being tested by, of all people, Satanists…[who] are quickly learning how easy it is to show that the Christian right never had any intention of protecting “religious freedom”. Instead, time and time again, Satanists are showing that the conservative Christian definition of “religious freedom” doesn’t apply at all to faiths, like Satanism, that offend them. Faced with the demands of Satanists, the supposed religious freedom crusaders of the religious right turn right back into the theocrats they always were, interested only in having government endorsement of their religion and often eager to demand that the government stomp out religious practices that offend them…
The latest dust-up involves a Satanic…ceremony [in Oklahoma City] that mocked the Catholic mass by stomping on bread and sexualizing the grape juice-in-lieu of wine, as well as praying to various demons.
Sadly, the whole thing, held by convicted sex offender Adam Daniels, was basically a failure as satirical performance art…[but] it still managed to demonstrate the screaming hypocrisy of Christian conservatives who claim to stand for religious freedom.
Oklahoma is the home of another stunt by much-funnier Satanists who have figured out how to expose this particular Christian right hypocrisy. Christians put a monument to the Ten Commandments up at the Oklahoma Statehouse, declaring their right to do so as one of religious freedom. The Satanic Temple, run out of New York City, responded by demanding the same religious freedom to put up a monument to the demon Baphomet.
The proposed monument is a hoot: Baphomet sitting on a throne while two children gaze adoringly at his goatly visage. The point of the stunt, however, is quite serious, to expose the hypocrisy of Christian conservatives who want to justify government endorsement of religion under the guise of “religious freedom”...
The Satanic Temple is pulling a similar stunt in Florida, to protest the Orange County Public Schools, which allowed the World Changers of Florida to pass out Bibles and religious pamphlets on campus...Satanist groups are making the situation hilariously surreal by asking to distribute The Satanic Children’s BIG BOOK of Activities, a coloring book with games that explain the ins and outs of Satanic rituals, as well as showing kids how to draw a pentagram.
Ian Millhiser at Think Progress…point[s] out that…the Supreme Court decided that churches could show religious films on school property so long as they didn’t turn around and discriminate against other religions who want the same rights. “Under the Constitution, what’s good for an evangelical church is also good for the Satanic Temple,” Millhiser concludes.
Earlier on NewsBusters: Katie Yoder on the Satanic children's book
