In retaliation for a refusal by the city of Scottsdale, Arizona to allow The Satanic Temple to deliver an invocation before its city council meetings, the organization has chosen the city for its first-ever SatanCon conference in the city next month so that “hundreds of Satanists will now be descending on Scottsdale for an entire weekend.”
According to Arizona’s 12News.com, the conference is scheduled for February 11-13, 2022 and will be held at The Seguaro Hotel in Scottsdale. Presentations include Abortion as a (Religious) Rite, Raising Children in a Satanic Household, The History of Satan Across Cultures as well as an offsite “Impurity Ball” and a Satanic Marketplace. The event is currently sold out.
The website for the event explains that the reason why Scottsdale was chosen as the venue for the event is because Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane and Council member Suzanne Klapp were successful in their efforts to prevent The Satanic Temple from delivering an invocation at the city council meetings, a decision that was upheld by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals when it ruled that the city did not engage in unlawful discrimination.
Even though the Temple attempted to appeal the ruling, claiming evidence was excluded from the trial, the appeal was rejected when a judge determined the evidence in question would not have altered the outcome of the case.
Therefore, the Temple decided to dedicate the event to Mayor Lane and Councilmember Klapp “who took pride in depriving The Satanic Temple of their civil liberties by refusing to allow one TST member the opportunity to utter a brief, solemn message. Hundreds of Satanists will now be descending on Scottsdale for an entire weekend. Lane and Klapp will look even worse when residents discover how charitable TST members are.”’
The date for the celebration coincides with the Satanic Feast Day of Luperalia, which takes place on Februrary 15 and is described as a “celebration of bodily autonomy, sexual liberation, and reproduction.” The Temple claims that they are translating this feast into a “hail yourself” day.
The Temple has also been making headlines elsewhere. Flyers advertising an After School Satan Club that appeared at Jane Addams Elementary School in Moline, Illinois sparked widespread outrage in the community. Decorated with a cartoon-figure of the devil, the flyer advertised science projects, puzzles and games, arts and crafts, and more. The flyer begins with the sentence, “Hey kids, let’s have fun at After School Satan Club!”
The public reaction caused the school district to quickly disassociate itself with the Temple, claiming that the facility rental for this activity was not generated by the district or the school and does not impact the school day.
Apparently, a parent contacted the Satanic Temple when the school began to offer a child evangelism fellowship club and asked them to approach the school about bringing in another point-of-view. A total of 30 flyers were sent to the school by the Satanic Temple and were placed in the lobby where students picked them up.
“Since we have allowed religious entities to rent our facilities after school hours, we are not permitted to discriminate against different religious viewpoints,” the district said. “To illegally deny their organization (viewpoint) to pay to rent our publicly funded institution, after school hours, subjects the district to a discrimination lawsuit, which we will not win, likely taking thousands upon thousands of tax-payer dollars away from our teachers, staff, and classrooms.”
In the case of this activity, as well as all others, a parental permission slip must be signed and parents can simply choose not to allow their child to participate.
The problem with this stance is that it allows children to be exposed to a perception of Satan which is based in fantasy. Flyers sport a playful image of Satan which leaves children with the idea that he is harmless and fun rather than what he is, deceptive and deadly.
Others claim that the Satanic Temple is harmless because it’s not involved in the worship of Satan and is devoted to promoting “reasonable agnosticism.” While it’s true that they deny the existence of Satan, the supernatural, and belief in a personal Satan, their claim to embrace the name of Satan as a way to embrace rational inquiry apart from superstition rings hollow. They couldn’t find any other name to use? Instead, they choose the name of Satan and then try to rebrand him into something he’s not, thus misrepresenting Satan to the public and leading them toward a being with a long history of hatred and destruction.
And if they don’t believe in Satan, why is this event being billed as a conference for Satanists? There are different kinds of Satanists, many of whom do worship Satan. And why is this organization involved in organizing Black Masses, which explicitly invoke Satan, if they don’t believe in him?
Regardless of what they say, The Satanic Temple is all about Satan and the upcoming conference is about to expose the truth about who and what they truly are – an instrument in the hand of their namesake – whether they believe in him or not.
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