Third Side Intelligence: Missouri Abortions

The Satanic Temple is self-acknowledged satire and an activist group, which pretends to be a religion when it suits their ends. They do not reflect the philosophy of Satanism.

An ongoing case in Missouri has received publicity wherein activists masquerading as Satanists are involved in a lawsuit regarding currently mandated pre-abortion procedures. As our organization, founded in 1966, defined for the world the meaning of Satanism as a religion and philosophical point of view, we’ve been asked by journalists for a statement. Here is some food for thought.

We Satanist citizens of the United States uphold the separation of church and state as mandated by the U.S. Constitution. When considering matters regarding legislating what someone can and cannot do with their own bodies, we think doctors and scientists are far better consultants for establishing state-fostered medical procedures than religious leaders or other “people of faith.” If a state has enacted laws based on any particular religion’s values, those laws should be challenged and struck down on the basis that they violate the separation of church and state which Americans are supposed to uphold, not by muddying the waters with arguments based on competing religious points of view. Thus we uphold secularism as the standard for our government and its doings, not religious pluralism.

A little bit of research makes it clear that The Satanic Temple is self-acknowledged satire and an activist group, which pretends to be a religion when it suits their ends. They do not reflect the philosophy of Satanism which our organization has outlined in great detail over five decades, though at times they clearly lift ideas from our extensive literature. We consider anyone claiming to be a Satanist and solely using TST membership as evidence as either being misinformed or as lying. The supposedly “sincerely held beliefs” of TST adherents are scanty, nebulous, and contradictory. We have compiled this fact sheet which provides evidence for our evaluation of them, and which we think any rational individual would want to consider before accepting their press releases or other statements at face value.

The Church of Satan does not condone political activists appropriating the name of our 50 year old religion in support of their activism, whether we agree with their stated goals or not. As a “new” religion, compared to the majority of commonly acknowledged belief systems, keeping our definitions clear is imperative so that Satanism can be understood from any cultural point of view as a distinct and developed religion that has at this point inspired thousands towards fulfilling their lives. Thus when our members state that they are Satanists it can be readily known that they advocate governmental secularism, liberty and equity for all under the law—with all genders and orientations included, so long as believers in other religions do not use force to demand submission to their doctrines or other religiously inspired values.

—Reverend Joel Ethan