Interesting. I suppose we all choose our battles. I'd rather fight for homes
for the homeless or freedom to organize a union at Amazon.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2019 3:26 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: trisha.angel.my.heart80@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Seven Tenets of the Satanic Temple
Carl, I think the point is to identify themselves as the opposition to
religious groups. The Satanic Temple is obviously an organization of secular
humanists that promotes secular humanist causes. That includes fighting for the
separation of church and state. Pretty much all of the major religions, with
the possible exception of Buddhism, identify their opponent to be Satan. Since
the Satanic Temple forthrightly styles itself as the opponent then they may as
well adopt the imagery and symbolism that these religions use for their
opponents. It is part of their strategy to promote the separation of church and
state. The Freedom From Religion Foundation sues when a governmental agency
tries to incorporate religion into its functions. The American Civil Liberties
Union acts similarly. The Satanic Temple, on the other hand, demands inclusion.
If a nativity scene is put up on a courthouse lawn then they demand that their
Satanic symbols be there too in the interests of fair play and to show that the
governmental body is neutral when it comes to religion. The governmental body
is likely to back down and remove all religious symbols rather than include
Satanic symbols. An interesting thing happened here In Charleston, West
Virginia recently. The mayor announced that the annual Christmas parade would
have its name changed to the winter parade and floats with religious symbols
would not be allowed. The rationale for this was that Christmas is a Christian
holiday and Christianity is only one of the various religions that exist in
Charleston. This change was being made to promote greater inclusiveness. The
backlash was very forceful. The mayor said that she was shocked at how much
anger there was about this and she rescinded the new policy so that the parade
would continue to be named the Christmas parade and floats with religious
symbols would be allowed just like they always have. Since the parade is
sponsored by the city government I was questioning its constitutionality, but I
didn't question it publicly and, besides, I live outside city limits anyway.
However, Christians within city limits were about to have a public hanging of
the mayor before she backed down. I think that if the Satanic temple existed in
this area they would just have said, fine, let us have a Satanic float in the
parade. I suspect that the Christians would have objected to that rather
strenuously too, but fair is fair, isn't it? Anyway, remember a few weeks ago I
posted an article about a city council that regularly had a religious minister
deliver an invocation at their meetings and according to the article the church
of Satan demanded to be allowed to deliver a benediction. Well, obviously the
Church of Satan and the Satanic Temple are frequently confused. I think I was
confusing them myself and attributing actions by the Satanic Temple to the
Church of Satan. After reading the web sites of both groups, though, I realize
that the group that demanded the right to deliver the benediction was probably
the Satanic Temple and when they end a benediction or speech or whatever they
are delivering they always end it with hail Satan instead of amen. I think it
is just another tactic to so disconcert the people who want to mix church and
state to the point that they will just stop mixing them in order to avoid
having to hear hail Satan. But it does remain that neither the Satanic Temple
nor the Church of Satan really believe in a supernatural being named Satan.
They just use the imagery and symbolism.
---
Albert Einstein
???Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.???
??? Albert Einstein
On 10/31/2019 11:30 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Hail Satan? Hail Satan?
Why would an organization set forth common sense thoughts, and then
praise the name of some imaginary bogyman? What foolishness!
Carl Jarvis
On 10/30/19, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Here are those seven tenets of the Satanic Temple I said that I would
post. On rereading them they sound more innocuous than I thought when
I first read them, but they do have a lot of implications. This was
copied from the main page of their web site and I did not copy that whole
page.
I found out last night that doing that causes some difficulties.
However, I think you might want to follow the link and look around
their web site. I really didn't know anything about them until I
visited their web site last night, but it turns out that they are
pretty politically progressive and they are tremendously better than
their main rival, the Church of Satan.
https://thesatanictemple.com/
There are seven fundamental tenets.
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all
creatures in accordance with reason.
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that
should prevail over laws and institutions.
One???s body is inviolable, subject to one???s own will alone.
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to
offend.
To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to
forgo one's own.
Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the
world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit
our beliefs.
People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to
rectify it and remediate any harm that may have been caused.
Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in
action and thought.
The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail
over the written or spoken word.
Hail Satan?
Hail Satan?
--
---
Albert Einstein
???Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.???
??? Albert Einstein
