This monument might soon grace the Oklahoma statehouse:
Satanists have unveiled their design for a proposed statue at the Oklahoma state Capitol, including a place for people to sit on the devil’s lap “for inspiration and contemplation.” The New York-based Satanic Temple submitted its proposal to Oklahoma officials this month after applying for a spot on capitol grounds late last year. The Satanists say their statue would “complement and contrast” with a Ten Commandments monument placed at the Capitol in Oklahoma City in 2012.
The Satanists’ proposed monument depicts Baphomet, a goat-headed pagan idol sitting on a 7-foot-tall throne inscribed with an inverted pentagram. In an artist’s rendering provided by the Satanic Temple, smiling children look adoringly at the devilish figure. “The statue will serve as a beacon calling for compassion and empathy among all living creatures,” Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the Satanic Temple, said in a statement. “The statue will also have a functional purpose as a chair where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration and contemplation.”
Pareene considers whether the proposal will become a reality:
The Supreme Court’s current take on sectarian religious monuments in public spaces is basically incoherent (they are OK if they are “historical,” maybe less OK if they are not, with certain exceptions) but if one privately funded religious monument is OK, another ought to be as well. This is a similar tack to that taken by the people behind Florida’s famous beer-can Festivus pole, a protest elevated from similar ones thanks to its choice of materials. (PBR cans, though Natty Ice or something would’ve been even better.) Florida had to allow that display to justify the Christmas decorations they were very attached to. If the right is going to continue to attempt to subvert the Establishment Clause in the hopes of eventually getting the Supreme Court to decide that it means its opposite, we may as well also use the opportunity to spread the gospel of Satan.
So far, though, Oklahoma is being less accommodating than Florida.
Oklahoma Rep. Earl Sears told the AP, “I do not see Satanism as a religion, and they have no place at the state Capitol.” Not very Christ-like of you, Rep. Sears! I mean, yes, we can all agree that trying to build a statue of Satan at the Oklahoma state Capitol is childish, but it is also pretty good protest because there really aren’t any good arguments against it once you have accepted that this “privately funded” Ten Commandments monument is kosher. Plus, Satan is way cooler than the atheist Internet “spaghetti monster” joke.
Religion Dispatches’ Joseph Laycock initially pegged Greaves as a mere “smartass,” but now he sees a sincere believer in the Satanist spokesman:
In 2005, Greaves had lunch with Peter H. Gilmore, high priest of the Church of Satan founded by Anton LaVey. Greaves felt that a cultural shift had occurred with the rise of the New Atheist movement, led by the likes of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, and that Satanists should participate in this new conversation about religion in the public sphere. As a cognitive scientist, he was suspicious of Dawkins’ claims that humanity can live without religion since he felt that humans are “hard wired” to interpret the world through a rich language of symbol, narrative, and ritual. So Greaves imagined Satanism as a religion that could combine Dawkins’ aversion to supernaturalism with powerful and compelling symbols – what might be called a “sacralized” atheism.
Laycock concludes, “If the Satanic Temple’s campaign has any traction it will force a public discussion not simply on the Constitutional issues surrounding religion, but on the perennial problem of what religion is.”
The Dish 