The Satanic Temple

Movement·Founded 2013 CE

The Satanic Temple

Branch
Core tenet of The Satanic Temple⚖ contested within

Nothing supernatural is claimed, by anyone, at any point.

Satan is a symbol and the Temple says so in its founding documents. This is contested outside it — critics read the whole body as an activist campaign wearing religion as a disguise — and inside it, where members differ on how much of the enterprise remains satire.

Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The Satanic Temple makes no supernatural claim of any kind and this is stated in its founding documents rather than inferred. Satan is a literary figure, taken from Milton and from Anatole France, and no member is asked to believe he exists. The contest is over what that means. Critics read the body as a political campaign wearing religion as a costume, and point to the staged first rally in Tallahassee in January 2013 and the documentary crew that was present. Members read it as a genuine non-theistic religion in a country where non-theists have no standing to claim religious exemptions unless they organise as a religion. Lucien Greaves has said the Temple can be both satanic and satirical. The Internal Revenue Service examined the question and classified it as a church on 25 April 2019, after the organisation had spent years refusing exemption on principle.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
The past gets a vote, not a veto. Reconstructionist Judaism Go deeper →
We do not curse our teachers. The Assyrian Church of the East · precept Go deeper →
There is nothing to join. The Christian Churches and Churches of Christ Go deeper →
Honest to God — thirty-nine pages that took the movement apart. The International Churches of Christ · story Read it in full →
Satsang — the singing evening. Hinduism · rite Go deeper →
The fourfold sangha. Buddhism · community Go deeper →

The conversation

argument stays attached to the claim it is about All discussion →

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