INSIDE THE SATANIC TEMPLE
With the release of the film Hail Satan? we despatched FT’s resident vicar, PETER LAWS, to talk to the co-founder and spokesperson of the Satanic Temple, Lucien Greaves.
With the release of Penny Lane’s film Hail Satan? we despatched FT’s resident vicar, PETER LAWS, to talk to Satanic Temple spokesperson and co-founder LUCIEN GREAVES about Satanic Panics, non-theistic religions and whether they’d ever see eye-to-eye about Jesus...
PL: Others have wanted to make films or reality series about the work of The Satanic Temple (TST), and yet Hail Satan? is the first time you have really opened the doors to the media. Why did you feel the time was right?
LG: Despite the theatrics, we’ve always been discerning in our approach to media. We are not interested in reality televisionstyle explorations of the everyday lives of Satanists. TST is a movement whose time has come, and we want people to consider the cultural factors that have made Satanism so widely relevant today. We are not interested in being “humanised” or “normalised,” and we really do not care if our individual lifestyles are adjudged respectable, deviant, banal, or bizarre by any outside standards. We assert our right to be who we are, and we want people to have a more accurate understanding of what that is (and isn’t).
The countless other filmmakers that approached us prior to Penny Lane had very specific ideas regarding the type of story they wanted to tell, and most of them showed little regard for what TST actually is. Penny was not dissuaded when I told her that we would not stage events, engage in re-enactments, or manufacture interpersonal conflicts for any documentary film. She understood that we are interested in issues, not celebrity. She did not try to script the story before knowing what the story was. It wasn’t that this was the right time, it was that Penny was the right director.
PL: What are the aims of the film?
LG: In the beginning, I was encouraging Penny to make a documentary entirely focused on our Grey Faction campaign, a belated Satanist response to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s. A lot of Satanists who populated TST in the beginning were ironically products of the Satanic Panic, having grown up in the midst of an anti-Satanist hysteria that developed into a full-on witch-hunt. Many kids at that time were told that the music they were listening to, the games they were playing, the books they were reading, were all Satanic, which had the unintended consequence of giving some of them an affinity with Satanism, while creating a feedback loop wherein the aesthetic of their preferred entertainments were absorbed into the aesthetic of Satanism. The Satanic Panic saw the mainstreaming of bizarre conspiracy theories involving alleged Satanic cults that were said to be engaged in infant sacrifice, cannibalism, and ritual abuse. Deranged, pseudoscience-based therapists in the mental health profession used hypnotic regression, sodium amytal interviews, and other discredited techniques for aiding in the alleged recovery of “repressed memories” of these activities – the same techniques used to cultivate “memories” of alien abductions and past lives – creating a whole network of mistreated clients with delusions of a Satanic conspiracy. Nothing has been done since then to address the role of mental health care quackery in the Satanic Panic, and the same pseudoscientific practices and conspiracy theories are still propagated in the mental health care profession today. TST’s Grey Faction campaign has been fighting for rational mental health care oversight that would address this problem. I thought it would make an excellent documentary to trace the evolution of Satanism from the Satanic Panic to The Satanic Temple and show how Satanists are fighting back against the witchhunters. Penny opted for a broader overview, and I’m impressed with how concisely she addressed so many topics and issues in an entertaining, easy to follow, hour-and-a-half.
PL: Many critics suggest TST began as ‘a joke’ that has now got out of hand...
LG: When people hear that we originally envisioned an activist film, they assume that the philosophical beliefs were an afterthought meant to substantiate that project. Satanism was not chosen arbitrarily as the religious identity to pursue the objective of presenting an alternative viewpoint to advance pluralism, however. I myself have self-identified as a Satanist for my entire adult life. Add to that our willingness to engage in pranksterism and exploit the absurdity of our opposition, and many people have a bizarre knee-jerk reaction that insists humour and sincerity cannot coexist; activism excludes religious authenticity, and nontheistic religion is merely an oxymoron meant to confuse and outrage fundamentalists. We originally envisioned that our film would inspire a decentralised uprising of Satanists unified under the banner of The Satanic Temple to pursue equal access claims and build local Satanic communities. As soon as we got started, however, the press attention was more than anticipated, the demands for formal affiliation flooded in, and the need for a spokesperson to clarify it all was immediate. Our message was getting out to the world already, and we were able to start a real organisation around our deeplyheld beliefs, which could sustain a worldwide community. Ironically, I think that it is the unusual honesty in our presentation, devoid of self-glorifying myth-making, that leads some to conclude that we are a joke.
“I myself have identified as a Satanist for my entire adult life”
PL: The film shows TST as being passionately involved in current affairs; some Satanists (and some Christians) argue that religion should be ‘apolitical’. Do you believe that religion must be present on the public stage?
LG: I see TST not as a force demanding the presence of religion on the public stage, but rather we are acknowledging religion’s preexisting encroachment into public affairs while offering a counterbalance against a heretofore unchallenged privilege enjoyed by Christian nationalists. TST has never demanded representation in a public forum where there were not already religious displays or activities taking place. In fact, I personally feel that it would be best if religion were left out of public forums. But if religion is already present, it is our duty to see that pluralism is respected, and ensure that one viewpoint is not enjoying exclusive access to the public commons.
PL: Satanism celebrates independent thought, which has prompted some Satanists to criticise TST for promoting a left-leaning, libertarian political perspective...
LG: Satanism is a socio-political mythological framework that provides a narrative regarding the fall of Dark Age feudalistic Christendom and the rise of Enlightenment values: democratic ideals of individual liberty, pluralism, and free inquiry. Satan as an icon of revolt against tyranny has political implications. We believe in secular pluralism: a viewpoint-neutral government that respects religious diversity and is limited from imposing preferential regard for, or restrictions against, any one religious perspective, including nonbelief, over another. To me, it is senseless to say that religion should be apolitical, and that we, as a religion, must remain entirely silent as a religious majority invades secular politics in an attempt at a theocratic coup. We are not “leading by example” if we do nothing. That said, TST has consistently stood on very clear principles without blindly embracing political fads on the left or right. While some on the right believe they denigrate us by calling us “Satanic Justice Warriors” some on the left have developed a conspiracy theory that we are secretly alt-right because we advocate non-violent activism. Similarly, we advocate Free Speech, which was a distinctly leftist cause till recent times, and now it is believed by some that a respect for Free Speech is merely an endorsement of the most odious forms of Hate Speech. Political fads will come and go, but Satanism is here to stay.
PL: People sometimes mix you up with the Church of Satan. However, there are some significant differences between the two most prominent Satanic organisations today. What are they and are you in dialogue together?
LG: The Church of Satan was never terribly big, nor were they ever terribly active. They did, however, cultivate a very strong belief that they hold a monopoly over all things Satanic and have waxed apoplectic every time we have been in the news. They cannot seem to grasp why TST is gaining all of this international attention for activities that impact current affairs while nobody is interviewing them about their “ritual chambers”. They have tried desperately to delegitimise us and spread false information about us. Their real objection is that we identify as Satanists while they claim to hold exclusive rights on Satanism. We are not in dialogue with them and, frankly, there is nothing that could be gained from any alliance with them.
PL: The ‘seven tenets’ of TST focus on compassion, empathy and the nobility of human life. These seem almost Christlike in their outlook. Fundamentalist evangelicals notwithstanding, would the TST feel an affinity to the more loving and progressive interpretations of Jesus?
Satanism is something that has developed into its own set of affirmative values devoid of any compulsory disdain for Christianity. Our fight is against superstition and theocracy. To be clear, we would push back just as hard against any organised attempt to legislate preference for a particular religion as we do against the Christian nationalists in the US. When we held our rally for religious pluralism in Arkansas, which serves as the climactic scene in Hail Satan?, my own speech was preceded by a speech delivered by a Christian minister whom we invited, and who fully understood who we are and the importance of our message. Despite attempts by theocrats to present themselves as representatives for the entirety of the Christian faith, there have been no shortage of Christians who themselves raised their voices in objection to pandering politicians claiming ownership of their faith and trying to impose it upon others. There are so many conflicting interpretations of Jesus -- ranging from the radical communist to the pious conservative -- that it would be strange if we did not have an overlap in values with some of them.
PL: TST is non-theistic, but speaking purely hypothetically, would you like there to be a real Satan, or indeed a real God? Personally, I am comfortable living in a Universe that is not ordered upon the arbitrary whims of divine beings. I see beauty in a Universe constructed upon evolutionary principles, bottom-up, rather than top-down by an omniscient consciousness. The answers are ours to find, the discoveries ours to make, our futures our own to navigate. While I acknowledge that we can never be 100 per cent certain of anything, uncertainty is not carte blanche to propose equal legitimacy for bizarre and grossly improbable claims with what can be empirically supported. That said, however, I am most drawn to the outliers and anomalies, and I am always deeply interested in that which challenges entrenched assumptions. Not everything that can be known is now understood, and I think the Satanist generally embraces opportunities to explore the unilluminated fringes.
PL: The IRS has officially recognised TST as a church, affording it tax-exempt status. How significant is this victory, and what breakthroughs are you focusing on next?
It is a significant victory, the immediate upshot of which is that the State of Arkansas, whom we are currently in litigation against, finds that they must now abandon their entire legal defence against our claim of religious discrimination. They were arguing that TST is not a ‘legitimate’ religious organisation, and that therefore our claim of religious discrimination was moot. The IRS is the only Federal agency that has any type of test for determining religious legitimacy, and far be it from Arkansas to impose some new and self-serving set of standards of their own. We are now recognised as a Church, and we can claim equal access to all exemptions and privileges conferred by that status. As theocrats continue to fight to expand the benefits of “Religious Freedom” they will be inadvertently aiding in a proliferation of Satanism. Future historians will look back and say that it was an attempted Evangelical theocratic coup in the United States that helped to birth a new Satanic era.
FT’s resident man of the cloth REVEREND PETER LAWS dons his dog collar and faces the flicks that Church forgot! (www.theflicksthatchurchforgot.com)
Hail Satan?
Dir Penny Lane, US 2019 On UK release from 26 July
There’s a telling moment early on in Hail Satan? when an American Satanist, complete with black cape and huge goats’ horns, gets ready for a political protest on the steps of the Florida Capital. “Hail Satan!” he cries dramatically and flips his arm out… but the pyros on his wrist don’t go off. He tries again. An awkward click, then nothing. He chuckles and tries once more. Boom. Fire shoots out and he cries “Hail Satan!” one more time. It’s a window into the heart of Penny Lane’s latest documentary, which presents members of the Satanic Temple as people just like you and me: human beings, trying to do what they believe is right. These aren’t the power hungry aristocrats of a Dennis Wheatley novel, plunging daggers into virgins. They’re more like a political pressure group for the millennial generation, with goals that are more in step with mainstream morality than you might expect.
Okay, so their methods can be eye-popping. At one point, they protest infamous ‘God Hate’s Fags’ preacher Fred Phelps by getting gay couples to make out on Phelps’s mother’s grave. They invoke a spell that will turn her departed soul into a raging lesbian. Then the leader gets his nuts out and rests them on the grave for a selfie. So, yes, these Satanists can be pretty in-your-face. Yet the film’s interviewees claim, quite persuasively, that trolling people with shocking performance art like this is far less damaging than picketing gay people’s funerals with ‘Burn In Hell’ placards.
The main target of their protests is, unsurprisingly, fundamentalist evangelicals. The film charts this as an antagonism born in the 1960s with Anton LaVey and significantly exacerbated by the Satanic panics of the 1980s and 1990s. The teens who were told to stop playing Dungeons and Dragons and burn their heavy metal albums grew to see the Church mired in scandal after scandal: adultery, horrific child abuse, and shocking cover-ups. Disgusted at the hypocrisy, some simply turned from Christianity and embraced atheism instead. Yet not everyone was ready to ditch the religious framework completely. As one interviewee explains: “Being an atheist is boring; it’s defining what you’re not. But Satanism… it stands for something.”
Viewers not savvy with the religion will find some helpful myth-busting here. The idea that Satanists don’t believe in Satan for example (he’s just a central symbol for personal liberation, a figurehead for a dramatic counter-myth to Christianity). Their mission to erect statues of Baphomet in public spaces, or to institute Satanic prayers in council meetings isn’t meant to see the world at the mercy of an ‘evil power’; rather they’re calling out the unfair dominance of Christianity in post-Christian US politics and asking just how free we really are today.
I’m a Christian myself… so am I encouraging readers, and even my fellow churchgoers, to watch Hail Satan? Hell, yeah! It’s not without fault – for one thing, it doesn’t cover any other forms of Satanism – but if you can handle pixelated testes on gravestones, you’ll find a funny and fascinating exploration of how people respond to a judgmental and graceless Christianity. Talibangelicals like Phelps are a world away from the kind-hearted openness of Jesus, and so it’s no wonder that so many turn away from the Church. It’s also intriguing to see that even without the demands of strict religious frameworks, Satanists still seem to strive for the common ‘good’. Ironically, that might be evidence of us all having the spark of divinity after all – even those of us with goats’ horns. In the end, Hail Satan? isn’t the definitive guide to contemporary Satanism – and it doesn’t claim to be. But for those interested in the religious and political landscape of 2019, it’s an essential window into now.
Members of the Satanic Temple are people just like you and me