Satanic Temple co-founder promotes respect, secularism
Lucien Greaves is always “a little worried” about being physically injured when he speaks at universities about the religious organization he founded: The Satanic Temple.
However, since he started the organization in 2012, Greaves said he’s gotten less worried “because I haven’t been shot yet” — although he has faced large groups of Christian protesters.
But Greaves said he thinks protesters misunderstand the true beliefs of The Satanic Temple.
“A lot of the ideas people have about Satanism come from moral panic,” he said. “We do think it’s part of our noble pursuit to correct people of these type of witch-hunting activities.”
Despite what protesters might think, Greaves said the Temple promotes acceptance and benevolence.
Chantelle McCall The organization’s missions is to “encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will,” according to its website.
Greaves added the religion’s members are taught to live by seven fundamental tenets, all of which promote respect for oneself and others, belief in scientific reason and “nobility in action and thought.”
Despite the Temple’s name, Greaves said they do not actually worship Satan, or a deity of any sort. Rather, they see Satan as a symbol for the enlightenment and rationalism.
“It resonates very deeply with me, even though I’m not theistic,” he said. “We just simply don’t think that superstition should have more benefits in a pluralistic society than atheism.”
Greaves spoke at the Utah State University Taggart Student Center (TSC) Friday night at an event hosted by the USU Student Association’s Secular Student Alliance (SSA).
Chantelle McCall Tony Alder, a senior studying exercise science and the alliance’s co-president, first met Greaves when the SSA was in Ohio for a conference. They saw him give a presentation and later ran into him at a bar.
Alder said the group enjoyed his message and “just wanted to bring him in to give a voice to a religious minority and kind of spread his good message.”
The group kept up with the Temple’s various nationwide projects and “thought it was a great movement, so we wanted to support him any way we could.”
Chantelle McCall Greaves kicked off the night on the TSC auditorium stage wearing all black. His pale blue eyes and soft smile lit up when asked if the colors he wore represented his religious beliefs.
“I feel the black works for me but it’s not necessary by any means,” he said jokingly.
What is necessary for the Temple’s followers, Greaves said, is a firm belief in the separation of church and state, and the right of all groups to practice their beliefs.
Greaves’ presentation highlighted projects the Temple participated in around the country, all of which included promoting a separation of church and state.
“We see that this idea of public indoctrination and the idea of one religious viewpoint is very much now being pressed into schools,” he said.
This prompted The Satanic Temple to lawsuits against several state governments, Greaves said.
Most notably, in 2015 the group filed a suit against the Missouri State Legislature over an anonymous Temple member’s desire to receive an abortion. The state’s Informed Consent Law required her to wait 72 hours after she told her physician she wanted an abortion.
The Satanic Temple argued the law “violated her religious freedom” because it contradicted her — and their — beliefs. The Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the woman on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
Attendees of the event said they enjoyed Greaves’ emphasis on secularism.
“The separation of church and state is an important issue, especially in a state like Utah,” said Zachary Neubart, a graduate student studying computer science.
Greaves said he speaks to about four universities per month, though he never imagined himself in such a role.
Chantelle McCall Greaves founded The Satanic Temple in 2012, based on ideas from his research on the “Satanic Panic,” an ongoing fear movement stemming from false allegations of abuse made against a daycare center in the 1980s.
“We never had any pretenses that we’d be able to start an organization like this,” Greaves said. “We thought The Satanic Temple would be anonymous.”
However, Greaves said he believes the group promotes positive messages of equality and rationality, and believes they are “here to stay.”
Although the Temple is a non-profit organization and receives most of its legal services pro bono, Greaves said, “If we find some heavy benefactors, you’ll see us doing more heavy damage than we are now.”
@Alison_berg
Photos by Chantelle McCall
They must be doing something right they have won some high profile court cases. Nice article Alison Berg.
Doug Mesner goes around claiming that Dissociative Identity Disorder does not exist, and accuses everyone who has or treats it of lying and faking for attention. What a disgusting troll.
Can you post a single example of him ever doing that? I see what he’s doing with Grey Faction, and I see how he’s fighting against debunked psychotherapeutic “recovered memory therapies,” but I don’t see a single example of what you’re claiming.
If this group really advocates for respect, then why don’t they respect Christians right to the first amendment?
They most certainly do. You must not be very familiar with them, as they are very consistent and clear in each instance where they campaign to have a Satanic monument, or any other Satanic iconography, erected in a public place, they only do so in response to a Christian one already being installed. They don’t wish or attempt to install a Satanic monument on public grounds. They actually couldn’t be any more passionate about the first amendment, especially free speech.
They do. Christians have every right to believe as they so choose. In their homes and places of worship. They do nt, however, have the right to press their beliefs into public schools, courthouses, and other government institutions. That in itself violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Because Christians trample over the rights of women, gays, and trans people, obv.
You mean Muslims physically trample gays and trans and women right?
Actually, The Satanic Temple upholds the First Amendment rights of everybody, Christian or otherwise. If you think that the First Amendment gives exclusive privilege to Christians and that anybody else’s exercise of their First Amendment freedoms is somehow oppressive to Christians, you simply do not understand what the First Amendment is.
Why don’t Christians respect ours? We spent about $100,000 to have our statue made, so it could be placed next to the Ten Commandments statue, on public land, in Oklahoma., to promote religious plurality. The Oklahoma supreme court ordered the ten commandments removed instead.
http://kfor.com/2015/07/02/satanic-temple-looking-for-new-home-for-baphomet-statue-after-oklahoma-courts-ruling/
How do they not? They 100% support Christians’ right to the first amendment, as long as they also get to have the same right.