A Satanic display was destroyed outside the New Hampshire Capitol
Rep. Ellen Read, who supported the inclusion of the Satanic display, told me she was appalled by the destruction
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On Saturday night, The Satanic Temple unveiled a statue of Baphomet near the New Hampshire Capitol. The display had yellow eyes, an apple in its left hand (knowledge!), a bouquet of lilacs in its right hand (the state flower!), a purple stole with upside-down crosses on it (a symbol Christians also use!), a black-and-white flag behind it, and a plaque display the Seven Fundamental Tenets at the bottom.
The display, designed by the “Satanic Representation Campaign” and Minister Orpheus Gaur, was a response to a Nativity scene that was already on the Concord City Plaza grounds. (The Freedom From Religion Foundation also put up a display in that area for the same reason.)
Satanic Minister Vivian Kelly said before the unveiling that “Just because we’re not large in numbers doesn’t mean our beliefs are less important than any of the other religions represented here.”
But maybe the most surprising aspect of the unveiling was the fact that this wasn’t some rogue attempt at injecting Satanism into the conversation without permission. The Satanic Temple of New Hampshire and Vermont applied for a permit, and State Rep. Ellen Read was involved in the effort to make sure they received it. In fact, she personally asked them to consider putting up a display just to make sure Christianity wasn’t the only faith represented in the town square, though she had no role in the display’s contents.
"My constituents and I felt that it was very important, in order to keep with the constitutional principle that government should not give preference to one religion, to see equal representation among faiths in front of the State House. It is hard for anyone to find fault with the TST seven tenets, and they are completely in keeping with the holiday spirit of all faiths," Read said in a statement.
She also said in a statement that anyone who had a problem with the display needed to think about what they were so upset about:
“Everything has the potential to offend, even the nearby nativity scene. Not only is over a third of the state not religious, never mind Christian, but I can imagine those who have been judged, harmed, or abused by the Christian church feeling offended by the nativity scene displayed on public grounds. And yet the nativity scene has stood perennially, unmolested, for years,” Read said in a statement provided to NHJournal.
Fair point! People who wanted to see the Nativity scene on city property had to understand that the open forum allowed other groups to play by the same rules. Co-existing in that space wasn’t just a legal requirement; it was in the spirit of the season.
Read happens to be agnostic and is currently the longest serving secular legislator in the state. (Earlier this year, she co-sponsored a bill that would have removed “So help me God” from the state’s default oath of office taken by all elected officials. If religious officials wanted to say it, they still could, of course, but because tbis would be a change to the state’s Constitution, there are a lot of hurdles to overcome before that happens. She also plans to call for a rule change in the incoming legislative session that would replace the state’s “Prayer by the Chaplain or a substitute designated by the Speaker” before sessions with a more secular and inclusive “reflection.”)
The display shouldn’t have been controversial if you just looked at what it was promoting: Wisdom, unity, compassion. But because it was associated with Satanists, the usual suspects flipped out.
Cornerstone Action, a right-wing Christian organization, released a statement decrying The Satanic Temple as “atheist feminists” and urging Christians to “ridicule these displays as cartoonish.” They also called on believers to “place larger, more aggressive, and more frequent Christmas and other Christian displays in every public venue available”… essentially creating a dick-measuring contest among True Believers™. (I’m not sure how to break it to them that they can’t have “more frequent Christmas” displays because that’s not how time works.)
The city of Concord even posted about why they had to allow the display to go up, as if to ward off critics who demanded they take it down:
Similar to other holiday displays it has installed around the country, the Satanic Temple received a permit for the monument to be included on Concord’s City Plaza during the month of December. Not to be confused with the Church of Satan, the stated mission of The Satanic Temple is to “encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice and undertake noble pursuits.”
The Satanic Temple’s display joins the nativity scene installed by the Grange and the Bill of Rights scene installed by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The Satanic Temple has been making requests to install its monuments at holiday displays as part a show of unity and religious pluralism. Throughout the country, the Satanic Temple has both threatened and brought lawsuits under the First Amendment when excluded.
Under the First Amendment and to avoid litigation, the City needed to choose whether to ban all holiday displays installed by other groups, or otherwise, to allow it. After reviewing its legal options, the City ultimately decided to continue the policy of allowing unattended displays at City Plaza during this holiday season and to allow the statue. It is anticipated that City Council will review next year whether permits for unattended holiday displays should be allowed at City Plaza.
The whole statement has the vibe of someone who wants to scream, “Don’t be mad at us! We didn’t want to get sued! Of course we hate this display, but the damn law required us to put this up!”
It doesn’t help that the city basically highlighted how the display was “unattended,” sending a signal to potential vandals that no one was watching and it’d be a shame if anything happened to Baphomet…
That said, at least one city council member, Stacey Brown, said she was happy with the council’s decision: “I am glad the city is being inclusive and open to everyone.” She added that she hadn’t personally heard much backlash to it.
The public seemed to love the display. When the NHJournal spoke to passers-by outside the Plaza, they seemed to thoroughly enjoy seeing Baphomet:
“I like the Satanism display better than the Nativity,” said a woman from Manchester who declined to give her name. “I don’t believe Jesus was real. I’m not religious in any sense.”
She and a group of friends had come to Concord specifically to see the paganism display.
“It’s the sole reason we’re here, to be honest,” she said.
A local Concord man, who also was unwilling to give his name, echoed those sentiments.
“I think it’s so cool. It’s really I think it’s awesome, dude,” he said.
The man argued that if the Nativity display can be on the State House sidewalk, why not the Church of Satan display?
“I think it’s funny that people get so bent out of shape about it,” he said.
Asked if he sees any moral differentiation between Christianity and Satan worship, he said ,“No.”
Not everyone loved it, though:
On the other hand, a passerby who didn’t stop to talk commented, “I hope someone tears it down.”
And that’s precisely what happened on Saturday night, a mere two hours after the display was unveiled. The statue was knocked down. The Seven Fundamental Tenets plaque was deliberately cracked to the point where it’s not readable in certain parts. The flag was demolished. Someone affixed a sign to the display saying, “Do not go after evil, that path leads to destruction.”
In the days since the statue went up, it’s been “messed with” more than once, though it remains standing… kind of.
I spoke with Rep. Read about the vandalism yesterday and she confirmed to me that there were symbols of Christianity left at the scene, including a prayer book and a cross necklace. While #NotAllChristians support the vandalism, the vandals didn’t seem to hide their religious affiliation.
She also sent along images of the destruction taken Tuesday morning:
“‘Tis the season,” she joked in a phone call with me. Speaking of the vandals, she found it sad (though not surprising) that the people who apparently believe in a religion that calls for peace and love “could not tolerate a simple expression of beliefs by a group that doesn’t believe as they do.” She admitted the display “might be provocative” but said there was nothing inherently anti-Christian about it.
Rep. Read is now calling on the police to investigate the matter:
“If the nativity scene had been been vandalized, would the police investigate it? If the answer is yes, then I think the police should also investigate this,” said Read...
A Concord Police Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It appears they are investigating. Perhaps unbeknownst to the vandal(s), there are cameras in the area, owned by the city, that could shed light on who’s responsible for the damage.
Read told me last night that there is footage of “at least some of the vandalization.”
The Satanic Temple’s co-founder Lucien Greaves, who predicted this sort of damage might occur as soon as the display went up, told me the vandalism has “become as much of a holiday tradition as trampled grandmothers in a Black Friday stampede.”
But he still has a hopeful message:
… They attack our property, threaten us over social media, destroy our displays, then bewail the violence they imagine we did them. But hopefully, for some, our limited presence and perseverance will prove inspirational in demonstrating that freedom of religion—the ability to believe or disbelieve as we see fit without consequence to our civic capacities—is still alive, and more in need of defending now than at any other time in our lives.
The fact that an elected official is defending the display and calling for accountability is a big step in that direction.
***UPDATE*** (12/16): A new Baphomet statue has been resurrected in the same location thanks to the help of local artists:
It’s unclear what other precautions they’ve taken in case this one is also destroyed, but I have to think they’re aware of that possibility.
We know a lot about the Romans because they wrote stuff down, and other people wrote about them. There is no record of the Roman Empire ever having conducted a census that required people to return to the city of their birth to be counted. What would be the point? It's much more likely the gospel writers were trying to shoehorn the Jesus story into ancient prophesy to lend it credence. In spite of this, countless Christians take it as unquestionable truth. It's funny how people who claim to be in possession of absolute truth are so easily triggered by anyone who attempts to call that claim into question.
Tell me you think you god is a pathetic weakling without telling me, fundies...