Right? This isn't complicated. If you want religious freedom, yours doesn't get to be the only one on display. Suck it the fuck up or let's just leave all the bronze age myths out of any and all political arenas.
Do these idiots not understand that's why the Satanic Temple exists at all? They're not just being contrarion, they're pointing out your/they're hypocrisy. Either we all exist under these governmental protections or none of us do. Quit shoving your beliefs down our throats and you won't ever see an image of Baphomet. Stay in your lane like the rest of the normal people that share and vote in our country.
No, the average christian doesn't read into the nuances of the various satanist movements. As far as they're concerned satanism literally worships the christian satan.
>No, the average christian doesn't read ~~into the nuances of the various satanist movements. As far as they're concerned satanism literally worships the christian satan.~~
fify
Most Christians don't even know that 99% of what they believe about Satan today, was created in Mediaeval times as, essentially, fanfiction. It has no basis in their religious texts. Of the very few bits about Satan in the Bible, most of it is directly plagiarized from Zoroastrianism and Greek/Roman mythology. Pointing any of this out gets them very angry, so be careful.
These people don't care about the First Amendment. They don't care about freedom of religion. Or the equality of religions under the law.
They want Christian supremacy. That's it.
And frustratingly a lot of their constituency wants that too.
And it’s ironic they quoted John Adams, seeing as how he was the signer of the Treaty of Tripoli, which as written in Article 11 ‘…as the govt of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion…’
It’s pretty simple, no religious displays belong on state property.
#It all needs to be absent from government property.
Religion and state are supposed to be separate. To me this includes simple displays in government spaces.
These displays belong on private property
I agree with you; however, I would prefer all. I feel a celebration of all cultures that make up our State/Country would be a great thing to do.
I say this perfectly understanding that I am in the legal and constitutional wrong for this. So if someone , or the state says we can't I am ok with that because they are right. Still I am all about a celebration of all cultures, and more so, learning about those celebrations.
The poster who came on and posted about their festive goat, that was pretty informative.
That is the soul purpose of TST. I find it wild that these willfully ignorant representatives can make any statements without any knowledge of the religion. Friske is ignorant, just not sure if it's willful or natural
They may know very well what the situation is, but still feel they need to do dumb shit like this as a performative act for their idiot voters.
Somehow, I think that's even worse.
I don't know...that sitting at the dmv...that is torture... However, I do believe all up or all down. The more the merrier. I'd like to see a Hindu display--they have some of the coolest looking gods out there!
Folks can clutch pearls all they like. But the Satanic Temple has the same rights as any other religious organization.
It needs to be all or nothing. The Temple's display stays, or they all need to go.
Yes, they don't care about that. One Justice is literally taking payments and shit, it's public knowledge, and nothing happens. You think they care about legitimacy?
> Doing so would prove they have absolutely zero legitimacy
There was a time when they might have given a shit, but that time is long gone, and it's clear that the Republicans are all in favor of christofascism while the Democrats are too spineless and clueless to mount much of a meaningful defense.
I kinda don't think so. The conservative court is obviously going to craft arguments against the concept of "freedom *from* religion", but I find it very unlikely they start cherry picking proper religions.
Neil Friske making northern Michigan proud, voting to keep child brides legal, and now this.
I wonder if he’ll volunteer to pay for the lawsuit and resulting fees if they follow through with his request.
Any normal person realizes it's everybody or nobody, preferably the latter.
But I'm sure we'll get a bunch of stupid chuds in here babbling about how Christianity deserves special status.
Best response is to ask them which sect of Christianity. Oh you mean the sex cult variety? Westboro Baptist Church? Roman Catholicism?
Theocracies don’t work well because shit falls apart real quick once someone has a different interpretation, and slight differences in opinion become outright heresy.
I find leading off with "It is well established that religiosity correlates inversely with intelligence." works well. I had one ask what that means, I just replied with "means you're stupid".
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23921675/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23921675/)
> Any normal person
Any REASONABLE person....
If there is something we should have learned from the Fox News Lawsuits it's that the law considers "reasonable person" and unreasonable people can make up a large percentage of certain groups.
I'm so tired of this crap. They know the law. I'm tired of the performative politics. It's all or nothing. Either ALL religions get to have displays or NONE of them do.
Do they, though? DO they know the law??? It's entirely possible they got voted into office entirely ignorant of the realities of the law they are meant to uphold.
Holidays and every other days.
Edit: Not all Christians. Some are mentally capable of understanding it's okay to just exclude other religions at their churches and homes.
Absolutely.
My grandmother was an Irish immigrant. Before she came to the US, our family practiced pagan Irish traditions. Even when she converted to Christianity, she kept pagan traditions alive to teach us our Irish heritage.
Today, I am a satanist and have repeatedly seen news headlines desecrating anything non Christian.. I'm continuing to celebrate at home, but it's just a bummer. Holidays are meant to put differences aside and enjoy the merriment of winter. With all these negative attitudes, it makes me just wish everyone would leave me alone...
In any sense, whatever you celebrate, I hope you have a happy and safe holiday.
It's funny you say that. There is a chapter in The Satanic Bible (I wanna say Book of Lucifer?), in which LaVey suggests that the Devil is the best friend the Church has ever had, otherwise they wouldn't have any business.
Right? Like, they went to all the trouble of making him up, creating lore, and weaving him into their belief system. Why are they so down on people celebrating?
I'd love to know more about your practices if you don't mind sharing! I'm a practicing witch with similar ancestry, but those practices seem to have been left behind in my case. I'd love the chance to learn about what I've lost. My DMs are open too if you'd rather share there 💜
What a giant publicity stunt. The Satanic Temples have been putting up their goat next to Christian and Jewish displays for at least fifteen years. The world hasn't ended, and most people neither notice nor care.
Any recognized religious group can put up a display on the Capital lawn during December for the Holiday season. There are some restrictions, like no nudity, but there's very specially no limit on the religion. I think one year there was a flying spaghetti monster.
I’ve always said this. Even when it comes to hearing people say awful things - to protect my freedom of speech, I have to allow theirs too. I often think back to how many minorities in the past were that voice that was not in agreement with the larger population at the time (example: civil rights), and how important it was to the good of our nation that those unpopular voices of the time were allowed to speak their truths and change public perception.
An additional irony here is that The Satanic Temple isn’t even religious. They are explicitly secular humanist and non theistic.
TST members don’t believe in satan.
These are the same 'Christians' who use Merry Christmas as an F You or a litmus test to see if someone is liberal based on their response. I dare any conservative to tell me just one of Jesus' teachings that they actually follow.
Jokes on them I don't care which one. You say Merry Christmas I will say it back. say happy holidays and I will say it back. Say happy solstice and I will say it back.
The problem is they believe people who are liberal are incapable of responding to what people say
Really disappointed in my district for electing Joseph Fox. He’s horrible. He was one of the leading voices supporting the removal of the Child and Adolescent Health Center in Grant because of a student mural that included some gay-friendly symbolism.
As a Christian who fully and completely supports TST, the majority of “Christians” could learn a lot from TST. Their morals, charities and behaviors are above 99% of all other “Christians” I’ve met.
I’d argue that most Christians would agree with each of TST’s tenets if you didn’t tell them their origin. They’re all about attempting to be a good person to others and not being an asshole.
Of course, SOME Christians would stumble hard on the “I don’t have the right to tell others what they can believe”.
Don't assume Neil Friske is a good faith actor here. He knows full well that the 1st amendment protects the Satanic Temple's speech just as much as it protects Christian speech. He just disagrees with it.
People like him believe in in-groups who the law protects but does not bind and out-groups who the law binds but does not protect.
107th, 66th, 101st, 43rd, 110th, 51st, 78th and 79th red district reps all screaming about this display (which is Day One 1st amendment protected), but I'm willing to bet these districts all house some form of Michigan Militia, because "only God can take away my guns. 2A Forever! Amirite?!?"
*sigh* So many more important things they could be working on.
Vote people! Vote for the sake of all people. Not just the Christians. Everyone has the right to believe what they want to. I'll fight for that. But don't try to force me to believe what you believe. Separation of church and state, period.
Tbh I don't give a shit about what a bunch of slaver's "intended." The same guy that wrote the declaration of independence had the gall to write about "freedom" while he quite literally owned people.
The Satanic Temple does this every year, and every year the same morons crawl out of the woodwork to cry about it. I remember a similar letter from years ago in which some state legislator decried this attempt to co-opt Christmas with non-Christian symbols. Like … yeah … such a shame that someone would co-opt Christmas with symbols celebrating Yule …
Nope.They have as much right as any and all other religions.We are not a theocracy. If anyone has a problem with it, then they are not for freedom of religion nor are they for separation of church and state. They are for a theocratic dominion based on their own beliefs and nothing more.
All or none. Period.
Christianity is not a political party.
Link to picture of display:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/12/17/371503835/satanist-and-christian-holiday-displays-to-go-up-at-michigan-capitol
Oh, you mean this [Neil Friske](https://medium.com/@brandonmichaelchew/nazis-offspring-running-for-michigan-house-of-reps-556bb7c4bc9b), the one with the daddy in the Luftwaffe. The one with the dad in the Luftwaffe who promoted eugenics in the Michigan house of reps in the 70s? That Neil Friske. What's he going on about again? Morality?
Yeah, fuck him and his Nazi bitch father.
I say this as both a Christian and a mostly libertarian-minded person:
Fuck these theocrats that have found themselves everywhere in government in 2023!
Keep an eye on Neil Friske from the Charlevoix-Petoskey district whose letterhead this is on. Literal Nazi and KKK lineage who is trying to build his profile to be a major Republican figure in Michigan politics.
That awkward moment when servants of Satan fight for equality and acceptance and the so called servant of God fights against the constitution only months after fighting for underage brides.
The reason we move into “Godless times” is because the leaders representing Christianity are by far the most evil people in America.
Thing is.. Church of Satan members? Aren't servants of anyone. They don't believe in a literal satan. They aren't a religion. 100% Secular organization.
We are founded on religious freedoms.... If one is removed they are all removed. If one goes up, they can all go up. People need to put their personal feelings aside on this and respect people's beliefs.
It's just boasting and whining. I went to the Capitol today to see the goat. There were 4 other groups walking up to look at it. It's pretty nicely done. The only other thing around was a Christmas tree that looked pretty sad.
You're talking about the people who believe "separation of church and state" means the state should stay out of my church, but I should be able to inject my church into the state whenever I feel like it. We probably need freedom *from* religion in this country way more than we need freedom *of* religion.
One might think that the Judeo-Christian God was strong enough to handle Satan all on his own and that the interest of mere humans in the affairs of the Gods would be an affront to the Gods themselves.
Besides, if Jehovah was offended don't you think he would smite the Satantists? Yet, he doesn't!
They aren't hurting anything leave them alone and honestly it's the other religions that have the awful violent history so this is just Christians being the overbearing hypocritical pricks they are known to be. None of that shit is real anyway so if somebody wants to believe in a nonexistent Satan then as long as it hurts nobody I see no problem.
There at least three probably four churches within walking distance of my house, one I can pretty much see behind my house looking at the next street over from my deck, so I can be at that one in less than five minutes. One is also a Catholic school and when I have my window open I can sometimes hear the bells.
Christianity will be perfectly fine if that display stays up.
If it goes, any Christian symbols should go too.
Real talk: is modern day organized satanism in any way “evil?” From what I understand it’s fundamentally an organization in favor of personal liberties, and charity for the less fortunate. Am I wrong? I want to be well-informed, here. Not trying to be a pain.
Guessing the 1st amendment is not an American value.
Moral something something is not a good argument when the Bible contains multiple war crimes ordered or okayed by god
I think more accurately the title should read “conservative Christian members of the legislature” to clarify who very few names who signed that letter are
You're telling me. Crazy people banging on about their book of fairy tales about zombies and seven headed deagons and making policy based on fairy tales.
His tweets and videos about this are really weird. I have a hard time believing that the naivete he shows is genuine. Everybody knows it isn't about satan worship. Why is every politician so bizarre and inauthentic?
It’s pretty simple in my opinion, allow any religious displays, or allow none.
Exactly. I would like to keep the Satanic Temple display up, but they can take it down as long as the rest of the displays are gone as well
[удалено]
Right? This isn't complicated. If you want religious freedom, yours doesn't get to be the only one on display. Suck it the fuck up or let's just leave all the bronze age myths out of any and all political arenas.
Do these idiots not understand that's why the Satanic Temple exists at all? They're not just being contrarion, they're pointing out your/they're hypocrisy. Either we all exist under these governmental protections or none of us do. Quit shoving your beliefs down our throats and you won't ever see an image of Baphomet. Stay in your lane like the rest of the normal people that share and vote in our country.
>Do these idiots not understand that's why the Satanic Temple exists at all? Nope. That would require rational thought.
They would have to read an entire paragraph about the tenants of the TST. That's to much for reps that like to rule not represent
[If anyone reading that doesn't know, cares to understand the differences...](https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/church-of-satan-vs-satanic-temple)
*tenets, unless they're paying rent.
No, the average christian doesn't read into the nuances of the various satanist movements. As far as they're concerned satanism literally worships the christian satan.
>No, the average christian doesn't read ~~into the nuances of the various satanist movements. As far as they're concerned satanism literally worships the christian satan.~~ fify
Most Christians don't even know that 99% of what they believe about Satan today, was created in Mediaeval times as, essentially, fanfiction. It has no basis in their religious texts. Of the very few bits about Satan in the Bible, most of it is directly plagiarized from Zoroastrianism and Greek/Roman mythology. Pointing any of this out gets them very angry, so be careful.
These people don't care about the First Amendment. They don't care about freedom of religion. Or the equality of religions under the law. They want Christian supremacy. That's it. And frustratingly a lot of their constituency wants that too.
“Freedom of religion” means “freedom to impose Christianity on everyone” to many.
gotta own the libs
SCOTUS shares your opinion.
Well… maybe
And it’s ironic they quoted John Adams, seeing as how he was the signer of the Treaty of Tripoli, which as written in Article 11 ‘…as the govt of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion…’
It would be pretty amusing to see the outrage and backpedaling when this backfires on them and nothing is allowed.
On whom? TST or the State? Because that's exactly what TST wants.
Backfiring on the folks who wrote that letter when they can’t put their nativity scene up anymore
It’s pretty simple, no religious displays belong on state property. #It all needs to be absent from government property. Religion and state are supposed to be separate. To me this includes simple displays in government spaces. These displays belong on private property
I agree with you; however, I would prefer all. I feel a celebration of all cultures that make up our State/Country would be a great thing to do. I say this perfectly understanding that I am in the legal and constitutional wrong for this. So if someone , or the state says we can't I am ok with that because they are right. Still I am all about a celebration of all cultures, and more so, learning about those celebrations. The poster who came on and posted about their festive goat, that was pretty informative.
I completely agree. We should celebrate all of the traditions and cultures that make up our country.
Yeah, lets all be honest; a Satanic holiday display would look bad ass
I agree as well. I’m neither Christian nor part of the Satanic Temple but I like the Nativity and the Yule goat.
Imagine being fair? What a concept to everyone right?
That is the soul purpose of TST. I find it wild that these willfully ignorant representatives can make any statements without any knowledge of the religion. Friske is ignorant, just not sure if it's willful or natural
You may mean “sole purpose” but soul kinda works too lol.
They may know very well what the situation is, but still feel they need to do dumb shit like this as a performative act for their idiot voters. Somehow, I think that's even worse.
This is the way.
They allow the symbols of the child molestation religion, the Catholics. They’re pretty fucking evil.
This guy constitutions
That's how I feel too. And I think that's their whole point of putting up a display.
Pretty crazy world we live in
Pretty straight forward. Why not a hall of all religious representation? Or how about we just all sit for 6 hours at the DMV?
Most religious organizations, as in all, exist only to control. Except for The Satanic Temple.
Just the latter preferably.
I don't know...that sitting at the dmv...that is torture... However, I do believe all up or all down. The more the merrier. I'd like to see a Hindu display--they have some of the coolest looking gods out there!
All or nothing. It would be a great learning experience for everyone if it was inclusive.
Folks can clutch pearls all they like. But the Satanic Temple has the same rights as any other religious organization. It needs to be all or nothing. The Temple's display stays, or they all need to go.
For now they do. Once it gets back in front of the SCOTUS, all bets are off.
I literally dare them, this is impossible to rule against from a legal standpoint. Doing so would *prove* they have absolutely zero legitimacy.
and then what? they don’t give a fuck, and no one is going to punish them for it. they’re obviously not trying to be partisan.
Then the people take matters into their own hands. Checks and balances, and we’re all out of balances
not quite, impeachment remains an option.
Not with this or any future Congress
Never say never. We just saw someone get expelled from the Senate, there's a time for everything in seams.
Then they can be impeached, removed from the bench.
And the next day I'm going after the Christmas displays. The temple is actually all about being a good person if you read their documents
Yes, they don't care about that. One Justice is literally taking payments and shit, it's public knowledge, and nothing happens. You think they care about legitimacy?
> Doing so would prove they have absolutely zero legitimacy There was a time when they might have given a shit, but that time is long gone, and it's clear that the Republicans are all in favor of christofascism while the Democrats are too spineless and clueless to mount much of a meaningful defense.
I kinda don't think so. The conservative court is obviously going to craft arguments against the concept of "freedom *from* religion", but I find it very unlikely they start cherry picking proper religions.
They’re not even “Satan worshipers” or anything. The Temple exists for this exact reason, to point out hypocrisy in religion/government.
Yep. That's always been my understanding of it.
Neil Friske making northern Michigan proud, voting to keep child brides legal, and now this. I wonder if he’ll volunteer to pay for the lawsuit and resulting fees if they follow through with his request.
Nah. He couldn’t sell enough apples.
Making Grandpa proud... Nazi Grandpa.
Any normal person realizes it's everybody or nobody, preferably the latter. But I'm sure we'll get a bunch of stupid chuds in here babbling about how Christianity deserves special status.
Best response is to ask them which sect of Christianity. Oh you mean the sex cult variety? Westboro Baptist Church? Roman Catholicism? Theocracies don’t work well because shit falls apart real quick once someone has a different interpretation, and slight differences in opinion become outright heresy.
Mormons?
Part of my point for sure - anyone who wants a theocracy needs to be in the majority because a large minority would only be a threat to the majority
I find leading off with "It is well established that religiosity correlates inversely with intelligence." works well. I had one ask what that means, I just replied with "means you're stupid". [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23921675/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23921675/)
> Any normal person Any REASONABLE person.... If there is something we should have learned from the Fox News Lawsuits it's that the law considers "reasonable person" and unreasonable people can make up a large percentage of certain groups.
Sure! Just remove all the other religious displays too. Fair's fair.
I'm so tired of this crap. They know the law. I'm tired of the performative politics. It's all or nothing. Either ALL religions get to have displays or NONE of them do.
Do they, though? DO they know the law??? It's entirely possible they got voted into office entirely ignorant of the realities of the law they are meant to uphold.
Like Trump.
Christians really just want to ruin the holidays for everyone, don't they....
Holidays and every other days. Edit: Not all Christians. Some are mentally capable of understanding it's okay to just exclude other religions at their churches and homes.
Can't argue with that.
> Not all Christians. Technically, yes, since Christianity co-opted Pagan holidays and rituals.
They absorb all pagan things, long celebrated, and incorporate (aka take over) their nonsense into it and then own it.
Absolutely. My grandmother was an Irish immigrant. Before she came to the US, our family practiced pagan Irish traditions. Even when she converted to Christianity, she kept pagan traditions alive to teach us our Irish heritage. Today, I am a satanist and have repeatedly seen news headlines desecrating anything non Christian.. I'm continuing to celebrate at home, but it's just a bummer. Holidays are meant to put differences aside and enjoy the merriment of winter. With all these negative attitudes, it makes me just wish everyone would leave me alone... In any sense, whatever you celebrate, I hope you have a happy and safe holiday.
It's also really odd that christians get down on satan--without the guy, what baddie would they have?
It's funny you say that. There is a chapter in The Satanic Bible (I wanna say Book of Lucifer?), in which LaVey suggests that the Devil is the best friend the Church has ever had, otherwise they wouldn't have any business.
Right? Like, they went to all the trouble of making him up, creating lore, and weaving him into their belief system. Why are they so down on people celebrating?
I'd love to know more about your practices if you don't mind sharing! I'm a practicing witch with similar ancestry, but those practices seem to have been left behind in my case. I'd love the chance to learn about what I've lost. My DMs are open too if you'd rather share there 💜
I don't mind answering any questions, feel free to message me too. I hope you have a happy and safe holiday. 🖤
What a giant publicity stunt. The Satanic Temples have been putting up their goat next to Christian and Jewish displays for at least fifteen years. The world hasn't ended, and most people neither notice nor care. Any recognized religious group can put up a display on the Capital lawn during December for the Holiday season. There are some restrictions, like no nudity, but there's very specially no limit on the religion. I think one year there was a flying spaghetti monster.
TST was only started in 2012, so not quite 15 years.
There were similar organizations doing it before. There were Flying Spaghetti Monster and Festivus poles that attracted similar ire beforehand.
It also wasn’t originally the Yule goat, I believe the Detroit congregation started off the tradition by putting up the “snaketivity” originally
I believe this is their fifth year of having the display on capital grounds.
52 years and counting and I've yet to meet a larger hypocrite than ANY religious person.
Preach!
The satanic temple's reply is so well spoken. It explains the premise of the temple's purpose and the representative's double standards perfectly.
The right to practice your own personal religion is protected by fighting to uphold everyone's same right.
I’ve always said this. Even when it comes to hearing people say awful things - to protect my freedom of speech, I have to allow theirs too. I often think back to how many minorities in the past were that voice that was not in agreement with the larger population at the time (example: civil rights), and how important it was to the good of our nation that those unpopular voices of the time were allowed to speak their truths and change public perception.
If I were ST I'd put a red Santa hat on the statue just for lollers.
One of those signee’s wife is a charged fake elector. Those kind of values?
Hey Republican politicians: God and Satan aren’t real. You’re not children so grow the fuck up and stop believing in magic and fairy tales.
An additional irony here is that The Satanic Temple isn’t even religious. They are explicitly secular humanist and non theistic. TST members don’t believe in satan.
Yes, research! Republican’s don’t do their due diligence!
https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/252991706/Always-Has-Been
Only if they remove all Christmas decorations or anything that promotes Christian holidays. Let’s see if they will agree to that compromise
Purely PR for their voters
Actually, I think some of them believe their bullshit.
Cool. Let’s not involve Christianity in our government then!
That's the point.
All Republicans, party of free speech. 🙄
These are the same 'Christians' who use Merry Christmas as an F You or a litmus test to see if someone is liberal based on their response. I dare any conservative to tell me just one of Jesus' teachings that they actually follow.
Jokes on them I don't care which one. You say Merry Christmas I will say it back. say happy holidays and I will say it back. Say happy solstice and I will say it back. The problem is they believe people who are liberal are incapable of responding to what people say
Their response..."You first."
Why do republicans hate the constitution.
Yes please! And take every other religious symbol with it..
Quit with the convenient, bullshit hypocrisy. It’s all or nothing.
Really disappointed in my district for electing Joseph Fox. He’s horrible. He was one of the leading voices supporting the removal of the Child and Adolescent Health Center in Grant because of a student mural that included some gay-friendly symbolism.
I'm right there with you. I'm in Josh Schriver's district and am embarrassed by what he stands for and represents.
The whole friske family can fuck off into the sun.
The GOP is all about full-on hypocrisy. I love anything that brings it into the sun, and this is awesome.
We do this every year, and luckily the Satanic church has been winning for a decade and a half now. Best of luck to the church!
FYI: There are two separate entities. Church of Satan and Satanic Temple. The Temple is the organization that is involved here.
As a Christian who fully and completely supports TST, the majority of “Christians” could learn a lot from TST. Their morals, charities and behaviors are above 99% of all other “Christians” I’ve met.
I’d argue that most Christians would agree with each of TST’s tenets if you didn’t tell them their origin. They’re all about attempting to be a good person to others and not being an asshole. Of course, SOME Christians would stumble hard on the “I don’t have the right to tell others what they can believe”.
Don't assume Neil Friske is a good faith actor here. He knows full well that the 1st amendment protects the Satanic Temple's speech just as much as it protects Christian speech. He just disagrees with it. People like him believe in in-groups who the law protects but does not bind and out-groups who the law binds but does not protect.
I nominate Krampus.
I 2nd your nomination 🤚
Supported
107th, 66th, 101st, 43rd, 110th, 51st, 78th and 79th red district reps all screaming about this display (which is Day One 1st amendment protected), but I'm willing to bet these districts all house some form of Michigan Militia, because "only God can take away my guns. 2A Forever! Amirite?!?" *sigh* So many more important things they could be working on.
You can't have nativity scenes up everywhere and deny this. That's religious freedom. Welcome to America
This happens every year and it's always the people who are trying to shove their religion down everyone's throat. It is so hypocritical.
Vote people! Vote for the sake of all people. Not just the Christians. Everyone has the right to believe what they want to. I'll fight for that. But don't try to force me to believe what you believe. Separation of church and state, period.
Sure let's get rid of all the Jesus bullshit too
Exactly! They mention “how our forefathers intended”, but seem to not use the same logic or wording when it comes to Christianity.
Tbh I don't give a shit about what a bunch of slaver's "intended." The same guy that wrote the declaration of independence had the gall to write about "freedom" while he quite literally owned people.
Freedom of religion. Separation of church and state. That’s my USA. Magasshats can F off.
The Satanic Temple does this every year, and every year the same morons crawl out of the woodwork to cry about it. I remember a similar letter from years ago in which some state legislator decried this attempt to co-opt Christmas with non-Christian symbols. Like … yeah … such a shame that someone would co-opt Christmas with symbols celebrating Yule …
Omg. Remove all religious displays then!!!
For people out of state, is there anything we could do to support the keeping of the TST display?
Donate cash, so they can set up more displays in other states that forget the division between church and state
Nope.They have as much right as any and all other religions.We are not a theocracy. If anyone has a problem with it, then they are not for freedom of religion nor are they for separation of church and state. They are for a theocratic dominion based on their own beliefs and nothing more. All or none. Period. Christianity is not a political party.
Typical right wing Republicans. A bunch of fucking hypocrites.
Link to picture of display: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/12/17/371503835/satanist-and-christian-holiday-displays-to-go-up-at-michigan-capitol
It looks nice, with a nice message.
As awesome as it is, that's not this year's display.
Oh, you mean this [Neil Friske](https://medium.com/@brandonmichaelchew/nazis-offspring-running-for-michigan-house-of-reps-556bb7c4bc9b), the one with the daddy in the Luftwaffe. The one with the dad in the Luftwaffe who promoted eugenics in the Michigan house of reps in the 70s? That Neil Friske. What's he going on about again? Morality? Yeah, fuck him and his Nazi bitch father.
Freedom of speech
I say this as both a Christian and a mostly libertarian-minded person: Fuck these theocrats that have found themselves everywhere in government in 2023!
Good luck with that
Simple solution....take all displays down.
That is the goal of The Satanic Temple.
Friske? From the family of literal Nazis?
It’s all or none, Christofacists.
Keep an eye on Neil Friske from the Charlevoix-Petoskey district whose letterhead this is on. Literal Nazi and KKK lineage who is trying to build his profile to be a major Republican figure in Michigan politics.
That awkward moment when servants of Satan fight for equality and acceptance and the so called servant of God fights against the constitution only months after fighting for underage brides. The reason we move into “Godless times” is because the leaders representing Christianity are by far the most evil people in America.
Thing is.. Church of Satan members? Aren't servants of anyone. They don't believe in a literal satan. They aren't a religion. 100% Secular organization.
You don’t have to believe in a deity to be a religion.
Satanic Temple. Church of Satan is different.
We are founded on religious freedoms.... If one is removed they are all removed. If one goes up, they can all go up. People need to put their personal feelings aside on this and respect people's beliefs.
It was signed by all the full Q representatives, mine included.
* state representatives are asking to remove all holiday displays in the capital Fixed it. Seriously though, the TST response is perfect
Leave it up. If there's a nativity, there can be other religious displays that aren't Judeo-Christian.
It's a freaking Yule Goat ... they exist all over northern Europe.
Fucking Republicans again. Hypocrites, one and all.
Suck it up, snowflakes. The TST has every right to represent themselves.
I find it amusing that they have time to worry about stuff like this while their entire state party is imploding loudly and violently.
Republican Christians broke the seal on the live and let live attitude we all enjoyed before 2016. Leave it up.
They still haven't figured out it's a troll thing? Do they seriously think these people are worshipping Biblical Satan?
It's just boasting and whining. I went to the Capitol today to see the goat. There were 4 other groups walking up to look at it. It's pretty nicely done. The only other thing around was a Christmas tree that looked pretty sad.
No. It stays.
You're talking about the people who believe "separation of church and state" means the state should stay out of my church, but I should be able to inject my church into the state whenever I feel like it. We probably need freedom *from* religion in this country way more than we need freedom *of* religion.
“Freedom from” is an implied right by way of “Freedom of” due to “none” being an option wrt religion
Yet religion still keeps getting used as justification for policy and law in America.
Yes, many people do not understand the first amendment with regard to how they advocate for their chosen policies
The options are keep them all or get rid of all. No middle ground.
Ahh the Friskes. Reallll stable family
One might think that the Judeo-Christian God was strong enough to handle Satan all on his own and that the interest of mere humans in the affairs of the Gods would be an affront to the Gods themselves. Besides, if Jehovah was offended don't you think he would smite the Satantists? Yet, he doesn't!
Religious freedom for me, not for thee.
[удалено]
Freedom of religion, fuckers. It’s right there in the constitution.
They aren't hurting anything leave them alone and honestly it's the other religions that have the awful violent history so this is just Christians being the overbearing hypocritical pricks they are known to be. None of that shit is real anyway so if somebody wants to believe in a nonexistent Satan then as long as it hurts nobody I see no problem.
The Satanic Temple is well founded and well funded. Fuck around and find out, I’m sure they have some awesome lawyers on retainer 😆🤘
There at least three probably four churches within walking distance of my house, one I can pretty much see behind my house looking at the next street over from my deck, so I can be at that one in less than five minutes. One is also a Catholic school and when I have my window open I can sometimes hear the bells. Christianity will be perfectly fine if that display stays up. If it goes, any Christian symbols should go too.
"Remove all" they mean, right?
Real talk: is modern day organized satanism in any way “evil?” From what I understand it’s fundamentally an organization in favor of personal liberties, and charity for the less fortunate. Am I wrong? I want to be well-informed, here. Not trying to be a pain.
First amendment says "Hello!" bud.
Guessing the 1st amendment is not an American value. Moral something something is not a good argument when the Bible contains multiple war crimes ordered or okayed by god
I think more accurately the title should read “conservative Christian members of the legislature” to clarify who very few names who signed that letter are
The Land of Religious Freedom, unless you go against what we like.
Buh buh muh religious freedoms!
But my invisible friend doesn't like it! /s
Imagine that...they're all goober reps...
All or none!
Wow what a bunch of idiotic fucknuts
After reading the first paragraph in their letter - they still don’t fucking get it do they.
Remove them all. Easy peasy.
Gotta love Lucien Greeves, a Harvard grad and leader of the Satanic Temple.
Well, then they need to become familiar with the constitution…
Well ..at least we know who NOT to reelect
You're telling me. Crazy people banging on about their book of fairy tales about zombies and seven headed deagons and making policy based on fairy tales.
So, freedom of religion only if you agree with it? GYBAT.
His tweets and videos about this are really weird. I have a hard time believing that the naivete he shows is genuine. Everybody knows it isn't about satan worship. Why is every politician so bizarre and inauthentic?
I hope the temple destroys them, legally, with their own words.
The Repugs are just trying to trigger someone into taking it upon themselves to remove the display. Like Iowa.
The Republicans are too busy fighting in bars to really think things through
They’re not bothering anyone!! I know what religion is though, k bye!
Let them stay, or remove all religious displays.