It’s been a basic part of the American legal landscape since the 1980s: if a government is going to allow private groups to put religious-themed displays on public property, then all religions must be welcome. That’s why along with more traditional Christian-themed holiday displays at the Iowa State Capitol right now, there’s one from The Satanic Temple (TST).
“We’re going to really relish the opportunity to be represented in a public forum,” Lucien Greaves, co-founder of TST, told KCCI before the display was installed last week. “We don’t have a church on every street corner.”
TST filled out the same application as a group wanting to place a nativity scene in public space on the first floor of the Capitol would, and received the same two-week window for its display. But unlike the other displays at the Capitol, the Temple’s features a representation of the goat-headed Baphomet.
The Satanic Temple is an officially recognized religious entity in the United States, no different in that respect from the Catholic Church or the Southern Baptist Convention. TST is based in Salem, Massachusetts, and has congregations across the United States — including Iowa — as well as in Canada, Australia and Europe.
TST is often confused with the Church of Satan, with which it is not associated. TST was founded in 2013, by a small group of atheists, and on its site TST explains members do not believe in “the existence of Satan or the supernatural.”
“The Satanic Temple believes that religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition. As such, we do not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions. Satanists should actively work to hone critical thinking and exercise reasonable agnosticism in all things.”
Satan, to TST, isn’t some supernatural fiend lurking in the shadows and dragging souls to hell, but is instead “a symbol of the Eternal Rebel in opposition to arbitrary authority, forever defending personal sovereignty.” It’s an idea that’s been common in the English-speaking world since the 19th century, when poets and writers of the Romantic movement embraced the image of Satan created by John Milton in his 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost, interpreting the rebel angel as a heroic figure demanding autonomy even at a terrible cost.
Over the past decade, TST has routinely applied to place displays on public property when other religions are invited to do so, in order to defend the ideas of both freedom of religion and freedom from religion.
The group has “seven fundamental tenets,” which the display in the Capitol incorporates. The first is very basic and it’s hard to imagine anyone objecting to it: “One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.” The other tenets follow from the premise.
Given the record of the Republican majority in the Iowa Legislature issues of bodily autonomy in recent years — from pushing through two different six-week abortion bans to attempting to ban Medicaid payments for gender-affirming care for adults to banning all gender-affirming medical procedures for Iowans under 18 — it’s possible to see how TST’s third tenant could be controversial at the Capitol. “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” that tenet states.
But just the word “satanic,” the image of a robed figure with a goat’s head and an inverted pentagram was more than enough to get some people upset. Especially after Fox News ran a story on the display, which prominently featured quotes from a woman who led a prayer group last week at another Capitol display, the Christmas tree.
“I hope that people realize spiritual warfare is real,” Shellie Flockhart said. “That there are evil satanic forces that are trying to infiltrate our state.”
Flockhart called the TST display a “very dark, evil force,” and Fox News used that quote in the story’s headline.
In his weekly newsletter, State Rep. Brad Sherman, a Republican who represents Iowa County and a part of western Johnson County, demanded Gov. Reynolds “have this blasphemous display removed immediately based on the grounds that it is unconstitutional and offends God upon whom the State of Iowa depends for blessings.”
The first-term representative, who lists his occupation as pastor, also said he was “calling for clarifying legislation to be adopted in accordance with our State Constitution that prohibits satanic displays in our Capitol building and on all state owned property,” and “calling for legislation to be adopted that makes it legal to display the Ten Commandments in our Capitol, in all buildings owned by the state, and in our public schools.”
On Tuesday, Gov. Reynolds issued a written statement about the TST display.
“Like many Iowans, I find the Satanic Temple’s display in the Capitol absolutely objectionable. In a free society, the best response to objectionable speech is more speech, and I encourage all those of faith to join me today in praying over the Capitol and recognizing the nativity scene that will be on display — the true reason for the season.”
The nativity scene was installed on Tuesday. But some didn’t wait for that or for the governor’s statement to start praying in public in response to the display they found unsettling.
On Monday, a man stood in front of the TST display calling for divine mercy and forgiveness and reciting passages from the Bible at passersby. Other visitors just found the whole scene curious and stopped to take photos.
During his interview with KCCI, Lucien Greaves advised people who disliked the display to just ignore it.
“My feeling is if people don’t like our display in public forums, they don’t have to engage with them,” he said. “They don’t have to view them.”
