Recognized as a religion by the IRS, the group uses the religious right’s tactics, and their victories, against them
Satan is a feminist now
The devil works hard, but the Republican party works harder. Not a day seems to go by without anti-abortion zealots on the right advancing some cunning new plan to strip women of their bodily autonomy. As well as shutting down abortion clinics, Republican states are trying to essentially outlaw abortion pills: on Friday, Missouri, Kansas and Idaho renewed a legal push to drastically reduce access to mifepristone.
Amid this hellscape, help may be at hand from a somewhat unlikely source: Satan. Or, to be more accurate – and since the devil is in the details – the Satanic Temple.
Founded in 2012, the Satanic Temple (which is not to be confused with the very different Church of Satan) is not about devil worship. Rather, it is about raising hell to fight for freedom from the religious right’s crusade to impose their beliefs on everyone else. “Right now, we have a minority religious theocratic movement, so entrenched in politics and getting away with whatever they want,” co-founder Lucien Greaves told the Guardian earlier this year.
There are some people you don’t want to associate with, even when you have common cause.
Hezbollah is opposed to the genocide in Gaza (and the murder of Palestinians in the West Bank), as is Iran. I’m opposed to the genocide in Gaza. I’m sure as fuck not gonna ally myself with Hezbollah or the Ayatollah Khamenei, even on that one issue.
I’m not saying that TST is a bunch of terrorists, but I’m using hyperbole to make a point. It’s up to you if you want to associate with a group that has some very, very shady upper leadership. Personally, I loved 95% of the people at a local level when I was a member; I think there are a lot of great people involved. I just think that national leadership is entirely untrustworthy and fucks up things that should be simple and easy.