| The Satanic Temple in 2019 |
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2019 WAS A BANNER YEAR FOR THE SATANIC TEMPLE
Here are some things that took place:
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IRS CHURCH DESIGNATION
Most monumentally, the IRS granted The Satanic Temple 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status as a church in April. This marks the first time such recognition has been bestowed upon an international Satanic religious organization. In addition to affirming TST’s status, this will support our legal standing as we move forward in our various efforts to defend our rights across the country. |
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS INCLUDES THE SATANIC TEMPLE’S RELIGIOUS REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS WEBSITE IN HISTORIC COLLECTION
The United States Library of Congress has selected The Satanic Temple's Religious Reproductive Rights website for inclusion in its historic collection of materials related to the Women’s and Gender Studies Web Archive, stating that they consider our TST’s online material “to be an important part of this collection and the historical record.” Material the Library of Congress has selected for inclusion in its historic collection also includes related content from TST’s Facebook and YouTube accounts. In a letter to TST, the Library of Congress stated that the records would be a resource for “researchers at Library [of Congress] facilities” and that the collection will become available on the Library’s public access website after their archiving process has been completed.
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HAIL SATAN?
Hail Satan?, a Magnolia Pictures feature-length documentary chronicling the rise of The Satanic Temple, premiered at The Sundance Film Festival on January 25th. The film was directed by Penny Lane and produced by Gabriel Sedgwick, who were granted rare access to archival footage and the daily inner workings of TST and its membership. Hail Satan? documented the beginning and swift evolution of our organization, while illuminating the sincerity of non-theistic religious belief and our ongoing battle for religious equality.
Film screenings all over the world followed Hail Satan?’s U.S. release date of April 19, as Lucien Greaves and other Satanic Temple leadership and chapters were invited to attend Q&As and other post-screening events as part of its release.
January 28th, Sundance Film Festival Hail Satan? post-screening group photo. Posted by Hail Satan? editor Amy Foote.
The movie received rave reviews, from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and many other outlets and is closing the year with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 96%. Most notably, Hail Satan? fostered growing visibility and fascination among the masses with modern-day Satanism and its effectiveness in holding religiously zealous law-makers accountable for treading upon civil liberties. |
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VICTORIES
U.S. Naval Academy: As of October 8, members of TST at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland have procured a designated space to meet for services and discussions on Academy grounds. Academy spokeswoman, Cmdr. Alana Garas, released a public statement assuring that TST is “an IRS-recognized, tax-exempt religion”, which means members have Constitutional rights to assemble. However, Garas’ announcement also stated that TST members could not engage in political activities, “lest it appear that their actions are endorsed by the Pentagon.” Invitations to interested parties were also extended both by TST Members via Instagram and the Academy’s newsletter, linked above.
Lightspeed Systems: TST co-founder, Malcolm Jarry, received two emails earlier this year from students in Indiana and Ohio complaining that the TST homepage had been blocked on their school computers. These students were still able to access web pages for mainstream religious organizations. After making contact with the school districts, Jarry was informed that decisions for such censorship were made by an outsourced company, Lightspeed Systems, headquartered in Austin, Texas, who had deemed TST’s website as “mature” and thereby restricted student access to it across their network. While an on-going case against Lightspeed Systems appears difficult, TST stated in a previous newsletter, available to highschool students, recommending alerts being made to school administrators about blocked access to TST websites as individual districts do have access to unblocking sites locally. |
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ONGOING
Boston City Council: TST has filed First Amendment violation allegations against the Boston City Council for ignoring requests in October for TST members to lead invocations for public meetings. In common practice, all public meetings begin with an invocation, generally led by a Christian prayer. Participation requests from TST co-founder Malcolm Jarry were met with the suggestion that invocation speakers are not elected by volunteer request but rather are appointed by individual council members. Jarry notes that such “preferential treatment” is the very definition of discrimination. TST has reached out to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) to investigate. Updates in this case will be announced.
Arkansas: The legal battle in Arkansas, ensuing over Senator Jason Rapert’s demand that his Ten Commandments monument remains to be the only religious representation on the State Capitol grounds, has remained ongoing through 2019, which lead to his heated deposition in September. It will no doubt reach conclusion in 2020. You know updates will be forthcoming from us on this matter, as they have been throughout this ordeal.
Belle Plane, Minnesota: In April, The Satanic Temple announced that we will be filing suit against the city of Belle Plaine, Minnesota for religious discrimination after city officials shut down a public forum entirely in an advertised “free-speech zone”. The Satanic Temple had been permitted to erect a monument in this area alongside a Christian display in 2017, to which protests erupted around its placement. While TST fully respects the right to public protest, we feel the result should never be to deprive others of their civil liberties. Our case insists that Belle Plaine city officials committed a breach of contract by nullifying its permit and violating the First Amendment's incorporation of the freedom of religion by placing a “substantial burden upon the religious exercise” of Satanism and by denying the Temple access to a public space, which had previously been open to a Christian display. In the meantime, one can view our Satanic monument to veterans at our HQ and art gallery in Salem, MA.
Scottsdale, Arizona: Since 2016, members of The Satanic Temple Arizona have been denied the Constitutional right to deliver an invocation before city council meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona alongside other religious representations permitted to do so. In January of 2020, this case moves on to Federal Court, where a landmark decision will be made! This will be major news early-on going into 2020, stay tuned…
Missouri State Supreme Court Ruling & Appeal: In Spring of 2019, The Satanic Temple announced that we would be appealing the Missouri Supreme Court’s February ruling that asserts the State’s informed consent laws did not violate the religious freedoms of our member, Mary Doe, who sought an abortion at a Planned Parenthood in St. Louis in 2015.
The Satanic Temple’s appeal focuses on the policies and procedures of the State which dictates a personal theory of when life begins for its residents. In place of what should be a personal sentiment, the State employs its own two-part theory that the life of each human being begins at conception and that “abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human.”
We assert that it was not taken into account that a ruling handed down by the U.S. Eight Circuit Court of Appeals in 1989 (Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490) explicitly states that the life of each human being begins at conception is “an impermissible state adoption of a theory when life begins.” We feel that whether the patient is forced to read the material or not, its required distribution alone is a violation of Doe’s rights under the U.S. Constitution's Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses. |
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NATIONAL CAMPAIGNS
Grey Faction: In 2019, known Satanic Panic conspiracist and psychologist, Alison Miller, resigned her doctor’s license to practice, post-retirement, potentially to spare future official action being taken against her, after Grey Faction submitted a complaint just prior regarding Miller’s intricately bizarre and troubling beliefs presented to survivors of sexual assault. In 2020, The Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction will remain steadfast as always in exposing and demanding accountability from practitioners of pseudoscience among mental health professionals and the organizations that promote them, which can cause grave harm to their patients and familes. Learn more about Grey Faction here.
Protect Children Project: The number of registrants in The Protect Children Project has seen a slight upturn in the end of 2019, quite possibly due to the increasing amount of corporal punishment methods being enacted in public schools, which have received media attention this year, as well as growing religious influence affecting laws that promote such developmentally damaging and archaic disciplinary methods. After registering with PCP, The Satanic Temple offers to remind educational boards about one’s right to bodily autonomy, protected by the First Amendment and one’s religion as a Satanist in being opposed to such methods. Learn more about The Protect Children Project here.
Religious Reproductive Rights: As part of a nationwide push that includes more than 300 bills in 2019, 11 US states have passed laws to restrict or inhibit access to abortion. These laws make unreasonable demands on patients or practitioners and endanger the health, safety, and wellbeing of our members. The Satanic Temple will remain in the forefront of pushback against such infringements… We will be hosting a Springtime rally for reproductive rights in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Date to be announced). The rally will include notable experts and activists and will be a positive gathering of like-minded Satanists and supporters. Learn more about The Religious Reproductive Rights Campaign here.
After School Satan Club: The After School Satan Club continues to be offered in public schools, where there is a Good News Club, or other proselytizing religious group, that insists upon maintaining presence on school campuses. |
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TST HEADQUARTERS
Salem Art Gallery & TST International HQ, Salem, Massachusetts: The Salem Art Gallery, which also is the International Head Quarters of TST, continues to host our controversial artistic monuments (like the Baphomet statue), weekly services, updated art exhibits, the best of the TST gift shop, and a slew of events from lectures to rituals- which include Black Masses and Unbaptism ceremonies. In 2019, a successful year round Satanic walking tour through downtown Salem was added to the gallery’s features, as well as an October haunted house exhibit (in the style of evangelical "Hell Houses"). Chapters & TST membership: We are ending 2019 with: 24 official active chapters: 22 in the US, 1 in Canada and 1 in the UK, all of which can be accessed in the Find a Chapter section on our website. Additionally, in states where there are no official chapters, one now can locate a "Friends of TST" group, which is a member collective seeking official Chapter status.
Worldwide, endorsed chapters of The Satanic Temple participate in public rituals, good works within their communities, and social/educational events, both relevant to their local regions and in concert with TST national campaigns. Chapters create their own charity drives, as well, that garner national participation like Menstruating with Satan, started by the Boston Chapter, which collects hygiene products for those in need.
The Satanic Temple’s National Council continues to operate unwaveringly behind the scenes, providing support for the chapters, and handling the administrative aspects of their formation as well as operations in cooperation with Executive Ministry.
Happy Holidays:
Chapters have displays on the Michigan Capital grounds, as well as the Illinois State Capital Rotunda this year. |
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CHAPTERS AND MEMBERSHIP
We are ending 2019 with: 24 official active chapters: 22 in the US, 1 in Canada and 1 in the UK, all of which can be accessed in the Find a Chapter section on our website.
Additionally, in states where there are no official chapters, one now can locate a "Friends of TST" group, which is a member collective seeking official Chapter status.
Worldwide, endorsed chapters of The Satanic Temple participate in public rituals, good works within their communities, and social/educational events, both relevant to their local regions and in concert with TST national campaigns. Chapters create their own charity drives, as well, that garner national participation like Menstruating with Satan, started by the Boston Chapter, which collects hygiene products for those in need.
The Satanic Temple’s National Council continues to operate unwaveringly behind the scenes, providing support for the chapters, and handling the administrative aspects of their formation as well as operations in cooperation with Executive Ministry.
Chapters have holiday displays on the Michigan Capital grounds, as well as the Illinois State Capital Rotunda this year.
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ONLINE
Growing social media numbers: And over 100,000 official registered members... |
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TST TV
On October 31st, The Satanic Temple TV premiered an online subscription media channel featuring a collection of programming and updates from our members, leaders and chapters across the world. One can count on minimal bi-monthly updates, and immersive content ranging from the comedic to the academic, all made by and for TST celebrants.
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SUPPORT TST
We are a pluralistic nation. The Satanic Temple is tirelessly fighting against theocrats forcing religious beliefs into U.S. legislation. These organizations are incredibly well funded and coordinated. We need your help! Your tax-deductible contributions to The Satanic Temple support our organization and gains against the onslaught of encroaching theocracy, through our various campaigns and legal cases across the country.
Please contribute to our efforts. |
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“SO IT IS DONE - HAIL 2019!”
...and hail all of you that have shown solidarity with TST in 2019 and over the years! Your support has served as both a foundation and a fire to move onward into the new decade with great excitement. Let’s continue to cast off the bindings of supernatural delusions and refuse to let others define our existence, with less apology than ever before, into the new decade ahead.
"That which will not bend, must break, and that which can be destroyed by truth, should never be spared it's demise." |
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