DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) - On Thursday, the Satanic Temple of Iowa announced that their display at the Iowa Capitol had been significantly damaged.
The controversial display, which Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds called “objectionable,” featured a ram’s head covered with mirrors on a mannequin before being damaged.
Organizers say it’s a symbol of their right to religious freedom.
The Satanic Temple of Iowa posted the following message on their Facebook page:
“This morning, we were informed by authorities that the Baphomet statue in our holiday display was destroyed beyond repair. We are proud to continue our holiday display for the next few days that we have been allotted.
We ask that for safety, visitors travel together and use the 7 Tenets as a reminder for empathy, in the knowledge that justice is being pursued the correct way, through legal means.
KCCI has reported that 35-year-old Michael Cassidy of Lauderdale, Mississippi, was charged with Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree. He has since been released.
Solve et Coagula! Happy Holidays! Hail Satan!”
Religious freedom only applies to MY RELIGION, never yours. 🙄
This is the funniest thing. Satan IS part of their religion! I bet if it was a statue of Budda or Muhammad it would have been left alone, but since it’s part of THEIR OWN religion that they don’t like, it get vandalised. Hilarious
I bet if it was a statue of Budda or Muhammad
Lol. Lmao. Mfs have literally been killed for less.
Yeah but that was by inbred, ignorant shit heads with a slightly darker skin tone than this inbred ignorant shit head.
I did think of this just as I wrote it, but I figured it was probably true anyway, and I couldn’t be bothered looking up how to spell some Hindu deity’s name
Something about holding up a mirror… It’s very on point. hypocrites don’t like when you show them their true face.
Pretty sure there’s nobody fighting to get a statue of Muhammad anywhere…
They always like to say that the greatest trick the devil ever played was to convince people that he didn’t exist.
I disagree. The devil’s greatest trick was changing their name to “God” while blaspheming the morning star—Lucifer— who literally brings light and reason to people’s lives in an otherwise cold, dark, and needlessly cruel world.
I really appreciate your comment, so wanted to say so outright, but real talk… this is a fantastic story idea.
Same.
Glad to see I’m not the only one thinking this.
Also Satan is objectively less evil than God. In the entire Bible Satan only killed like 10 people whereas God’s death toll is in the tens of thousands.
It’s not just the body count - Yahweh literally tortures innocent people - the Book of Job is the most notable (though there’s many examples of this).
For those that don’t know it or who want a recap:
Satan said to Yahweh that his followers just loved him because they were rewarded for it, and if they weren’t, they’d turn on him.
So Yahweh…proves it? He destroys Job’s livelihood, kills his family, gives him all kinds of diseases and pains, and Job spends the rest of his life homeless and alone, completely ruined, but Job still praises Yahweh. So, hooray, Yahweh wins the bet.
The thing you really have to remember about this story is that–as it was written–it isn’t real. Maybe there are some factual elements to it, but for the most part, we have this story, not because it’s factual, but because generations and generations of people believed it was a good story to help us understand the nature of God and our relationship to Him.
The cruelty Yahweh shows to Job is not an exception - it’s literally exemplary. It’s an example.
Job eventually questions Yahweh and Yahweh becomes furious and shows up as a flaming tornado and basically asks him “Who do you think you are, you little punk?” Technically the Satan is proven right. Yahweh does restore Job to his former glory, but all the people he killed in his effort to win a bet don’t come back, they just get replaced with new people.
Um… they don’t do statues of Mohammed, because of the reasons.
And there was a golden statue of trump at cpac.
Because of course there was.🙄
I can’t tell if the eyeroll is not believing me or just because it is such a fucking thing that they would do so here’s a link just in case.
I feel that destroying it has garnered more attention for TST than they would have received had it been left alone.
Given that one of their goals is to highlight unfair treatment on religious basis, I’m sure they are delighted that someone illustrated their point.
Understanding that requires intelligence, something I would never accuse them of
That’s the point.
The
church of SatanSatanic Temple doesn’t care about idol worship.But one religion REALLY REALLY DOES.
The church of Satan and the Satanic temple are two very different organisations.
Ah you’re right! I got them confused. Thanks!
The 7 Tenets are strong against right wing hate.
Imagine if doofus had fucked up a nativity scene. His ass would have been tazed several times, he’d be beaten, and the fundies would stop poking holes in wrapped condoms for half a second to be up in arms.
You could improve this by comparing it to someone beheading a statue of Jesus at the state capitol. I don’t know if that has happened, but it would be more likely to elicit the response you describe.
Weak, pathetic, pussy-assed ‘god’ gets extremely butthurt and sends a pathetic paranoid delusional simp loser to break things.
This incident is proof that the judeo-christian god is a bedwetting loser.
Republicans sure do love doing hate crimes
Why do you think they hate those hate crime laws so much
“It’s not pedophilia if we strip the minimum marriage age laws”
- Republicans in multiple states
the lord intended for us to go after them young
how is this not a hate crime? it was committed because of someone’s membership in a protected class.
Because the whole point of conservatism and Christian Nationalism is that only the right people are protected by the legal system. Everyone else is beneath the law, denied rights and protections, and subject to retribution without cause and due process.
Conservatives fight to assure those not protected do not gain civil rights.
The white power movement fights to further reduce rights and protections, and narrow the set of those who qualify for them.
These kinds of behaviors are really hammering home that Christians are just nazis with training wheels huh?
Can you link to a conservative saying that?
It’s the quiet part that’s (usually) not said aloud.
Just take a look at the statistics of how i.e. criminal law is applied much more aggressively to conservative out-groups (PoC, poor, etc.) than conservative in-groups (white, wealthy, etc.). Then have a look at who is proposing politics intended to fix that imbalance an who’s talking about “taking a hard(er) stance on crime”.
Another, rather specific example: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8769269/Former-abortion-clinic-worker-recalls-pro-life-women-justify-procedures.html
Once you look our for the pattern, you’ll see it everywhere.
criminal law is applied much more aggressively to conservative out-groups (PoC, poor, etc.) than conservative in-groups (white, wealthy, etc.).
So in your mind is there a conservative in group and out group as regards sex? I just want a starting point before I delve any further.
My comment wasn’t related to sex but more generalized, but, umm - yeah?
People having heterosexual two-person sex (preferably with a single, consistent partner) are the “in-group”.
Everyone else is the out-group.
If anyone ever made i.e. a study to something like police behavior experienced by a “regular” pick-up bar and a gay bar, I’d expect to see some stark differences.
I wasn’t talking about orientation, but about sex, as in male vs female.
I can’t imagine any would, that is an abstraction developed by not-conservatives trying to wrap head around conservative actions. To have a conservative in power say so overtly would fuel the people being oppressed into coordinated resistance and disgust fence sitters into voting against conservatism
I’m a conservative, and I think people should be equal under the law.
What are you seeing that makes it seem otherwise?
What are you seeing that makes it seem otherwise?
Satanic display at Iowa Capitol vandalized ‘beyond repair’
Someone seemed to think it was appropriate to vandalize this display specifically.
So because someone targeted a specific thing here, that’s unequal, and the inequality must therefore be a core belief of conservatives generally? Is that the line of reasoning here?
The display is permitted by rules that govern religious installations inside the Capitol but has drawn criticism from many conservatives, including presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. A Facebook posting by The Satanic Temple on Thursday said the display, known as a Baphomet statue, “was destroyed beyond repair,” though part of it remains.
Michael Cassidy, 35, of Lauderdale, Mississippi, was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, the Iowa Department of Public Safety said Friday. He was released after his arrest.
Cassidy is a Republican who was defeated by Democrat Keith Jackson in Mississippi State House District 45 in November.
It is possible for someone to be on the Conservative side of the political spectrum and still be a reasonable person who respects equality. It is not possible for a reasonable person who respects equality to support the Republican party.
The one that vandalised this being released as per the summary for example.
It’s a misdemeanor vandalism charge, odds are he’s a vaguely attractive white guy with no priors so of course they let him go until his hearing, probably without bail. Only way his odds of being released on his own recognizance would have been higher is if he were a pretty, young white girl.
I actually personally know a pretty young white girl who got caught in a drug charge out of state, released on her own recognizance pending hearing, came back home, skipped her hearing, got pulled over for a traffic violation back home, jailed for a bit for being a fugitive until the other state could fetch her, taken back to the other state and then released on her own recognizance pending a hearing again despite having explicitly proved that she was a flight risk.
If you feel that people should be equal under the law, why do you align politically with the parties that don’t recognize trans rights, homosexuality, worker rights, social support, freedom of religion (not just Christianity), voting rights…
You don’t believe people are equal under the law. At best, maybe you believe that groups of people are equal under law, but some groups are more equal than others.
I’ve never heard a conservative person argue that a trans person should be stripped of any rights. Nor that homosexuals should, nor workers, nor people of other religions.
Can you link to a conservative claiming this? Like … one?
This case right here. He thought that it was okay to vandalize a religious display that was from “the wrong religion”, and he’s getting let off with a slap on the wrist.
And the person letting him off is a conservative, I take it? And this is in comparison to a different arrestee who did the same to another display?
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There is a long history of right wing politicians cloaking themselves in the rhetoric of the left. You can watch it evolve over it’s history as the leftist talking points have… but the one thing that hasn’t changed since the beginning is the way they behave shows a belief in the aggregation of power. Conservatives support a hierarchy with a lot of executive power at the top and a failure state at the bottom. The left looks to broaden and scatter power horizontally…
It’s part of why complaining that social services and welfare programs are artificially disruptive to a “natural” order and determining and expelling non-citizen underclasses and narrowing the rights to fully participate has existed since the beginning of right wing rhetoric but they never sell it outright as “some people deserve to die poor or to serve in a perpetually subordinate position”. It has always required a grift to get the masses to sign on. It’s also why they tend to pair themselves with the church going crowd. Their base has to believe at some level that inequality is not just natural but justified and that helps when you already have people you veiw as fundamentally inferior.
Simple, wrong class.
Because the Christian hegemony rules with an iron fist in the west. A big part of TST’s existence is about bringing that hypocrisy to light.
Perhaps they were simply trying to uphold the separation of church and state. Maybe the thing that caused the attack was “a church display at the state capitol”
Nope. There’s displays from multiple religions at the state capitol.
It was parked in a handicapped space. Perhaps they towed it.
–Walter Sobchek
That’s a misdemeanor. He’ll plead down to something like a fine and maybe some community service, then fundraise the shit out of it - have to pay the lawyer! have to pay the fine! need a giant new American flag for my giant lifted pickup truck! gimme gimme gimme!
They should sue his ass for all the costs of a replacement statue and everything else they can think of.
Jokes on him, that community service is required to be served at the local Satanic Temple. (god I wish I wasn’t making a joke right now)
That would be glorious legal karma.
That could happen. There was a plea deal recently where a woman who was an absolute dick to a fast food employee accepted a lesser sentence that required her to work in food service for a specified time.
You could easily do the same here, and they absolutely should.
Oh, I know it could happen. I also recognize that that sort of sentence would almost require the judge to be either A. Sympathetic to TST, B. A fan of ironic punishments, C. A proponent of putting self-righteous assbags in their place, or D. Not a neo-Christian conservative, or some mix of the above. I don’t exactly hold out hope for that being the case in Iowa, but a man can dream.
“They should sue his ass” Given that it’s TST, they’d probably argue that it was a violation of their constitutional protections under the First Amendment (or some similarly insane legal argument they regularly use to
embezzlefundraise) .Interestingly stupid take you got there bud
Are you completely ignorant about TST’s court cases? Read their legal arguments, you can find them at whatever court they’re filed with. They are completely insane, it’s literally a fundraising grift.
Didn’t they recently try to argue that abortion was a sacred ritual? Completely ignoring that SCOTUS has already ruled that criminal laws are not a violation of religious freedom. (A decision they had to make or else you could found the Church of Posada and legally engage in nuclear terrorism). Literally nobody with a brain would have made that argument, and yet they lied to the public about it’s soundness to fundraise.
Read more about what the satanic temple is about. Then read your own comments again. I’m not even going to waste my time explaining it to your dumb dumb ass…
Because things could not possibly be different than what they claim to be?
I’ll admit it’s been a few years since I cared enough about atheist activism to research organisations to participate in. When I do such research, I try to find if the organisation actually effectively produces results. And that’s just not what I found about TST, the legal ineptitude combined with financial opacity was sufficient red flags but I understand that’s not of concern to you.
Sounds like something a christian would do
Religious hate crime
Interesting though it’s just a mischief charge, if I trashed their Jesus garbage you know DAMN well I’m swimming in hate crime charges.
If you did it now, wouldn’t lawyers be able to use thos case to get you the same punishment?
Not anymore friend, a precedent has been set
In Iowa, criminal mischief covers vandalism, and 4th degree criminal mischief means damages between 300-750 dollars. Penalty is up to a year in jail and up to about $2500 in fines if convicted. Since it says he was charged, he wasn’t just let off free, he was released pending hearing aka they aren’t holding him in jail until then.
shocked they actually arrested him. will be even more shocked if he gets anything close to the punishment he earned
A 4th degree misdemeanor is nothing! I doubt if someone messed up a Jesus Nativity set they would get that
Idk, a precedent has been set now. Lawyers could just refer back to this case, no?
What is the precedent? “Unlike crimes against any other religion, hate crimes against satanism is not a hate crime”?
Seems like America has basically said:
“hate crimes against religious iconography isn’t a hate crime”
It’s a huge can of worms that they opened, and basically shit all over everything people fought against in WWII.
Pretty sure it also just wiped out a few US fundamental freedoms too.
So, either this goes up the chain to punish the guy appropriate, or the USA is in for some real heated bullshit in the near future.
Burning down a church with nobody in it is a hate crime. Where is the line? Is it destruction of real property? Is it a monetary threshold? I don’t know the answer, but it is definitely a huge can of worms.
I keep seeing this precedent argument and this is exactly what I think every time.
If anything I see someone TRYING to use this case as a precedent to swerve hate crime charges and it gets used to declare Satanism not a recognized religion.
good for you
“This morning, we were informed by authorities that the Baphomet statue in our holiday display was destroyed beyond repair. We are proud to continue our holiday display for the next few days that we have been allotted.
Interesting choice and use of the words “informed” and “proud”. Really makes it sound like whoever said this sees it as a net-positive.
Part of their mission is to expose hypocrisy, and vandalism does work to that end. Particularly if the vandal in question is Christian.
Really makes it sound like whoever said this sees it as a net-positive.
Not necessarily, but there’s no reason to let the bastards get you down.
Actually, the Satanic Temple is basically a trolling organization. They LOVE that they triggered these insecure weaklings.
Funny that you take more issue with somebody’s tone than the vandalism.
The vandalism is expected. TST probably put it there hoping for vandalism because that exposes the hypocrisy.
And yet here you are attacking their tone instead of the people defacing their shit.
Satanism isn’t just about TrOlLiNg. The fact that you’re more worried about tone than the vandalism shows how other religions are allowed to be the butt of the joke, or in this case the violence. Just like how the guy got a slap on the wrist charge instead of the hate crime you’d 1000% get for tearing up a Jesus statue.
“The vandalism is expected.”
Welcome to the point - IT FUCKING SHOULDN’T BE.
I think you miss the actual point.
The actual point is to expose religious hypocrisy. Not only does forcing the states hand to put the statue there the first place achieve that goal, but in a rare and very much anticipated double-dip maneuver, they also get to expose the hypocrisy in its vandalism.
TST does this through a lot of expert-level trolling. You may not see it as such but it really is.
That’s not a bad thing. Honestly their approach is fucking amazing and it works. Trolling isn’t itself a bad thing. It’s a tool that can be used. It can be used poorly or well. And for good or bad. TST is using it well, for good. Good for them.
ETA, maybe “expected” isn’t the best word. But it’s certainly an opportunity that they can and will take advantage of. I don’t think TST sees the vandalism as an expressly negative thing, but rather a real thick silver lining. If anything, it actually helps their message.
Why do you see this as trolling, though? I saw the display, and there was nothing insulting or disrespectful about it.
Now, if it had been a defaced crucifix or something like that, I could agree. But I don’t see how Baphomet itself is offensive to Christianity. It isn’t even a Christian icon. It comes from occultism.
Hail Satan.
Hail yourself.
Self isn’t responding to hails. Fire phasers.
Hey Stan!!
Hail!
I like how he knows that the founding fathers didn’t really mean what they said about the first amendment and all that. I hope the temple sues.
Alternate source since the one in the post isn’t working for me:
The author did a great job directing people to that alt-reich trash rag. The slant is heavy.
Whenever I hear the phrase Criminal Mischief, I always imagine an old cartoon criminal tip toeing around and up to no good.
That’s also what I envision “hooligans” means.
never heard of football hooligans?
Yeah, it’s absurd. Don’t you think that if this guy had vandalized a Christian or Jewish display that he’d get more than “criminal mischief”? This is a hate crime.
