The satanic temple and the state of Texas walk into a bar.

As patriarchal religious organizations go, the satanic temple is kind of hilarious in the way that they choose to fight the social/societal creep of conservative Christianity.

The satanic temple is responsible for some charitable contributions focused on women and children, and predictably, the temple is taking on the state of Texas in their latest legislation to sexually terrorize women and girls.

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This is funny. I don’t care who you are.

The satanic temple is not about Satan. That seems unbelievable, understandably, because most people fail to make a distinction between the church of Satan, and the satanic temple.

It certainly can be confusing when googling the church of Satan, and having every link be about the temple, the lone exception being the Wikipedia page defining the church……

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The church of Satan is what most expect of “satanic worship”, with the praying to Satan, the rituals, the goats, the robes and candles, etc. The satanic panic of the 1980s that swept the United States is typical church of Satan bullshit. The satanic temple is a very different and separate thing.

The vast majority of Christians grip tightly to doctrine that purposely, rigidly centers their own beliefs to the absolute exclusion of any other worldview. Like all other patriarchal systems, being based mostly on feelings, Christians FEEL persecuted when other people refuse to believe the biblical fairy tales on which their entire existence depends.

Christians cry persecution when a random store clerk wishes them “happy holidays” instead of “merry Christmas”. This is just one petty example of many, and it’s the least sinister.

Christianity perpetuates a moral code that Christians attempt to legislate in an effort to force all of society to honor their feelings. Christianity views women and girls as objects for male use, therefore, subject to male domination through ownership and control of every aspect of our lives. Males are obsessed with dominating our sexuality, their main focus being on reproduction, and males use all of their systems to enforce our status as breeding incubators under their ownership. Abortion is the center of male HISteria.

The satanic temple is fighting the conservative Christianity creep in Texas on religious grounds. Conservative christians lack the basic ability to understand that religious freedom means religious freedom for all patriarchal religions, christians FEEL attacked when other religions exist.

The satanic temple understands that reason, logic, and fairness are unimportant to conservative christians because feelings are the only thing that matters, and like all male feelings, the “faith” of Christianity is fear based control of males.

Fighting a religious battle with the religion that prioritizes itself over all other religions, when that religion feels persecuted when nonbelievers refuse to live by their dictates, is impossible. How do you fight them in a way that they can understand?

To have a chance at being successful, you take something from their own religion and use it to defend yourself.

This is what the satanic temple has done.

The vast majority of the satanic temple are atheist. Atheists are widely dismissed by conservative Christianity as “angry children” who are just really, really mad at sky daddy and give him the silent treatment, as a result of the anger. They simply cannot understand that there are people that see no evidence of any god, and they are really upset that their particular god is ignored by anyone.

Christianity routinely dismisses atheists. But they acknowledge Satan. Satan is a major player in their fairy tale. That’s why the satanic temple uses Satan as a mascot, christians understand what Satan is supposed to be, their belief in Satan is just as ignorantly ingrained as their belief in their god.

Whatever nonsense christians enact, the satanic temple will act against it, in the name of religious freedom, in the name of Christianity, but they use Satan as their chosen christian entity.

At the end of it, males turn everything into a fight between themselves. Conservative christian males want to punish women for choosing to have PIV, for being capable of creating life, and for being non-men, while progressive/liberal males want to escape responsibility for impregnating women and girls, and remove pregnancy as an obstacle to fucking women and girls.

While males insure that our rights are always up for debate in a way that centers male wants, at least this particular fight is entertaining to witness.

Jayne