OPINION:
A sculpture from the Satanic Temple’s Chicago chapter was just installed at the Illinois Capitol.
Merry Christmas. Make way for the mocking.
Joining Jesus and the Nativity scene, and the menorah for Hanukkah, and on a stand with an inscription “Knowledge is the Greatest Gift” located alongside a Christmas tree, is now a glossy slick statue of a woman’s arm holding an apple, wrapped in several coils of a serpent.
It’s called “Snaketivity,” and it’s the latest representation of the satanists’ favorite First Amendment joke — using religious freedom for their twisted means. As if Founding Fathers truly intended to uphold the rights of the ungodly with such in-your-face ridicule of the godly.
“The State of Illinois is required by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to allow temporary, public displays in the state capitol so long as these displays are not paid for by taxpayer dollars,” a sign in the rotunda reads, NPR reported. “Because the first floor of the Capitol Rotunda is a public place, state officials cannot legally censor the content of speech or displays. The United States Supreme Court has held that … no regulation can be based on the content of the speech.”
Umm, pretty sure that’s not entirely true. Can you say pornography? How about pedophilia? Or bestiality? Certainly, government officials would take hard and fast stands against holiday displays that include images, statues or text related to these behaviors, even if the displays were cloaked in religion, dripping with religious organization tags.
Certainly, government officials would get their regulation on then.
Regardless: Illinois Secretary of State spokesman Dave Druker excused the display and said the Satanic Temple has the same right as religious organizations, like churches and Jewish temples, to put up its own holiday display — that “this [statue] recognizes that” principle.
And that’s despite the Satanic Temple’s own description of self as a “non-theistic organization,” NPR reported.
Well, which is it?
Belief in nothing would seem to obliterate the claim to First Amendment freedoms and rights. Right?
But it’s more of the same from California: “Satanists from the San Francisco Bay area are angry that their handmade satanic Christmas ornaments are being stolen off of their tree,” ChristianHeadlines.com reported.
Then comes this, from Minnesota State University associate professor of psychology Eric Sprankle, who wrote on Twitter: “The virgin birth story is about an all-knowing, all-powerful deity impregnating a human teen. There is no definition of consent that would include that scenario. Happy Holidays.”
This is the same guy who also tweeted, as Campus Reform found, a picture of a toy Christmas elf with its arm wrapped around a Baphomet statue.
What is it about Christmas that brings out the satanists? Sigh.
What a frustrating time for Christians.
Still, no matter how many statues the satanists erect — no matter how desperately the ungodly, the no-godly, the other-godly try to usurp and corrupt the season, the fact is: Christmas can’t be stolen. Not really. Not in any way that matters.
Christmas belongs to Jesus.
It’s not about a statue.
It’s about the birth of Jesus, the birth of the savior of humanity, and that’s a spiritual and biblical truth no hunk of granite can ever change.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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