OPINION:
It’s Christmas season, the time of joy and celebration of the birth of humanity’s savior, Jesus Christ.
So, of course, Satan and his minions can’t allow those celebrations to go forth untouched. The Capitol building in Iowa now includes a display of a silver-gilded ram’s head atop a torso draped in red ribbon, a representation of the pagan figure called Baphomet. Why? Christians, followers of Jesus, the faithful could boot these wicked displays, if enough voices cried out and demanded their removal.
Few but the most despicable of American society want this disgusting display of evil in the state’s Capitol.
The governor herself, for example, said this: “Like many Iowans, I find the Satanic Temple’s display in the Capitol absolutely objectionable,” said Gov. Kim Reynolds.
But.
But, she said, “in a free society, the best response to objectionable speech is more speech and I encourage all those of faith to join me today in praying over the Capitol and recognizing the Nativity scene that will be on display — the true reason for the season.”
How nice.
Tolerance for the devil. Sympathy for the devil. Concessions for the devil.
How about — not?
The Satanic Temple likes to bill itself as a religious organization as a means of sliding into permissions of public display under a First Amendment argument: that is, if scenes of Christianity are allowed to exist on public properties, then constitutionally protected religious freedoms require that equal access must be granted for other religions’ displays. But The Satanic Temple is not a religion; it’s a group. And just because its web page insists on being called a religion, and it speaks of congregations of Satanic Temple observers and provides advice on how to start a “congregation” in a community near you, it also states this in response to the question “Do You Worship Satan?” — “No, nor do we believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural.”
How is it a religion if there is no higher power to worship?
“The Satanic Temple does not have any sacred book or scripture and we do not adhere to The Satanic Bible,” the website also states.
The group promotes what it calls its central tenets, aligned with “bodily autonomy” and “a rejection of arbitrary authority” and the like. But it only received its IRS tax exemption status in 2019. That is to say, the “religion” has been in existence for four years.
And Americans of true faith can’t fight this open blasphemy?
In a newsletter, Iowa State Rep. Brad Sherman, Williamsburg Republican, said that The Satanic Temple’s display is not truly protected by the First Amendment, and therefore, should be torn down and removed. His argument lies with the state’s own Constitution that says Iowans are “grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed,” and that while the Nativity scene aligns itself with this expression, The Satanic Temple’s most decidedly does not. He’s quite right.
“It is a tortured and twisted interpretation of law that affords Satan, who is universally understood to be the enemy of God, religious expression equal to God in an institution of government that depends upon God for continued blessings,” Sherman wrote.
He’s quite right once again.
The Satanic Temple is an organization, a club, a group, a what have you — but not a religion. The IRS should have laughed off its application for recognition as a religious organization. It didn’t. Be that as it may, Iowa’s faithful need to make a stronger stand against this evil.
Prayer is good.
Praying is always a good start — not to mention middle, end and ongoing.
But faith without works is dead.
And pretending that The Satanic Temple belongs alongside a Nativity scene at Christmas time in a state’s hallowed halls of governance — in any state’s halls of public service — is to shrug a Christian duty: that is, to fight for the light and stand against the darkness.
Let The Satanic Temple sue.
Let the little demons launch lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit.
Let their money run dry as they sue and sue and sue.
Those who stand with God need only resolve to stand; need only drag the matter through court; need only wage public relations battle after public relations battle until the name Satanic Temple is synonymous with scum. In the Bible, God’s chosen regularly tore down the pagan structures.
Has America really fallen so far as to fail to see the evil of The Satanic Temple, and to quake at the idea of eradicating this evil?
Christmas belongs to Jesus; America, at one time, not only knew that, but celebrated that — because Americans, by and large, at one time, recognized that the DNA of this country was rooted in God-given rights and liberties; Americans, by and large, at one time, recognized and cherished the idea of a heavenly Creator who provided freedoms to the individual.
Satan and his tools of The Satanic Temple want to steal God’s glory and His presence by hook or by crook, by legal maneuver and by lie.
Whether they expand their footprints across America or are forced back into the holes they crawled from is a matter for Christians and those who say they follow Jesus to decide.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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