I found an article about this film that caught my eye. It was praising this documentary for being very unique and funny. It explained about how the Satanic Temple is a primarily political organization–one full of more trolls than demons. Perhaps you’ve heard the story about the group that opposed installing a Ten Commandments statue on government property and insisted equal representation with a statue of Baphomet? That’s these guys. I watched the trailer and agreed that it looked like a rather fun film. I didn’t expect how much this would be sticking in my thoughts. This is the blog post I kinda hope my Mom never reads, but also kinda hope she does (but never brings up to me).
Contrary to public perception, the Satanic Temple is, as I just mentioned, a political activist group. Among their many endeavors, one of their primary focuses is on the separation of church and state. Remember, this country was initially founded on freedom of religion, but over time it’s become more and more Christian. The Temple hopes to bring us back to a true country of plurality that can accommodate many viewpoints and beliefs all at once, and especially leave those beliefs out of government.
I’ve talked about this before, but I was raised in a pretty hardcore Christian household. So much of our daily life revolved around God. We were in Church almost every Sunday, plus additional activities throughout the week, so I was raised with certain beliefs. In the past few years, I’ve been having an internal struggle with a lot of those beliefs because there are some things I was taught that I cannot agree with and some attitudes that I just can’t claim as my own. In particular, I’ve come to the realization that I was always TOLD what I believe instead of coming to my own conclusions and truly believing on my own. There’s some basics I’m on board with, but past that it’s all up in the air.
I know for a fact that if anyone from my home Church heard anything about this movie, they’d immediately shut it down, condemn these people as evil devil worshipers, say a prayer, and move on without giving it a second thought. The thing is, they’d be completely incorrect on so many levels. For starters, these guys are not evil or devil worshipers. There were so many scenes of Christians yelling at them or threatening or generally being hurtful, and it cut right through me because I’ve been on that side. I’ve been told that’s right, but there’s no attempt to understand each other. If they were open to hearing what the temple stands for and what its about, they’d find that they’re not a threat or an attack, simply marginalized people asking for the same rights to exist.
There were so many ideas in this documentary that I agreed with, and I identified with a lot of the people in it. I too was often told that things I enjoyed were unequivocally bad when they were in fact harmless. I too was outcast and misunderstood. I too can’t believe that there is only one way to be spiritual and that any one side can be truly right. My soul searching journey is not over and likely never will be, but this is a perspective I’m truly grateful to have seen. It challenged all the same ideas that I’ve struggled with while offering some new ideas. Plus it really was funny as hell
Hail Satan? – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/