The Satanic Temple

 The Satanic Temple is an American religious and political activist organization based in Salem, Massachusetts. The organization actively participates in public affairs that have manifested in several public political actions[183][184] and efforts at lobbying,[185] with a focus on the separation of church and state and using satire against Christian groups that it believes interfere with personal freedom.[185] According to Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen, the group were "rationalist, political pranksters".[186] Their pranks are designed to highlight religious hypocrisy and advance the cause of secularism.[187] In one of their actions, they performed a "Pink Mass" over the grave of the mother of the evangelical Christian and prominent anti-LGBT preacher Fred Phelps; the Temple claimed that the mass converted the spirit of Phelps' mother into a lesbian.[186]


The Satanic Temple does not believe in a supernatural Satan, as they believe that this encourages superstition that would keep them from being "malleable to the best current scientific understandings of the material world". The Temple uses the literary Satan as metaphor to construct a cultural narrative which promotes pragmatic skepticism, rational reciprocity, personal autonomy, and curiosity.[188] Satan is thus used as a symbol representing "the eternal rebel" against arbitrary authority and social norms.

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