Liberty Counsel, the Christian hate group dedicated to promoting Kim Davis-like discrimination in the name of Jesus and the endorsement of Christianity through the government, now says allowing a Satanic display in Boca Raton, Florida’s Sanborn Square park is akin to what the KKK used to do.

You might recall that Preston Smith‘s display, despite being locked in place, was vandalized this week after a vehicle hooked a chain to it and pulled it down.

Smith, a middle school teacher, has always made it clear that he separates his Satanic activism from his job. He doesn’t talk about it in the classroom, and he doesn’t disparage kids for their beliefs. There’s absolutely no evidence that he blurs the lines. But just to be sure, Liberty Counsel sent a letter to his school district demanding they hand over all of Smith’s emails that mention “satan,” “Christian,” and “atheism.”

Those are public records, so they have a right to do it, but I doubt anything will come up. It’s not hard to separate those two worlds. I say that as someone who did it for several years myself.

What’s more disturbing is that Liberty Counsel’s letter, also sent to The Palm Beach Post, suggests that what Smith is doing is similar to the KKK:

… Liberty Counsel compared Smith’s placement of the pentagram to the Ku Klux Klan’s placement of crosses on African-Americans’ properties in the past. … The group acknowledges Smith’s legal right to place the satanic display — “like the KKK’s actions were ‘protected speech’” — but questions whether Smith’s beliefs have seeped into the classroom, thus prompting the request to inspect Smith’s district emails, according to the letter.

Somehow, the KKK’s racist, threatening actions are totally the same as the guy putting up a display that doesn’t encourage hate at all. (As we’ve said before, The Satanic Temple’s Seven Fundamental Tenets are far more ethical than the whole of the Ten Commandments.)

It’s ironic, really, that a Christian hate group would condemn a Satanist’s harmless actions to those of another Christian hate group.

Maybe next time, Liberty Counsel could show some empathy for someone exercising his First Amendment rights, only to have his property repeatedly damaged. I’m not holding my breath. That’s the sort of compassion someone like Christ would exhibit.



