Last week, the Satanic Temple unveiled the monument they planned to erect on the Oklahoma Capitol grounds:

(Even though they raised the money to build it, it won’t be going up anytime soon given the state’s moratorium on monuments pending the outcome of an ACLU lawsuit.)

In any case, you know who’s *really* upset about that monument?

Satanists.

Different ones.

The Church of Satan thinks that statue of Baphomet amounts to blasphemy:

When shown an image of a proposed monument intended to represent Satanism for a public space in Oklahoma, this is what [high priest] Magus [Peter H.] Gilmore had to say: “The statue is crudely designed and ugly to me and seems pedophilic, since the caduceus between the goat’s legs is a phallic symbol. Having children reaching towards a being with an exposed symbolic penis seems to imply that Satanism represents the same situation which has plagued the Roman Catholic and other Christian churches for some time: child abuse. The image appears to show the goat’s left hand possibly caressing the male child. Revolting. “The Church of Satan requires members to be legally adult and Satanist parents teach their children comparative religion and philosophy so that our children may decide which religion or philosophy would suit their own natures. We do not indoctrinate our offspring, or anyone else’s, and that statue could be seen as symbolic of indoctrination, which is manifestly counter to our philosophy. “It occurs to me that the efforts by the perpetrators of this proposal may be intended as a means for making Satanism appear foolish and just as dysfunctional and irrational as we secularists view most other religions to be.”

Nah… we pretty much felt that way before the monument, too.

For what it’s worth, when the Satanic Temple introduced the proposal, they described the monument this way:

“The monument has been designed to reflect the views of Satanists in Oklahoma City and beyond. The statue will serve as a beacon calling for compassion and empathy among all living creatures. The statue will also have a functional purpose as a chair where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration and contemplation.” The proposed monument features a 7 foot tall goat-headed Baphomet that sits cross-legged flanked by a smiling child on both sides. The lap will serve as a seat for visitors. Inscribed on the front of the statue above an inverted pentagram will be one of the Satanic Temple’s fundamental tenets that proclaims: “The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.”

If that’s supposed to promote indoctrination and pedophilia — even subtly — they’re doing it wrong.

It seems much more likely that the Church of Satan is just looking for a reason to trash their ideological competition. Maybe they’re jealous they didn’t propose a monument first.

(Thanks to Brian for the link!)



