Dueling Satanic groups feud over Tea Party politics

Robert Allen | Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — A new Satanic religious group that debuted in Detroit this month already has encountered outspoken opposition: other Satanists.

The Rev. Tom Erik Raspotnik, 49, of Oxford, Mich., decries the Satanic Temple's atheism and progressive ideals. He said his Temples of Satan honors the deity of Satan, and he and others with him are pro-life and believe in animal sacrifices.

"I would be like a tea party Satanist," Raspotnik said, adding that he has participated in tea party events, but that people at the events might not have known he worships Satan.

His group has about 200 members across the country, he said, and his Twitter handle has more than 17,000 followers.

Meanwhile, the Satanic Temple's Detroit chapter started earlier this month with about 20 members; based in New York, the organization has nearly 10,000 likes on Facebook.

Modern Satanism, which started in San Francisco in the 1960s, has become more popular through technology, said Jesper Aagaard Petersen, a Satanism expert and associate professor of religious education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway.

"There was an upsurge of Satanism with the popularization of the Internet in the mid-1990s to about 2010," he said in an e-mail.

The Satanic Temple, started a couple of years ago, has gained public attention with its First Amendment-related demonstrations and "really rekindled activity," Petersen said.

In Oklahoma, the group aims to erect a bronze statue of Baphomet, a bearded, goat-headed deity posing with two children, in response to Christians posting the Ten Commandments at the state's Capitol.

Jex Blackmore, 32, based in metro Detroit and part of the Satanic Temple's executive ministry, said that if the Christians removed their monument, the push to install Baphomet would end.

But some of the loudest opposition to the Satanic Temple in metro Detroit has been from other Satanists. The Satanic underworld, like virtually all other religions, contains groups firmly in disagreement.

Even the Church of Satan, claiming thousands of members worldwide, is quick to distance itself from the Satanic Temple, despite agreement on atheism, individualism and affinity for pentagrams.

"We see nothing of value in the actions of this handful of individuals," High Priest Magus Peter Gilmore of the Church of Satan said in an e-mail.

He also said the Church of Satan only applies the term "Satanist" to itself; the others are called "devil worshipers or demonolators, not Satanists," Gilmore said in the e-mail.

Despite the level of online activity, Satanism remains on the fringe. The Satanic Temple doesn't yet have a headquarters. Raspotnik's Temples of Satan is based in his house.

On Friday, the Free Press visited the Temple of the Ancient Dragon, a jewelry store at the Gibraltar Trade Center in Mt. Clemens run by Raspotnik and his fiancée, Cindy Fleming.

A two-headed duckling and jars containing spiders and beetles were visible among Satan-themed jewelry and other items as eclectic as a gas mask, a small Baphomet statue and Latin America-themed Day of the Dead skulls.

Fleming spoke warmly of Satanism but said the Satanic Temple has no business speaking on behalf of her religion.

"An atheist is what?" she said. "They don't believe in anything, any religion — so why are they using a religion to do it? That is hypocritical, it's an oxymoron and it's not even credible."

Blackmore and Satanic Temple founder Doug Mesner, who goes by Lucien Greaves, question everything about Raspotnik's membership numbers to the authenticity of his apparently sizable Twitter following. They describe him as an antagonist who seeks to target and contradict everything for which they stand.

Petersen said he hadn't heard of the Temples of Satan, but that there have been a number of "small theistic groups popping up online, with few members and a vocal leader."

Alas, all who call themselves Satanists have a number of attributes in common, Petersen said.

All Satanists are "at least adversarial to social mores and "herd mentality," often embracing individualism, creativity, reason, freedom and sexuality, the "dark side" and the occult, Petersen said in an e-mail.

Religion experts with several large universities in Michigan either didn't respond to requests for comment from the Free Press or said that they weren't familiar with Satanism.

Petersen said some "unaligned Satanists" find the Satanic Temple's projects, such as adopting highways, amusing.

"You have to understand, though, that the Satanic Temple is really underplaying the Satan angle and focusing on the atheist and free speech/religion issues in general, which has garnered a lot of support," he said.

The Temples of Satan, however, worships Satan: They exchange blood in marriage rituals, practice magic and even sacrifice goats, Raspotnik said, adding that he's taken part and eaten the goat afterward.

"I've also just killed a goat and buried it," he said. "I just don't think it's that phenomenal to eat."