Yep, no religious influence at work behind the scenes here. Just a "coincidence" that they spray painted inverted pentagrams, inverted crosses and the numbers "666" all over one of churches they've already vandalized after the release of Alito's draft opinion last week.
In the wake of a leaked draft opinion from a Supreme Court case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, a Catholic church and school in Michigan has been vandalized with vulgar graffiti.
tennesseestar.com
Apparently, this is what a particular branch of Satanism founded in 2013 was created for; political activism against the overturn of Roe V. Wade. As the following piece states, "
The Satanic Temple began in 2013 and has launched a number of political actions and lawsuits related to the separation of church and state... Although The Satanic Temple does not believe in or worship a literal Satan, they revere Satan as described in the works of English poet John Milton and the
Romantic movement, an intellectual movement that originated in late 18th-century Europe,
as a powerful symbol of rebellion against authority. "
How the Satanic Temple is using ‘abortion rituals’ to claim religious liberty against the Texas’ ‘heartbeat bill’
Published: September 22, 2021 8.58am EDT
Author Joseph P. Laycock
Texas’s controversial anti-abortion law known as the “Heartbeat Bill” went into effect at midnight on Sept. 1, 2021. Less than 24 hours later, the U.S. Supreme Court declared it would not
block the law.
In response, The Satanic Temple, a nontheistic group that has been recognized by
the IRS as a religion, announced that it would fight back by invoking the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, to demand exemption from abortion restrictions on religious grounds. RFRA laws, which came into effect in 1993, restrict the government’s ability to burden religious practices.
... In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that under RFRA, the federal government could not require the Christian company Hobby Lobby to fund insurance that provided their employees with certain forms of birth control.
This decision inspired The Satanic Temple by linking the question of religious liberty with that of reproductive rights.
The Satanic Temple and RFRA
![[IMG]](https://images.theconversation.com/files/422207/original/file-20210920-20-cbf8cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C18%2C4013%2C2975&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip "[IMG]")
The Satanic Temple’s seven tenets include the belief that one’s body is subject to one’s own will alone. The Satanic Temple began in 2013 and has launched a number of political actions and lawsuits related to the separation of church and state. Texas is home to four congregations of The Satanic Temple, more than any other state. Although The Satanic Temple does not believe in or worship a literal Satan, they revere Satan as described in the works of English poet John Milton and the
Romantic movement, an intellectual movement that originated in late 18th-century Europe, as a powerful symbol of rebellion against authority...
In 2015, The Satanic Temple began a series of lawsuits against the state of Missouri, where women seeking abortions must view sonograms and then
review a booklet stating, “The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.” After this, the women must spend 72 hours considering their decision before finally receiving an abortion.
The Satanic Temple argued that this practice was an unconstitutional effort by the state to impose its religious views onto vulnerable women. Furthermore, it claimed that under Missouri’s RFRA law, Satanic women could not be forced to comply with these procedures. Instead of answering whether RFRA protected members of The Satanic Temple from abortion restrictions, the court dismissed these cases on procedural grounds.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that since the plaintiff, a woman known as “Mary Doe,” was
no longer pregnant by the time her case wound its way through the courts, she no longer needed an abortion and therefore had no legal standing to sue. The Satanic Temple appealed this ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which
declined to hear it.
To prevent similar rulings, ministers for The Satanic Temple created an “
abortion ritual,” in which a woman affirms her own autonomy, obtains an abortion, and then concludes the ritual.
Since abortion is part of the ritual, The Satanic Temple argues, subjecting a woman to a waiting period is akin to the government interfering with a baptism or communion. In February 2021, The Satanic Temple filed a
new lawsuit against Texas, arguing that the state was violating the religious liberty of its new plaintiff, referred to as “Ann Doe.”..
Is RFRA a “Loophole?”
The Satanic Temple’s opponents claim it is abusing RFRA and using it as a “loophole” to circumvent the law. However, Lucien Greaves, a co-founder of The Satanic Temple, counters that RFRA was always intended to protect religious minorities from the government. If anyone is abusing it, he claims, it is companies like Hobby Lobby that invoked it to restrict the choices of their employees.
Critics of RFRA, such as legal scholar Marci Hamilton, warn that religious exemptions can turn the law into “
Swiss cheese.” In other words, there could be so many religious loopholes that laws become meaningless. Whether or not this is a serious concern, it is certainly true that RFRA must not benefit
only the Christian majority.
This is why constitutional law professor
Jay Wexler has encouraged the work of groups like The Satanic Temple, stating, “Only by insisting on exercising these rights can Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and everybody else ensure that the Court’s new religious jurisprudence does not result in a public space occupied exclusively by Christian messages and symbols. At stake is nothing less than our national public life.”
How the Satanic Temple is using 'abortion rituals' to claim religious liberty against the Texas' 'heartbeat bill'
It was just an expression for them taking joy in it. Sorry if it came off as innuendo.
![[IMG]](https://images.theconversation.com/files/422207/original/file-20210920-20-cbf8cs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C18%2C4013%2C2975&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip "[IMG]")
