LGBT people may be interested to learn that the one spiritual group that is the most queer-positive, vocally supportive and critical of religious hypocrisy against social rights violations is not any sect of Buddhism, Judaism or Christianity.
It’s the Satanists.
Equal parts literary spiritualists and political provocateurs, the New York-based Satanic Temple is founded on the basis of critical thinking, diversity, personal freedom, empathy and reason. While some might argue that other religions pursue a few of those tenets to varying degrees, the Satanic Temple has proven that they back up their beliefs with action.
I previously blogged about how my friends at the Satanic Temple ritualistically converted the late Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps’s dead mother to gay through their Pink Mass.
Last week, Satanic Temple head Lucien Greaves spoke to Detroit’s Metro Times about the advocacy and activism the non-supernatural religious organization has been doing.
“We work on social issues, engaging the socio-political dialogue,” Greaves said. “One of the things we felt strongly about is gay rights. And there’s been a lot of progress, but there’s still a lot of progress to be made.”
This includes work in Greaves’s home state of Michigan, where, after a judge recently ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is discriminatory and unconstitutional, Governor Rick Snyder said same-sex marriages performed in the interim between the ruling and upholding the judge’s decision in the Court of Appeals will not be recognized by the state.
“In Michigan, Gov Rick Snyder allows his loathing of homosexuals to trump his adhesion to the Constitution,” Greaves continues. “What we’d like to do is school Snyder on the Constitution and school him on the First Amendment by performing a gay marriage in Michigan.”
Further work by the Satanic Temple includes protecting children from corporal punishment in schools and championing women’s right to reproductive health access without the need for medical violation.
“We’re going to do more in social justice,” Greaves said. “I urge people to check out our Protect Children Project. I also know Snyder has been trying to make it untenable for women to terminate a pregnancy, and we feel we should protect women from superfluous procedures like the trans-vaginal ultrasound, with religious exemption.”
There’s an irony here, when the Satanists are fighting against the evils of Christianity. That’s why, even though I’m a devout atheist, I will always consider myself a devil’s advocate as long as the Satanic Temple keeps doing their amazing work.
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