I’m not going to lie — I’m posting this mainly so I could write that headline.
Of any person in the world, film director John Waters gives the best damn interviews. In his recent Papermag interview, speaking about his touring one-man Christmas special, Waters was asked if current events influence his performances:
“I’m a big fan of The Satanic Temple, which just won the right in, I forget where, in Tennessee or somewhere [it’s Tallahassee, Florida] — the state capitol has different nativity scenes, so they sued so that they could put their atheist thing in there, and they won, and it’s an angel plunging into hell. Which they have to put next to all the religious ones, which I think is hilarious.”
The Satanic Temple — New York-based, anti-supernatural religious provocateurs — has been challenging arbitrary Christian privileges all over the country. As Waters points out, one of their recent successes is a satanic holiday display right next to the nativity scene in the Florida State Capitol building. TST’s display features an angel tumbling down into hell:
Mormon radio host Glenn Beck decried TST’s charming Christmas display as a sign that “destruction is coming our way,” and Fox News host Tucker Carlson said, “I mean, this is just an inability to draw reasonable distinctions between reality and what is a pretty offensive prank.” Because, you know, a virgin getting impregnated by an invisible man in the sky is the definition of “reality.”
While already receiving a great deal of media attention, the Satanists certainly don’t mind the king of filth’s blessing, either. “I’m a big fan of John Waters,” one fan wrote on TST’s Facebook page. “He’s like the Muhammad of Satanism.”
Now there’s a good image for a holiday display.
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