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| Jex Blackmore, 32, a metro Detroit native and a University of Michigan graduate, is the lead person establishing a Satanic Temple in Detroit. Regina H. Boone/Detroit Free Press |
A new religious group aims to bring the devil to Detroit.
The Satanic Temple today marks the launch of its first chapter outside New York. But leaders say they don’t worship Satan. They don’t practice cannibalism, or sacrifice people or animals.
“It’s peaceful,” said Jex Blackmore, 32, local leader and part of the temple’s executive ministry. “The idea of sacrifice specifically is to appease some demon or some god, and that’s a supernatural belief that we don’t subscribe to.”
The group’s tenets include free will, compassion toward all creatures, respect of others’ freedom — including freedom to offend — and beliefs supported by scientific understanding: “We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs,” according to the Satanic Temple’s website.
Based on Western civilization’s most notorious evil character, the sect is intrinsically controversial. The Satanic Temple was started about two years ago and has drawn national attention for First Amendment-related demonstrations in communities as far-flung as Florida and Massachusetts.
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. Blackmore said that if the Christians removed their monument, the push to install Baphomet would end.
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Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C., said Friday that the Satanists reflect the increasing diversity in America, a country founded on religious freedom, as protestant Christianity’s influence has lessened.
“Groups that feel that the government often privileges the majority faith are trying to find new ways to correct that, and to address that,” he said, adding that the Ten Commandments illustrate Christians’ effort to preserve their culture. “A lot of the culture war fights can be traced back to the notion of ‘losing our country.’ ”
Source: Detroit Free Press
