Many Christians probably believe that these laws were made for everyone except them. If you go to more conservative sites discussing the matter, they would probably be asking why people aren't charged for hate crimes against Christians. It's part of their persecution complex.
"For saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas! Starbucks changed to just a red cup so that's a hate crime too! Schools are trying to stop coaches from making kids on their teams pray! And trans people exist! Hate crimes!!"
As a Satanist myself, I honestly think that would/should be their lawyers case.
We are atheists and the argument that we're not really a religion is something conservative courts might believe.
I haven’t looked into any filings for religious exemption/status, etc so I’m not sure how we've made our case in the past. I think we should be prepared to advocate that our mutual belief in the seven tenets is our religion.
Here in Germany religions and world-views have equal status, and if Baphomet is a symbol of your specific brand of atheism and its values then desecrating it is, well, desecration: An insult of those values.
Zen folks also aren't religious in the western understanding, the whole distinction is a western construct, yet I don't doubt burning down a Zen temple would be considered a hate crime even by Christians.
From what I understand the legal situation in the US is actually similar. When people started the Sudburry school they had a look at the options and went straight-ahead for making it a denominational school as it offered the best conditions and flexibility. They specifically created a humanist creed just for that founding.
Push come to shove, lessons to learn? More architecture, more fancy robes and chants.
And the Cristian wack jobs are in full force donating to his legal defense. Already at 116.000 usd, with completely normal and not at all fanatic comments, like "_ May God punish the foul souls bringing charges against you! There is a higher law than man made law, and you are upon that law. God bless you and keep you._". Abhorrent behavior...
God damn, I wish I didn't have morals and a conscience... With my knowledge of religion and the scriptures I could be making BANK milking the gullible.
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Sooo yeah "God is a higher authority you need not heed" is more like government is the official middle management. Obey the management.
Is 116.00 supposed to be like 116,000? Must have shot up since the article was published then?
Cassidy is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 15. He has raised more than $84,000 for his defense from nearly 2,000 supporters, according to the fundraising site GiveSendGo.
The commandment is actually "you shall not murder". There's a distinct difference between killing and murdering; murder can be categorised as only a small subset of killing. I could be misled but I'm under the impression that to old testament era Jews killing a non-jew was never murder.
The "religious freedom" crowd are the ones who want the freedom to grift and sow divisiveness among their brain-dead sheep, I mean pawns, I mean congregants.
my conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted
You know what is going to be held captive by bureaucratic decree? Your felon status, fucker!
Can I have your AR-15 once you're convicted? Because you won't be allowed to own it after! And j/k about your rifle, I bet it's a PSA p p piece of shit (dumbasses like this guy tend to be poor whiskey tango).
The fuck is wrong with PSA? I've got multiple of their lowers and they are just as rugged as the Gucci lowers from other companies. Hell the main utv ar I have for farm duty is a PSA.
Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple says it doesn’t believe in Satan but describes itself as a “non-theistic religious organization” that advocates for secularism.
I think the intend was definitely to protest and demand "Separation of church and state". So problem wasn't the nutjob destroying the idol, it was the nutjobs allowing religious displays in the Capitol building.
Trapping christians is like shooting fish in a barrel. Since childhood they've been punished for critical thinking and rewarded for public displays of religious intolerance and ignorance.
TBH, Baphomet is a honey trap for religious nuts to go after.
It would not be a surprise to see one hold Baphomet's decapitated head up in triumph and proclaim himself leader of God's army.
I wish that I was kidding.
They believe the absolute most insane things, like there's an invisible war going that they're somehow the protagonists in. A story written just for them.
Unfortunately , we're all just npcs to them and they are willing to let everyone on earth suffer and die, if that's what they think their imaginary friends in their heads wants.
They believe the absolute most insane things, like there’s an invisible war going that they’re somehow the protagonists in. A story written just for them.
Straight from St. Paul. Maybe they shouldn't have picked to follow a man with narrasistic personality disorder.
That's the whole point of this religion, to trigger religious people. There no other reason to pick the satanic symbolism.
It's like "oh yeha, you want freedom to believe whatever insane thing you want and push it into the secular state? We can do that too, bitch" kinda thing.
Which is good, the only problem I see is that some people seem like they are starting to get attached to the religion.
If you look at what the religion actually has as its tenets, it is more mainstream and mentally healthier than a number of Christian religions. I still am not a member, tho, just looking in from the outside.
The triggering is not the point of the religion, but is an activism to defend a separation of church and state. I grew up in a cult religion, and REALLY do not want any religion to be part of government.
That's always been the case. The only people who think that Satanists actually worship satan are idiots.
Every single Satanist i've ever met, and I haven't met a lot I admit, are just nice people who don't understand why the church is so powerful considering all the crimes they've covered up over the years. Especially considering that practically every single "Christian" democracy claims to separate church and state.
My guess is somebody clued them in that if they didn't hit this guy with a hate crime then there would be precedent to protect people from hate crime status for crimes against Christian property.
That's not really how precedent works. Not choosing to charge him with a hate crime would be a matter of prosecutorial discretion, and wouldn't affect other prosecutors' charging decisions.
You better believe if you took a shit on whatever jeebus monument they have at the Mississippi Capitol they'd put you under the jail with every imaginable charge.
I strongly suspect this guy has a room temperature iq (celcius) and will probably be wondering why he was charged with destroying a baphomet statue rather than one of satan (he spells it Santa though when he gets crayons).
Red, white, and black! Check. Pagan origins? Check. Older than Josh? Check. Keeps a list of good & naughty people based on someone else's notion of such? Check. Makes kiddos curious about the truth and adults wary? Checkity check. Same guy, it seems. 🤷🏼♂️
The fires of hell or the Arctic Wastes. I mean is there really a difference. After all there's such a thing as frostbite which is basically burning cold.
It's charged as a felony. I believe someone said there was minimum jail time of around two years.
Reminder to donate to the Satanic Temple. They fight christian idiots with things like holiday decorations of Baphomet on state land. Fund them enough and we'll get another one or more of these insecure god-thumpers locked up next year.
Personally I like the idea that there is an afterlife but it's just another level of existence and nothing supernatural. And all these idiots are just really bored and have to come to terms with the fact that they died without ever really having a personality or opinions of their own. Everything they believed was just pointless and they would have been better off leaving everyone else alone.