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In The News |
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June 16 - What’s Up With the Sudden Rise in Satanism?
Article: Miscellaneous
In recent years, there’s been a bizarre spike in media attention paid to people who openly associate with a group called The Satanic Temple. You might wonder what, exactly, would prompt someone to want to be associated with what some might call “pure evil.” Well, there’s a key detail that some people might be missing after reading the litany of Satanist-themed news stories that have emerged over the past few years: While many activists call themselves Satanists, a lot of them are effectively atheists.
The Satanic Temple is the group that is perhaps most often cited in news stories for its activities urging the separation of church and state and championing abortion rights, among other issues. On the surface, readers might assume that these individuals are somehow theologically aligned with the devil, seeking to worship the dark side in some overt and flagrant way. That said, the organization has taken issue with being described as an “atheist activist group,” as the Detroit Metro Times reported. “We consider ourselves non-theistic Satanists. And a religious organization — that’s a really important distinction that we make,” Jex Blackmore told the outlet, pushing back against the atheist label it has sometimes been slapped with. “For example, Hindus are sometimes called non-theists. And you wouldn’t call political Hindus activists, or atheist activists.”
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