How ironic is it to have Satanists play Devil’s advocate?
A few months ago, the Supreme Court allowed Hobby Lobby to be exempt from the law of the land because of their “sincerely held religious beliefs”. It is not clear to me how a corporation can have any beliefs at all (let alone sincerely held religious ones), nor how having such a belief (if they could) might give them the right to impose those beliefs on their employees. (I guess that’s why I’m not on the Supreme Court.)
The Satanic Temple, which is a recognized religious organization, says that “informed consent” state laws violate their sincerely held beliefs. These are laws promoted by pro-life groups, requiring that before women can get an abortion they have to listen to state-approved information about the procedure, information that may be inaccurate or misleading. The Satanic Temple has created a form letter that is intended to let women who share their beliefs opt out of the informed consent laws. They say that if their religious beliefs are violated, they will sue.
This isn’t the first time the Satanic Temple has fought for religious freedom (which seems to be their main reason for existing). A month ago they won the right to create a religious display for the Florida State Capitol, alongside displays created by Christians, atheists, and even Pastafarians (from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster).
After all, the Constitution clearly states that the government cannot give preference to any valid religion. By allowing one religion into the state capitol, or giving them the right to exempt themselves from a law, they are opening the door to all religions to do the same thing.
One hopes that eventually the Supreme Court will realize that the only workable solution, and the one most likely in accord with the wishes of the founding fathers, was for the government to keep completely out of the religion game.
