Hail Satan?

Question: The Satanic Temple—a non-theistic religious activist group headed up by Lucien Greaves (not his real name)—has a) performed ritual murder/sacrifices, b) drank the blood of babies, or c) argued that America as a pluralistic nation should honor the separation of church and state envisioned by the Founding Fathers? Filmmaker Penny Lane (her real name) presents a funny and thought-provoking look at the Satanic Temple, naturally headquartered in Salem, MA, which was founded by three members in 2013 and grew to over 50,000 strong within three years. Noting that Satan challenged authority (check out John Milton’s Paradise Lost), the group is less concerned with doing the Devil’s work than in fighting against the definition of America as a monotheistic Christian nation (yes, the answer was “c”). Lane points out that “God” appeared in the Pledge of Allegiance and on U.S. currency only in the 1950s, both in direct response to Cold War godless Communism. While the Satanic Temple started out as more of a satirical performance art group (Detroit’s Jex Blackmore was a little too heavily into vaguely S&M gatherings—graphic nudity alert—and has since been, uh, excommunicated), the group quickly evolved to target instances of Christian iconography/rituals in public and politically-connected spaces. One of the central legal battles humorously recounted here is between the Satanic Temple and Arkansas State Senator Jason Rapert, with the latter championing a Ten Commandments monument on Capitol grounds (interesting side-note: Ten Commandments monuments proliferated in America in 1956—donated by Paramount Pictures in conjunction with Cecil B. DeMille’s sword-and-sandals epic The Ten Commandments). In the interests of equal play, the Satanic Temple wants to put up their statue of Baphomet (a Sabbatic goat figure) as well. Other mini-battles/actions include an after-school Satan club, a Satanist sock drive to help the homeless, and the Satanic Temple’s highway-adoption stretch of road (where trash is picked up with—wait for it—pitchforks). Hail Satan? will make you laugh but also think hard about American ideals and where real evil lies (the Catholic Church comes in for a few well-deserved knocks). Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)