To the #ChurchOfSatan's credit, they've never sued ex-members for criticizing them and don't promise pregnant people they can help them get abortions with religious liberty loopholes.

Folks who support them generally *do* understand accurately that they aren't getting anything special in return.

But does that make them the "good ones"? Not exactly, and when it comes to the things #AntonLaVey, #PeterGilmore, and other key figures have said and done when forming and representing #CoS, the history with open #neoNazis and #fascists is quite awful, before even getting into the dogwhistles.

This article goes thru some of that Church of Satan history & provides sourcing for anyone to check for themselves if they believe there is some exculpatory context being left out or some passage omitted changes what is included means.

Note that none of this is a defense of The Satanic Temple, tho.

https://queersatanic.com/anton-lavey-was-worse-than-you-think/

=NO, NOT THAT SORT OF SATANIC CHURCH=

By now, most people have heard *something* about "The Satanic Temple," and many believe they have a good idea about what it is already.

These people are wrong.

So, before getting into what #TST *is*, let's establish what it is *not*

The Temple and its members do not worship or believe in a literal, supernatural devil.

Likewise, TST members do not conduct animal sacrifices, ritualistically abuse children, etc.

#TheSatanicTemple is not the same thing the "#ChurchOfSatan," another atheistic organization founded by Howard "#AntonLaVey" Levey in San Francisco in 1966.

TST's foundational text is not #TheSatanicBible, which LaVey published in 1969.

The Satanic Temple is not a leftist or even progressive organization.

The Temple does not have a history of legal victories taking advantage of "religious freedom loopholes".

The Satanic Temple is not a federally recognized religion; however, one of its half-dozen corporations did get IRS approval as a tax-exempt church.

https://queersatanic.com/what-the-hell-is-the-satanic-temple-ep-5-the-satanic-temple-inc/

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #193: Satanists.
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#trivia #didyouknow #religion #satanism #occult #faith #belief #atheism #thesatanictemple #churchofsatan #antonlavey #satanictemple #tst #webcomic #comics #comic #webcomics #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

rare image of #AntonLaVey engaging in a #Satanic ritual, the mid-1990s (colorized)

#Satanism #SatanicRitual #SatanicMemes

If you want even more, including discussion of #Satanists being “chromosomally different” from the rest of the population, see Blanche Barton's authorized biography of her romantic partner Anton LaVey "The Secret Life of A Satanist", which includes this section:

> For now, isolation, abdication and stratification are LaVey’s proposed Satanic weapons against the ongoing Invisible War. LaVey has already given a name, Satanism, for the small percentage of the population that he feels are chromosomally different, and perhaps chromosomally resistant to the effects of control. Stratification is a magical process of purification – subtractive rather than additive. Says LaVey, “As the ware progresses, and as population increases to an even more intolerable level stretching resources to impossible lengths, the strong will begin fighting for their very survival. That’s what we’re seeing right now. Society will become more and more stratified into the people who aren’t buying the bullshit in society and those who blindly follow where they are led. Satanists, freethinkers, are a burgeoning minority cause. We have an illness that needs to be recognized just like alcoholism, handicaps, addictive behaviors and AIDS. We suffer from a disease called independence – a pathological aversion to regimentation and institutionalism – which prevents us from getting ‘regular’ jobs and living a ‘normal’ life.
>
> Instead of encouraging “proliferation of the weak,” LaVey feels it’s imperative to isolate and foster the emerging new genetic strain of Satanists. With the debut of The Compleat Witch in 1970 (later The Satanic Witch), LaVey presented his guide for selective breeding. In an August 16, 1971 article, “Evil Anyone?,” Newsweek captioned a picture of LaVey baptizing his daughter, Zeena, “…Building ‘a better race,’” and quotes Anton describing his Satanic goal as “the creation of a police state in which the weak are weeded out and the ‘achievement-oriented leadership’ is permitted to pursue the mysteries of black magic.”
>
> Later, in The Satanic Rituals, LaVey included this directive to his followers: “Now it is the higher man’s role to produce the children of the future. Quality is now more important than quantity. One cherished child who can create will be more important than ten who can produce – or fifty [who] can believe!” In an interview from Fling, Anton vows that he would “enhance the growth of new, more intelligent generations, if I had the chance, by selective breeding. But this is so terrifyingly related to Hitlerism that usually I can’t even talk about it.”
>
> We asked exactly what kind of Master Race he envisions, LaVey explains that the Satanic stratification and segregation he advocates is based on “ethics rather than ethnics.” “As I’ve said, I wish to identify, isolate and breed a new ethnic – one that’s been there all along, unrecognized, from the beginning of man’s existence. There have always been leaders, innovators, risk-takers among all cultures. These are the few, perhaps one-tenth of once percent, that lead nations forward, lead evolution forward. Satanism is the first time in history where a master race can be built of genetically predisposed, like-minded people – not based on the genes that make them white, black, blue, brown or purple – but the genes that make them Satanists. We need a forum from which to assert our culture. Any person I’ve ever met who’s accomplished anything in his life had a real disdain for his own ‘people’. Not that they hate Jews or Germans or Irish or Italians per se – just that they hate stupidity and herd mentality. They hate the idea of using any ethnicity as an identity. Some people that come from Jewish backgrounds, where Judaic traditions were really emphasized in the home, are the most rabid anti-Semitic people I know. And I don’t blame them. If they grew up in a stifling environment with professional Jews for parents or professional Catholics, I don’t blame them for running away, changing their names, completely inverting their lives and never wanting to see their parents again! That’s often how leaders are born.

#Satanism #AntonLaVey #ChurchOfSatan #Eugenics #SatanistGene #BlanchBarton #SatanicRituals