These are also two people — #CevinSoling and #DougMisicko — who are politically completely opposed to what their popular support imagines them to be.

These are not trolls who are owning Christian Nationalists by exposing their hypocrisy; in fact, The Satanic Temple's two owners unironically want many of the same things as white nationalist reactionaries, such as completely undermining public schools:

https://queersatanic.com/cevin-soling-really-hates-public-schools

@SapphicSelene There are a lot of great people within The Satanic Temple who legitimately are trying to do good work.

Unfortunately, they are wasting their energy and resources supporting a structure designed to extract their labor and funds for the benefit of the two owners #CevinSoling and #DougMisicko, who are just awful people.

https://queersatanic.com/lucien-greaves-and-the-satanic-temple-have-a-lot-to-answer-for/

https://queersatanic.com/cevin-soling-really-hates-public-schools/

https://queersatanic.com/the-cevin-who-would-be-king/

There is a massive overlap between the kind of person who is most threatened by #ChristianNationalism, and the kind of person whom The Satanic Temple would declare it a matter of practicality to threaten into silence for having been disillusioned or victimized by TST locally.

And when you understand that #TheSatanicTemple is designed, on purpose, to only benefit two people — two dipshit Boomers with a history of reactionary, extractive politics — you understand why that overlap isn’t a coincidence, and why the culture that results is only going to hurt more people.

#CevinSoling #DougMisicko

@jlowenwrites @inbadfaith #CevinSoling a.k.a. "#MalcolmJarry" is not very influenced by the Church of Satan, and it seems like he couldn't care less about any of the #satanic stuff

However, trying to manipulate people and be an object of adoration fits with his history too, hence the would-be cargo cult messiah period of his life that overlapped with the first part of The #SatanicTemple
https://queersatanic.com/the-cevin-who-would-be-king/

=WHAT THE HELL IS "THE SATANIC TEMPLE"?=

So, if that's what The Satanic Temple is *not*, well, what is TST really?

As of 2022, TST is a collection of at least six corporations, four for-profit and two non-profit, with only one of those being a tax-exempt church.

The Temple and its two owners, #CevinSoling and #DougMisicko, describe that church in contradictory ways depending on the venue and most expedient excuse at that moment.

But in March 2012 when the web domains TheSatanicTemple .com and .org, were registered, TST was just a twinkle in the eye of Cevin "#MalcolmJarry" Soling as he imagined a prank documentary about "the nicest Satanic Cult in the world".

Along with friend and collaborator David "Nicholas Crowe" Guinan, Soling used his own company Spectacle Films, Inc. to begin producing this "nice Satanists" movie with the first stunt a public prayer event in Tallahassee, Fla., in January 2013.

Soling had brought his friend Doug Misicko (a.k.a. "#DougMesner"), a self-identified Satanist, in on the project to be an expert and add verisimilitude.

Originally intended to be a role shared by Guinan, Soling, and Misicko, it was Misicko who would eventually step into the "#LucienGreaves" role full time after the first actor—and stunt— flopped.

Through 2013, #TheSatanicTemple muddled through a number of different stunts and contrary postures from "Adopt-a-Highway" to Misicko "teabagging" the grave of the Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps' mother, which got coverage from Vice, HuffPo, and others as a "#PinkMass"

Finally, at the end of the year, Guinan, Misicko, and Soling landed on the stunt that would bring them to lasting national prominence: the promise that they would install their own Baphomet statue opposite a public monument to the 10 Commandments in Oklahoma.

Tens of thousands of dollars in donations followed; the fact that TST never actually sued anyone and the ACLU won the case without any help from the Temple mattered not at all.

The Satanic Temple also made sure that this specific statue design was officially TST's intellectual property and a registered trademark they could sue over.

The Satanic Temple made sure their statue got them into lots of headlines and proceeded to fundraise off of the idea they could counter Christian monuments with the threat of their own statue arriving to guarantee religious plurality was preserved; more money poured in.

In reality, as the prank doc drifted into a project with no end date, #DavidGuinan eventually left it.

Cevin Soling and Doug Misicko embarked together on creating first a for-profit corporation (United Federation of Churches, LLC d/b/a The Satanic Temple) then a 501c3 nonprofit (Reason Alliance Ltd.).

Soling would then create another for-profit he solely owned (64 Bridge LLC d/b/a "Salem Art Gallery") to house the statue and charge $8-$12 tickets to come take pictures with it.

You see them on social media all the time, and that's why.

In November 2020, as part of the official depositions for a lawsuit against the city of Belle Plaine, Minn., TST revealed that these ticket sales had since July 2017 brought in at least $182,000.

And that came *after* Misicko got caught lying about an invoice that revealed just how much fundraiser money Misicko had paid himself for the Belle Plaine stunt.

https://queersatanic.com/this-invoice-reveals-the-inner-workings-of-the-satanic-temples-finances/

We say often, "Today is a good day for The Satanic Temple to release its finances."

Because, well, #DougMisicko and #CevinSoling do *shady shit* with their finances.

https://queersatanic.com/today-is-a-good-day-for-the-satanic-temple-to-release-its-finances/5

But sometimes TSTers say the Temple shouldn't release their finances for review if the Christian orgs aren't going to.

@jamiegc #TheSatanicTemple got a minimum of $500K in tax-exempt donations last year plus who knows how much more in for-profit merch sales like $35 membership certificates

In addition, co-owner #CevinSoling is a NYC landlord scion (who tried to be a cargo cult messiah in the South Pacific from 2007-2018)

Point is, they are not hurting for money

Then from the book #TheMenWhoWouldBeKing, we recently became made aware about an *incredible* profile of #CevinSoling a.k.a. "Malcolm Jarry" that further establishes him as another right-libertarian ghoul

https://www.blind-magazine.com/news/how-to-be-a-king-a-beginners-guide/

> With us, Cevin was happy to have a receptive audience but was at the same time guarded, suspicious in case we were there to hatchet job him. We took him for lunch at a Polynesian restaurant on a dusty highway outside Boston, opposite a branch of Hooters, where he ordered the lobster and after a couple of cocktails started to loosen up.
>
> "It's a sad, sad time we're living in," Cevin said, "when status is founded on the degree of how offended you are and the greater virtue you can claim." He blamed, in part, America's 'postmodern' campus culture.

Well, all of Friday came and went, and that was #TheSatanicTemple’s deadline to answer us.

Then the weekend and all of Monday came and went with no filing or explanation.

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17042463/united-federation-of-churches-llc-v-johnson/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=desc

#TST lead counsel #MattKezhaya needed to explain to the judge why he decided to file his preliminary injunction about a Facebook page 2.5 years after the lawsuit started and half a year after being informed that we had in writing and on video assurances the Temple wouldn’t seek that Facebook page.

Kezhaya really needed to make an explanation to the federal judge why the for-profit company that TST owners #DougMisicko and #CevinSoling were suing four former local TST chapter members with wasn’t just using its significant resources to be vexatious litigants in pursuit of a #SLAPP lawsuit.

But the deadline came and went.

tl;dr - sucks to suck

All the way back to when The Satanic Temple's co-owner #CevinSoling posted a rival GoFundMe to divert attention away from us...

And in case you've forgotten, this is the right one 🖤♥🖤
https://www.gofundme.com/f/legal-fund-for-victims-of-satanic-temple1 ♥🖤♥

...the Temple's only claim that we committed a literal crime by changing management of a Facebook memes page was that one co-defendant—who says in the same post he had nothing to do with anything and got kicked out without warning—says in an offhand comment to that post that "we stole".

That's the whole thing, and it followed two different occasions of TST's local authorities saying the exact opposite, including on a public Zoom meeting for the whole chapter to hear.

TST never offered any evidence they tried to get Facebook to hand them ownership, and never even bothered to send a fucking email with a demand about it.

Two and a half years of our lives over a FACEBOOK MEMES PAGE, and these goddamned CLOWNS couldn't even dot their i's and cross their t's?

The devil take them.
---
2. TST Cannot Show It is Likely to Succeed on the Merits

TST’s Motion is based on its state common law claims for conversion and trespass to chattels, stemming from the false allegations that Defendants have intentionally and wrongfully dispossessed TST of its property. Motion at 5. Specifically, TST alleges in its Motion that Defendants wrongfully dispossessed TST of the Memes Page. Id. at 5-7. TST has not, and cannot, establish that it will succeed on this claim. To the contrary, the evidence, of which TST is fully aware, establishes the opposite.

To succeed on a claim for conversion, a plaintiff must establish: (1) willful interference with chattel belonging to the plaintiff, (2) by either taking or unlawful retention, (3) thereby depriving the owner of possession. See Judkins v. Sadler-Mac Neil, 61 Wn.2d 1, 3, 376 P.2d 837 (1962). Similarly, trespass to chattels requires showing the intentional dispossession of chattels. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 217. At the core of both these related claims is the requirement for proving the wrongful use or interference with the property. If a defendant has permission or other lawful reason for retaining or using property, the claim fails. See, e.g., Revolutionar, Inc. v. Gravity Jack, Inc., 13 Wn. App. 2d 1044 (2020) (unpublished; cited as persuasive authority) (because defendants had permission to use the software code and platform at issue the conversion claim failed). Stated yet another way, “[i]n order to constitute conversion, nonconsent to the possession and disposition of the property by the defendant is indispensable.” 90 C.J.S. Trover and Conversion § 6; see also Restatement (Second) of Torts § 272 (“One who is entitled to the immediate possession of a chattel is not liable to another for dispossessing him of it.”).

In this case, TST cannot show that Defendants have wrongfully used or interfered with property owned by TST. First, TST provides no evidence that it is the owner of or has any rights to the Memes Page. The one pseudonymous declaration submitted in support of the Motion (which should not be considered) offers no evidence that TST has any legal right to the Memes Page. The pseudonymous declarant offers one conclusory assertion that the Memes Page is “TST’s Facebook page,” but offers no factual support for that assumption. Tellingly, TST provides no explanation as to why, if TST felt it had the legal right to control the Memes Page, it never sought the page through Facebook over two and a half years ago, when Defendant Meehan changed its name and posted that the page was not affiliated with TST. TST had an avenue available to it through Facebook (the owner of the Page) to remove Defendants as the administrators if TST felt it was the rightful party to control it. But TST does not allege that it even attempted that step. Instead, TST simply points to one offhand statement that Defendant Sullivan made in a Facebook post in which he says that they “stole” the page from TST. However, as Defendant Sullivan explains, the comment was meant to be glib because at that point TST had already relinquished any interest in the Memes Page and had told Defendants they could use it “free and clear.” Sullivan Decl. ¶ 15. In short, there is no credible evidence (or any evidence at all), that TST is the rightful party to control the Memes Page.

On the other hand, through the contemporaneously filed declarations, Defendants have provided proof that they do have the right to control the Memes Page. TST expressly acknowledged that right when its Media Liaison, Paul Case/Tarkus Claypool, told Defendant Meehan he could use the page “free and clear” and when Case/Claypool reiterated TST’s relinquishment of any interest in the town hall meeting. Johnson Decl. ¶ 14 & Ex. 5; Sullivan Decl. ¶ 10 & Ex. 1. TST has acted consistently with these statements by never asking Facebook to remove Defendants as administrators from the Memes Page as TST did for another Facebook page that was at issue in this suit.[Footnote 6] Nor did TST ever ask Defendants to give it control of the Memes Page until well over two years after bringing this lawsuit.

When made aware of the evidence that TST relinquished any interest in the Memes Page, TST’s counsel suggested that TST’s Media Liaison lacked the authority to speak on TST-WA’s behalf. Roller Decl. Ex. 2. However, TST-WA itself has represented to its members that TSTWA’s Chapter Head and Media Liaison have authority to run TST-WA. Sullivan Decl. ¶ 2; Johnson Decl. ¶ 3. Indeed, even in its SAC, TST refers to its Media Liaison, Paul Case/Tarkus Claypool, as a TST representative.[Footnote 7] At the very most, TST’s argument could potentially create an issue of fact (although a very weak one). But such an issue of fact would not help TST establish its clear legal right to the Memes Page or Defendants’ wrongful use of the Memes Page as required to support a mandatory injunction, or even a preliminary injunction.
---
[Footnote 6] See SAC ¶ 4, in which TST describes how it worked through Facebook to obtain the
administrative control of TST’s Washington Chapter Facebook Page.

[Footnote 7] The individual who sent Defendant Mickey Meehan (a/k/a “Lenore Calavera”) the March 15, 2020 email was known as “Tarkus Claypool.” Sullivan Decl. ¶¶ 3, 10. Upon information and belief, the individual’s name for government documents is Paul M. Case. Id. ¶ 3. In its SAC, TST refers to Tarkus Claypool as its Media Liaison and states that it was Tarkus Claypool who sought the return of the Washington Chapter Facebook Page on TST’s behalf. SAC ¶ 53. Thus, TST itself has held out Tarkus Claypool as its agent.

by the way, if you're wondering why it is that we speak so openly and caustically about The #SatanicTemple, and its co-owners #DougMisicko a.k.a. "#LucienGreaves" and #CevinSoling a.k.a. "#MalcolmJarry", knowing how litigious they are it's because they already tried and failed to hit us with that—twice

The four members of @QueerSatanic currently being dragged thru litigation for 2.5 years and counting as part of a #SLAPP suit keep beating their asses in court because they are as incompetent as they are malicious

https://www.socialactuality.com/post/schism-the-satanic-temple-a-lawsuit-and-the-necessity-of-clear-minded-settlement

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17042463/20/united-federation-of-churches-llc-v-johnson/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17042463/30/united-federation-of-churches-llc-v-johnson/

And nothing seems to piss off bullies more than when they take their best shot and you're still standing.

be gay, do crime, and #HailSatan

by the way, if you're wondering why it is that we speak so openly and caustically about The #SatanicTemple, and its co-owners #DougMisicko a.k.a. "#LucienGreaves" and #CevinSoling a.k.a. "#MalcolmJarry", knowing how litigious they are it's because they already tried and failed to hit us with that—twice

The four members of @QueerSatanic currently being sued for 2.5 years and counting keep beating their asses in court because they are as incompetent as they are malicious

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17042463/20/united-federation-of-churches-llc-v-johnson/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17042463/30/united-federation-of-churches-llc-v-johnson/

And nothing seems to piss off bullies more than when they take their best shot and you're still standing.

be gay, do crime, and #HailSatan

by the way, if you're wondering why it is that we speak so openly and caustically about #TheSatanic Temple, and its co-owners #DougMisicko a.k.a. "#LucienGreaves" and #CevinSoling a.k.a. "#MalcolmJarry", knowing how litigious they are it's because they already tried and failed to hit us with that—twice

The four members of @QueerSatanic currently being sued for 2.5 years and counting keep beating their asses in court because they are as incompetent as they are malicious

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17042463/20/united-federation-of-churches-llc-v-johnson/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17042463/30/united-federation-of-churches-llc-v-johnson/

And nothing seems to piss off bullies more than when they take their best shot and you're still standing.

be gay, do crime, and #HailSatan

Is #TheSatanicTemple a business cult?

Many people are asking questions, and this is not helped by #TST constantly referring to itself as a business in court documents (even when suing as its tax-exempt church)

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

Just fucking incredible. #Journalism loves the idea of #Satanism as dark and evil or "good, actually"; but this banal abusive shit, for some reason reporters generally have no time for.

By the way, there is approximately 0 chance that TST co-owners #CevinSoling and #DougMisicko have any interest in fully opening their books up to inspection during discovery. None.

It has cost us $100,000 now to defend ourselves from #DougMisicko's and #CevinSoling's punitive lawsuit,
https://queersatanic.com/the-costs-of-defending-yourself-from-the-satanic-temple/

We have suffered harassment and our loved ones have been stalked by people apparently paid to do it, likely paid out of donations people think are helping fight for abortion access.

If you want to know more, we have tried hard to make it easier to read and understand for everyone:
https://campsite.bio/queersatanic

But know this: this is not a fight between equals. This is not a matter of "drama", and whatever problems you have with our "tone" or our "tactics" or think we "fucked around" and now are "finding out", just remember that #TheSatanicTemple will not stop with — because they haven't.

We were not the first people TST threatened to sue, and since we've stood tall, they also have sued Newsweek, it's reporter as an individual, and now this woman who made a video on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@thesatanichousewife/video/7094299391112138030