A Satanic display erected near a Christmas Nativity scene on city property near the New Hampshire State House has been removed after sustaining damage in multiple attacks.
It wasn’t clear midweek whether organizers will erect a similar display again.
“I think they probably should because I think the vandalism and the hatefulness shouldn’t go without a response. But it’s up to them,” said state Rep. Ellen Read, a Democrat from Newmarket.
Read told CNA she came up with the idea for the Satanic display at City Plaza so that the yearly Christmas scene put up by a local council of the Knights of Columbus wouldn’t be the only display there this month. She said she contacted the Satanic Temple, an organization headquartered in Salem, Massachusetts, with affiliates in New Hampshire and elsewhere that says on its website it does not “believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural,” to put the idea in motion.
The display, which centered on a black statue of a pagan god, was initially attacked Saturday night shortly after it was erected while organizers were eating dinner across the street after the ceremony, she said.
Read said she believes it was attacked at least twice after that, leaving the statue in pieces and the marble base cracked. The remnants of the display were removed Tuesday, three days after it went up.
The city of Concord, which is the state capital, issued a permit for the Satanic display. But the mayor said earlier this week that while he disapproves of vandalism he also wishes city officials hadn’t issued a permit for the display.
“I opposed the permit because I believe the request was made not in the interest of promoting religious equity but in order to drive an anti-religious political agenda, and because I do not respond well to legal extortion, the threat of litigation,” said Byron Champlin, mayor of Concord, during a city council meeting Monday night.
“Some on social media have celebrated the Satanic Temple’s display as a victory for religious pluralism and a reflection of our growing diversity as a community. I disagree with this. This is about an out-of-state organization cynically promoting its national agenda at the expense of the Concord community,” said Champlin, a Democrat.
Black goat head
On Saturday night people associated with the Satanic Temple unveiled a black goat-headed statue representing the pagan god Baphomet with a blue stole around its shoulders similar to what Catholic priests and clerics in certain other Christian denominations wear.
In its right hand, as shown in a Facebook video, was the state flower of New Hampshire, lilacs; and its left hand was an apple, which some take to be a reference to the fall of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis. An individual present at the event said the apple “reminds us of our quest for knowledge, defiance in the face of arbitrary authority, and our commitment to self-determination.”
The base of the statue included what the Satanic Temple calls its seven tenets, which include calls for “compassion,” “empathy,” “reason,” and “freedom” as well as autonomy.
“One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” one of the tenets states.
Read said the Satanic Temple is a religion and that expressing its belief system is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“The people who believe in the Satanic Temple deeply believe in these tenets. I think it’s the narrow-mindedness of the mayor, who can’t seem to wrap his head around that this represents a large percentage of the community and its beliefs,” Read told CNA by telephone.
Asked whether the pagan statue is a parody of Christianity, Read said it isn’t.
“Most people walking by realize that this is not an attack on Christianity, just as most people walking by the Nativity scene realize it’s not an attack on non-Christians. In both cases, it’s people expressing their beliefs, as is their First Amendment right,” Read said.
Read told CNA she is a member of the Satanic Temple but not active in it. She said she signed up online some time ago because she was attracted by its tenets but that she has never attended any of the organization’s events.
She said she was raised as a nondenominational Christian and took steps as an adult to become an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church but that uncharitable behavior by some Christians in her congregation and the wider society led her to leave Christianity about eight years ago.
Even so, she said, “I still consider myself a practical follower of Christ’s teachings.”
Read said she does not believe that Satan exists, which aligns with what the Satanic Temple says in published statements — although its ministers on Saturday night ended their remarks by saying “Hail Satan.”
Christians do believe Satan exists, citing various verses in the Bible, including Zechariah 3:1-4, Matthew 13:36-40, and Ephesians 6:10-12, among others. Jesus identifies Satan as “a liar and the father of lies” in John 8:44, and he says “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” in Luke 10:18. The Book of Revelation says Satan “was thrown down to earth” during a war in heaven between the angels who followed God and the angels who rejected God (Rev 12:7-12).
Read, explaining what attracts people to Satanism, said people who feel rejected or repelled by Christianity, which they equate with power in American society, like the symbolism of doing the opposite.
“Some people are so hurt that symbols of the adversary — that’s what Satan means, ‘the adversary’ — speak to them, because symbols of rebellion against that power demonstrate to them that someone has their back,” Read said.
Grinch?
Concord is a city of about 45,000 in central New Hampshire.
Read, one of the state’s 400 state representatives, lives in Newmarket, about 30 miles east by southeast of Concord. The mayor of Concord said he isn’t pleased that someone who doesn’t live in the city helped bring about the display.
He also suggested that the stated principles of the Satanic Temple mask what the organization is actually about.
“Its seven tenets, many of them commendable, are really a smoke screen to provide an air of legitimacy for its deliberately provocative and disturbing effigy,” Champlin said. “In fact, considering its impact on Concord’s holiday spirit, I think a more appropriate choice of effigy for the satanic devil would have been the Grinch.”
The city issued a permit for the Knights of Columbus Nativity scene on Nov. 29. The permit for the Satanic Temple display was issued Dec. 7, according to public documents obtained by CNA.