It was a spectacle designed to highlight First Amendment values, event organizers said. “If you’re going to have one religious monument up then it should be open to others, and if you don’t agree with that then let’s just not have any at all,” said Satanic Arkansas co-founder Ivy Forrester, who helped organize the rally. Lucien Greaves, spokesman and co-founder of the Satanic Temple, echoed a similar sentiment.
The Satanic Temple unveiled a statue of the occult idol Baphomet outside the Arkansas State Capitol building on Thursday [August 16] to protest the Ten Commandments monument already on capitol grounds.
The rally was attended by about 150 Satanists, Christians, atheists and curious onlookers, all of whom were peaceful apart from one protestor who was escorted away by police after interrupting a Christian speaker.
It was a spectacle designed to highlight First Amendment values, event organizers said.
“If you’re going to have one religious monument up then it should be open to others, and if you don’t agree with that then let’s just not have any at all,” said Satanic Arkansas co-founder Ivy Forrester, who helped organize the rally.
Lucien Greaves, spokesman and co-founder of the Satanic Temple, echoed a similar sentiment.
“The event is intended to be an inclusive gathering where The Satanic Temple will be celebrating pluralism along with Christian and secular speakers. People of many faiths will come together at the Capitol to reject the Arkansas State Legislature’s efforts to privilege one religion over others.”
In a video of the rally, what appear to be Christian counter-protestors can be seen holding signs that read “you shall have no other gods before me” and “I am the Lord your God.” However, it’s unclear whether any protestors who seemed or claimed to be Satanists were actually interested in idol worship or the occult. After all, the Satanic Temple, not to be confused with the Church of Satan, is partly a political activist group whose stated mission is to encourage the separation of church and state and “benevolence and empathy among all people.”
