In a recent interview surrounding a new documentary entitled “Hail Satan?” which centers on the views of the non-theistic Satanic Temple, co-founder Doug Messer — who goes by the name Lucien Greaves — stated that more than 50 percent of the group’s nationwide membership identifies as homosexual.
“It would be a conservative estimate to say that more than 50 percent of our membership is LGBTQ,” Messer told the UK outlet Attitude. “I think that’s because they feel disowned and disenfranchised from the traditional religious institutions. So, you have a population willing to embrace a religious identification that is boldly willing to speak out to the contrary.”
He stated that its various chapters participate in homosexual pride parades and are activists for the cause. Messer himself does not identify as homosexual but is an advocate.
“Our chapters are always involved with pride parades in the United States. They’re always doing something for the LGBTQ community and they’re always open about inclusion,” he said.
Messer outlined that prior to the Supreme Court ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges, which “legalized” same-sex ceremonies nationwide, the group wanted to “test rights versus religious liberty in states that were refusing to allow equal marriage.”
“We were going to do this by holding a satanic gay wedding in any one of these states and, if the state refused to recognize it, we’d sue on the grounds that it was our religious liberty to have it recognized,” he explained.
As previously reported, in 2015, when The Satanic Temple unveiled its Baphomet statue in Detroit, attendees shouted “Hail Satan” as two shirtless men pulled off the cloth that covered the figure and then embraced and kissed each other in front of the image.
The trailer for the R-rated “Hail Satan?” also includes a clip of two men kissing over a tombstone as Messer stands in the middle, wearing horns on his head.
In 2017, The Satanic Temple asked its followers to call bakeries and request a cake for Satan in light of recent incidents where bakers have declined to participate in same-sex ceremonies by making a cake for the occasion.
“If they aren’t willing to make a cake for same-sex unions, let’s have them make a cake to honor Satan instead,” Messer said. “If you can’t get a cake for your same-sex union, we’ll host a party in your honor at The Satanic Temple headquarters in Salem and order a cake that praises Satan from your offending discriminatory ‘religious liberty’ enthusiast.”
As previously reported, while The Satanic Temple contends that it is a religious group, it also notes on its website that it is “non-theistic” and does not believe in Satan or the supernatural at all, but only views the devil as a metaphor and a “symbol of the eternal rebel.”
“[W]e do not promote a belief in a personal Satan,” its FAQ section explains. “To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions.”
Some view The Satanic Temple as a coalition of atheists and agnostics who are out to make a point about — and push back against — what it perceives as a preference for Christianity in American government.
According to the Scriptures, one of the signs of the last days is that mockers and scoffers will arise, living in accordance with their own fleshly lusts.
“But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts,” verse 17 reads. “These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.”
The Matthew Henry Commentary on this passage describes such persons as “sensual men separate from Christ and His Church, [who] join themselves to the devil, the world and the flesh by ungodly and sinful practices.”
“We must watch over one another faithfully, yet prudently reprove each other, and set a good example to all about us. This must be done with compassion, making a difference between the weak and the willful. Some we must treat with tenderness. Others save with fear; urging the terrors of the Lord,” he continues. “All endeavors must be joined with decided abhorrence of crimes, and care [must] be taken to avoid whatever led to, or was connected with fellowship with them — in works of darkness — keeping far from what is or appears to be evil.”
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