Brickbat: Sympathy for the Devil

The Mississippi man who destroyed a statue erected by the Satanic Temple of Iowa in the state Capitol last year faces years in prison after being charged with a hate crime. Navy veteran Michael Cassidy has been charged with felony third-degree criminal mischief. He was originally charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief, but in a statement, prosecutors said, "the defendant made statements to law enforcement and the public indicating he destroyed the property because of the victim's religion." As a result, prosecutors tacked on a hate crime enhancement, increasing the charge from a misdemeanor to a class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and up to $10,245 in fines. The prosecutors' statement said that based on information provided by the Satanists, it would cost between $750 and $1,500 to repair or replace the statue.

Comments

[Vernon Depner]

What color is Satan?

[MrMxyzptlk]

I suppose it depends on the mythology you believe in. If you subscribe to the Catholic ideal and god is an old white man with a beard surrounded by his white angels then Lucifer is a white dude.

The Church of Satan doesn't believe that Satan actually exists but is a metaphorical construct of rebellion against the prevalent order. They use the word "church" to get the advantages other churches have. So they don't think Lucifer is any color.

I've no idea what color Lutherens think Satan is. Maybe red skinned like the Halloween costumes suggest. It had to come from somewhere.

[Rossami]

It more depends on when you believed it.

Ancient Hebrews thought of Satan as "the serpent" who is often depicted as green but could be any natural hue.

In the early medieval period, he was the "fallen angel" and, except for different colored clothing (blue), looked like every other angel.

Late medieval depictions go back to "beasts" but bounce around from full dragons to human-beast hybrids. The depictions of horns, tail and bat-wings come from this era.

Islamic and late-medieval/reformation era depictions generally show Satan as black-skinned.

Satan didn't turn red until, as near as I can tell, a suffragette-era cartoon.

[Carey Allison]

The offender should plead to nothing and insist upon a jury trial of all charges.

JURY NULLIFICATION: Learn it. Live it. Do it. Never admit it. Lie about it during voir dire - one is not honor-bound in any way when dealing with or enmeshed in a system that is totally without honor.

[MrMxyzptlk]

So Christians are generally supportive of destruction of others property? Good to know.

[mad.casual]

There is, of course, the notable famous Late Medieval depiction that has him with three faces (and wings), one red, one yellow, and one black, allegedly/supposedly representing each of the 3 races of man.

[MrMxyzptlk]

I thought Islam depicts Satan in the image of Ronald Reagan. After all, they started with this Great Satan crap around the time Reagan was president and they made it sound like Satan was literally living in the US and had a street address and phone number.

[Azathoth!!]

The Satanic Temple and the Church of Satan are two distinct, very different ideologies.

The Satanic Temple is a left wing schism off of the CoS.

Neither claims the tax benefits of a church, but both claim the rights afforded religions.

Angels are described in the bible. They are not 'white', they are not human and do not share human races.. God is not described at all.

[MrMxyzptlk]

So where do all the pictures of an old white man with a beard come from?

[gah87]

KFC?

[MrMxyzptlk]

So the Christian God is really Colonel Sanders? That explains a lot.

[IceTrey]

Well it's an angel so it should look like this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/gk7sdo/remember_this_is_what_angels_look_like_according/

[Fist of Etiquette]

In Mississippi? Is that DA not planning to run for reelection?

[Minadin]

In Iowa.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Just curious, should one not expect to find justice in the south unless one is a Baptist of some sort? Just wondering since my son may be doing an internship in Tennesse this summer and if so we need to start prepping him to role play as a Baptist.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Speaking as an Atheist in North Carolina, I have made affirmations instead of swearing on a Bible in court and before Town Councils with no problem, though in the North Carolina State Constitution, I still couldn’t officially run for public office unless I wanted to make a test case before the U.S. Supremes. We Atheists still have a little way to go.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Ok. He's currently role playing as Catholic because the Newman Center on campus provides a kitchen and frequent meals made by old catholic women. He knows about the baptists and anabaptists mainly from what the Catholics have to say about them. He finds them funny.

[ooddballz]

Naw, just teach him to act like a brain-dead Yankee.
It sounds like he already has a head start on that, and we don't expect too much oh them, so he should be good to go.

[Adans smith]

Seems he shouldn't have gone into the details.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Well, as Warren Zevon told us in Real or Not, "They say the Devils in the details"

[Longtobefree]

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste, mm yeah

What a way to start Monday !

[mad.casual]

Satanic Temple of Iowa... the victim's religion

So the statue is the victim? That's a neat trick.

[Mickey Rat]

And the Satanic Temple is a bunch of Atheists LARPing as Satanists for trolling purposes, that is, it is not a real religion, that people have actual belief in. So, we have a hate crime against a fraudulent belief system. A pox on all of them.

[TheReEncogitationer]

If Religion didn’t demand a special cut-out in the law for themselves, you wouldn’t see the Non-Religious wanting a cut of the mouse take by setting up their own churches, temples, and houses of worship.

Just make all laws apply equally to all and all taxes equal and ideally none. Problem solved.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Not-The-Bee is sometimes a good alternative news source, as fringe news sources go. The one thing that really annoys me is their Christian slant, not because it is Christian, but because so much of their news slant is that if only Christianity were followed, everything would be rosy. They applauded someone decapitating a Satanist statue, for instance, soley on the basis that this loss of Christian sanity is the root cause of all problems in the secular world.

Sure, if everybody followed their particular brand of Christianity, the world would be more peaceful. But it doesn't take a genius to notice that Christianity has split into multiple branches; which one would they nominate as the One True Christianity? And why Christianity? The world would be just as peaceful if it were Islam, or Buddhism, or Marxism, or any other belief system.

And of course, that peacefulness is only possible if people stop thinking for themselves. They make the same mistake as socialists, just another ism which is impossible in the real world.

[mad.casual]

The world would be just as peaceful if it were Islam, or Buddhism, or Marxism, or any other belief system.

Disagree. Not that Christianity is the one, true peaceful religion but the idea that all of these ideologies or 'any other belief system' are all equally peaceful despite some having violent revolution methodically woven into them and others having violent warlords as their iconoclasts is as retarded in the atheistic fashion as Not-The-Bee is in the Christian fashion. Like saying football, boxing, table tennis, and golf are equally violent sports and would generate approximately the same amount of injuries if everyone in the world played them.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Christians wanted to get special treatment under the law and they got it. But it sets a president that all "religions" no matter how fake they are get equal treatment. Want a christmass display at the capitol building? Ok, but everybody gets to put something up.

You can't set any tests for how seriously someone takes their religion. Whose to say that the Chirch of the Jedi are any less serious than the Jehovahs Witnesses.

[gaoxiaen]

Rastafarians are a real religion, yet are denied use of their holy sacrament, despite the Native American Church being allowed to use theirs, and the Roman Catholic Church being allowed to use alcohol during Prohibition.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Just shows how desperate both Democrats and Republicans want to keep canibus illegal.

[mad.casual]

You can’t set any tests for how seriously someone takes their religion.

Did you get this proclamation on a stone tablet from Papa Joe?

[Inigo Montoya]

Since they’re trolling, it would be fun to see them get trolled by a people joining their group and behaving like real satanists—a la Aleister Crowley and Jack Parsons from Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Taking it seriously would probably freak them out and that would be hilarious.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Yeah, statutory rape. *A-huk!-Huk!-Huk!*

Presumably, the victim in this case is the member or members of The Satanic Temple who owns the statue.

While as a Libertarian I don’t favor extra sentencing for hateful motivation of any kind, I do favor prosecution of crimes against persons and property, which should include restitution for the victim and I do favor a judicial smackdown to the Legislature of Iowa for having any official religious gee-jaws and gim-cracks in publicly-held facilities and property, which is what gave rise to The Satsnic Temple putting up the statue.

The Satanic Temple puts up its Baphomet statues on public property precisely with the goal of making and keeping government Secular. While I’m not into their particular costumes and regalia, as an Atheist Libertarian I say good on them for that.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Yes. Too many religious people fall into the trap of knee-jerk reaction against Satan. It doesn't take 5 seconds of actual paying attention to understand their goal.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Christians are too easy to troll.

[MWAocdoc]

He had the right to remain silent - but he did not have the ability!

[Public Entelectual]

The obvious perps in this case are the satanists, who should stand trial for identity theft , impersonating a Deity , and contributing to the delinquency of a Republican.

[Uncle Jay]

Say, that's a nice picture of Hillary Reason posted above.
...or is that Obama?
Please forgive my ignorance.
I always get those two mixed up.

[gah87]

We good people are supposed to hate evil and destroy it.
Therefore all attacks against evil are hate crimes.
Satan is the embodiment of evil, so all crime against Satan are hate crimes.

[MrMxyzptlk]

So you are supposed to destroy whatever you consider to be evil...

Please wear a sign explaining that so I know to stay the fuck away from you. Crazy people into destroying other people's property are to be avoided.

[AT]

And once he's free, I'm sure he'll do it again. And again. And again.

And we should support him wholeheartedly.

These "satanists" are just trolling people. So, troll them back. With a bat. And when they cry foul, appeal to their so-called belief system. Shrug and say, "They devil made me do it. I'm sure you understand."

[MrMxyzptlk]

Troll them with a bat.

So words and ideas are violence that needs to be countered with violence. Where have I heard that before... oh right BLM and ANTIFA use that logic.

[AT]

I never said that their words and ideas are violence.

What they are is intentionally awful, intentionally disingenuous, intentionally offensive, (arguably) intentionally evil. And frankly, they're not even really "words or ideas" insofar as we're using the term. At least, no more so than a public display of a mannequin holding a sign that says, "Dear [insert group], your mother's are whores" with the disingenuous claim that it's "religion."

That's not meant to convey ideas or share meaningful conversation. It's not a protest. It's not dissemination of information. It's nothing but sneering harassment and ridicule. And if you're going to defend it as an exercise of free speech, then why shouldn't one equally defend the destruction of such a display as an exercise just the same?

As an aside - this is one of the main reasons that libertarianism never gains any traction among normal, rational, moral people. In their so-called defense of liberty, they intentionally deny the distinction between "exercise of liberty" and "abuse of liberty." And in doing so, they fail to see that their defense of the latter is contradictory as it ultimately empowers the very State and its overreach they decry after it inevitably steps in to remedy the problems caused by abuse of liberty; by unrestrained amorality/immorality.

[Zipcreature]

If the cops ever did the same for those attacking Christianity here in the USA, I would hold some respect but the fact that it’s a Satanic Lefty organization and I never see any hate crime charge multiplier for those attacking Christians is such bullshit.