The Satanic Temple of Iowa is threatening legal actions after their application to host an event at Iowa’s state capitol was rejected. The stakes are higher than you think.
As previously reported, the Satanic Temple of Iowa, an anti-religion group that mocks Christian, attempted to host an event at the Iowa state capitol.
Warren’s Voice obtained a copy of the Satanic Temple’s initial request. The request described the event this way:
TST Iowa’s holiday display will include an itinerary for the day with ritual, Krampus costumes, caroling, and other family-friendly activities such as coloring pages, and make and take ornaments. Everything will be family-friendly, and our display will be attended to by at least one member of our congregation at all times.
State officials rejected the application, with Gov. Kim Renyolds saying, “This satanic event, which specifically targets children, is harmful to minors and so it was denied.”
Now, The Des Moines Register is reporting that the Satanic Temple is threatening legal action against the Iowa Department of Administrative Services if they are not allowed to reschedule the event.
There are two major points at stake in this debate.
First, what public symbolism will be displayed in our capitol building?
Postmodernism wants us to believe that only words communicate; that symbolism is arbitrary at best and malicious at worst. They’re wrong. Visual symbols do communicate. And over the course of three thousand years, the West has devolved an entire language of symbolic communication that we all understand. Most of us just know that an eagle represents freedom and a steeple represents transcendence. The images of an eagle and a steeple are no more arbitrary than the words themselves.
Therefore, it matters what symbols we put in public places.
The proposed event would feature an “all-ages” Krampus costume contest. Krampus is a demonic monster from Alpine folklore that beats badly behaved children with a birch rod the night before St. Nicholas’ Day. Even assuming that no children will be beaten at this event, there’s nothing “family-friendly” about this imagery.
The symbolism is one of maliciousness, rejection, violence, and pain. Is this the sort of imagery we want in our state’s capitol building?
(Note: Thanks to Steve Kirby for first bringing up this point. Warren’s Voice is blessed with such informed and involved readers.)
The Satanic Temple knows the power symbolism. Their whole project is to mock, subvert, and demean the symbolism of the West. They intentionally mock Christianity with the hope of forcing the Christian faith out of public life.
But Western civilization was built on Christianity. By mocking Christianity, the Satanic Temple is mocking our entire society. Their event is the visual equivalent of curses and profanities worse than anything that would be “bleeped out” of daytime television. It would be like allowing a banner to hang on the capitol rotunda that curses Western civilization with the most vile language.
The real question is not whether the Satanic Temple should be allowed to have an event. It’s whether any group should be allowed to blast anti-Christian and anti- Western profanities in our state capitol.
Second, what is the purpose of the state capitol building?
The Satanic Temple has attempted to frame this debate as a matter of freedom. The Des Moines Register quoted their legal counsel as saying,
It’s common for individuals to react in extreme ways when they’re confronted with ideas that they don’t like, and it’s a whole other thing when a government tries to either facilitate that by, for example, speaking out against TST (The Satanic Temple) as a religion, or validity as a religion.
The Satanic Temple seems to think our state capitol building is a blank wall onto which they can scribble the most vile graffiti. But it’s not. It’s the seat of our body politic, a beautiful emblem of our shared culture. Does freedom of speech mean that every obscenity must be displayed in the Iowa capitol?
By mocking foundations of the West, TST is undermining the foundations of the freedom they seek to exploit. It would be like a school allowing unruly students to hang a banner in the gym mocking the school. The state should not allow itself to be bullied by junior high tactics.
In this debate, our state must decide what imagery it will allow in its public areas. The legal question still remains unanswered. But implications for our culture are clear. This has a profound effect on how we view our culture and our shared lives together.
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