Satanists Demand Religious Exemption From Abortion Restrictions, Cite Hobby Lobby Ruling

[cbayer]

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/07/28/3464769/satanists-hobby-lobby-abortion/

BY TARA CULP-RESSLER POSTED ON JULY 28, 2014 AT 12:15 PM


CREDIT: THE SATANIC TEMPLE

The Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision, which allowed some for-profit companies to claim a religious exemption to Obamacare’s contraception mandate, has sparked a heated debate over the definition of religious liberty and its role in modern society. At this point, even a Satantic cult has decided to weigh in.

The Satanic Temple — a faith community that describes itself as facilitating “the communication and mobilization of politically aware Satanists, secularists, and advocates for individual liberty” — has launched a new campaign seeking a religious exemption to certain anti-abortion laws that attempt to dissuade women from ending a pregnancy. The group says they have deeply held beliefs about bodily autonomy and scientific accuracy, and those beliefs are violated by state-level “informed consent” laws that rely on misleading information about abortion risks.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, the Satanists point out, it strengthens their own quest to opt out of laws related to women’s health care that go against their religious liberty. “Because of the respect the Court has given to religious beliefs, and the fact that our our beliefs are based on best available knowledge, we expect that our belief in the illegitimacy of state­ mandated ‘informational’ material is enough to exempt us, and those who hold our beliefs, from having to receive them,” a spokesperson for the organization said in a statement.

The Satanic Temple, sometimes referred to as “the nicest Satanic cult in the world,” falls somewhere between satire, performance art, and activism. The group says its central mission is to “encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice, and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will.” It has a set of seven tenets that closely track with humanism. Typically, wherever issues of church and state are overlapping, the Satanic Temple isn’t far behind.

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[longship]

1. Love the argument, hate that it is the Satanists.

It will just play into the fundie narrative that abortions are EEEEVIL! ( no matter what the so-called Satanists represent).

I would prefer the Pastafarians do this. That way the fundies could not play the evil Satan card, which is kind of inevitable here.

Doesn't anybody think before they leap on these things?

I dunno.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. I'm a statinist, does that count?

The Satanists have an actual religion, pastafarians not so much.

[longship]

7. Well, Satanism plays into the Fundie narrative.

As an atheist, I cannot think that would be an advisable strategy. As well, I see reproductive freedoms for women as secular and inherent and any sacred argument to be fallacious.

Sorry.

[cbayer]

8. Honestly, I am pretty sure they are a spoof organization that uses this

to make political points.

But you are right, it could be used by fun dies in a way that is not desirable.

They have done a number of things that one might consider as pretty outrageous, like the satanic sculpture in Okla City.

[Brettongarcia]

2. I hereby found (or publicize?) the BOYCOTT HOBBY LOBBY movement

[Android3.14]

3. If you search

You will find several well organized groups running with this idea. I'd participate, but I haven't needed a pipe cleaner in 30 years.

[Brettongarcia]

4. I'd guess that their sales figures have been plummetting anyway, beause they are now controversial

Now that their cause has been exposed as being illiberal. And say, literally seconded by Satanists.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. I walked through their store once. Such upstanding americans. Every thing on every shelf said

made in China.