{"id":12896,"date":"2023-12-16T02:46:38","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T02:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/16\/desantis-pledges-support-for-devil-statue-decapitator-says-govt-should-not-recognize-satanism-as-religion\/"},"modified":"2023-12-16T02:46:38","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T02:46:38","slug":"desantis-pledges-support-for-devil-statue-decapitator-says-govt-should-not-recognize-satanism-as-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/16\/desantis-pledges-support-for-devil-statue-decapitator-says-govt-should-not-recognize-satanism-as-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis pledges support for devil statue decapitator, says govt should not recognize Satanism as \u2018religion\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said that the Satanic Temple \u2018should not be recognized\u2019 as a religion by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

DeSantis made the declaration on X Friday morning, saying that satanism does not have a place in American society.<\/p>\n

The Florida governor\u2019s tweet came after Mississippi state House candidate Michael Cassidy admitted to tearing down the Satanic Temple\u2019s display in the Iowa state capitol. Cassidy was arrested Friday and charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, KCCI reported.<\/p>\n

\u2018Satan has no place in our society and should not be recognized as a \u2018religion\u2019 by the federal government,\u2019 DeSantis tweeted. \u2018I\u2019ll chip in to contribute to this veteran\u2019s legal defense fund.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Good prevails over evil \u2014 that\u2019s the American spirit,\u2019 DeSantis continued.<\/p>\n

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DeSantis also addressed the Satanic Temple display at the Iowa state capitol during a recent CNN town hall event, pointing to former President Trump\u2019s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as to why the non-theistic religious organization is recognized as a religion.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the IRS recognized the Satanic Temple as an official house of worship, granting the entity both tax-exempt status and protections under the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

\u2018So it\u2019s interesting, I heard this, and then I was like, \u2018Well, how did it get there? Is that even a religion?\u2019\u2019 DeSantis said. \u2018And low and behold, the Trump administration gave them approval to be under the IRS as a religion.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018So that gave them the legal ability to potentially do it,\u2019 DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

DeSantis said that \u2018it very well may be because of that ruling\u2019 under Trump that the Satanic Temple \u2018may have had a legal leg to stand on.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018My view would be that that\u2019s not a religion that the Founding Fathers were trying to create,\u2019 DeSantis said. \u2018But I do think that IRS ruling, I was really surprised to see that they did that.\u2019<\/p>\n

Jake Tapper noted that the IRS granting tax-exempt status does not necessarily mean the government supports satanism.<\/p>\n

\u2018No, yeah, exactly,\u2019 DeSantis responded. \u2018But they recognized it as a religion, because otherwise you wouldn\u2019t\u2019ve been able to do it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t think that was the right decision. Even as a religion, that\u2019s wrong,\u2019 he continued.<\/p>\n

Lucien Greaves, one of the Satanic Temple\u2019s founders, told Fox News Digital that \u2018DeSantis\u2019s remarks are raw cowardice dressed up in false heroism.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018He would like voters to believe that he is standing up against the Satanic Temple, but he is, in actuality, simply yielding to an angry, undemocratic mob that would rather see the fundamental pillars of democracy destroyed than suffer the nuisance of seeing a viewpoint they disagree with in a public forum,\u2019 Greaves said.<\/p>\n

\u2018It is cowardice that compels him to abandon his pledge of office to uphold constitutional law and religious liberty because he can not, or will not, articulate those ideals to voters, opting instead to appeal to their most base fears and ignorance,\u2019 he continued.<\/p>\n

\u2018I have announced that I am happy to debate DeSantis on these points at any time, but I suspect he is too cowardly for that as well,\u2019 Greaves added.<\/p>\n

The Satanic Temple was founded in 2013 and does not express belief in Satan, God, or any higher power.<\/p>\n

Instead, the atheist organization follows \u2018seven tenets\u2019 that emphasize science and reason, and uses Satanic imagery to push their tenets and political goals, like abortion access and addressing \u2018religious privilege.\u2019<\/p>\n

The organization has also been known to jab at Christians, and Greaves has openly stated that the group is \u2018openly atheist,\u2019 in a 2015 Salon interview.<\/p>\n

\u2018Those who dislike us claim that we are not really a religion, but by what standard?\u2019 Greaves said. \u2018These things beg for definition. In the Hobby Lobby case, there was no sincerity test at all, and no test that their exemption had some kind of spiritual basis.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018In regard to our atheism, if you have a society that grants religious privilege and exemption, and you\u2019re willing to give privilege and exemption to certain groups, then it\u2019s unacceptable to give that only to people who believe in the supernatural,\u2019 Greaves said.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are openly atheist, but we have cultural identity and symbolic constructs that are deeply meaningful to our members,\u2019 he continued.<\/p>\n

In a text message to Fox News Digital, Cassidy confirmed that he had torn down the satanic display, which was erected last week by the Satanic Temple of Iowa to represent the group\u2019s right to religious freedom.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was extremely anti-Christian,\u2019 Cassidy told Fox News Digital when asked why he had torn the statue down.<\/p>\n

The former congressional candidate didn\u2019t elaborate on why he had torn the statue down, but he posted a Bible verse Thursday night to X after being charged.<\/p>\n

\u20181 Peter 5:8 KJV Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,\u2019 he posted.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital\u2019s Adam Sabes contributed reporting.<\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said that the Satanic Temple \u2018should not be recognized\u2019 as a religion by the U.S. government. DeSantis made the declaration on X Friday morning, saying that satanism does not have a place in American society. The Florida governor\u2019s tweet came after Mississippi state House candidate Michael Cassidy admitted to tearing <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}