JCD NOTES-“Hail Satan” in Austin Texas – The Satanic Temple

Much has been written regarding a recent confrontation in Texas between activists on both sides of the abortion debate in whichPro-Choice advocates chanted “Hail Satan” in response to a Pro-Life mob singing outAmazing Grace. While a good deal of commentary from both ends of the spectrum has thoughtlessly denigrated the “Hail Satan” faction, we feel that their message was both salient and clear: religious rationales used to justify certain views to some hold no currency whatsoever to scores of others. While neither the Old nor New Testaments have anything directly to say about the issue of abortion, interpretations of those texts, construed into a Pro-Life stance, mean nothing to those of us who do not contextualize our lives within the framework of those mythologies.

Thus, chanting “Hail Satan” was an effective way of saying, “You are going to have to argue your point on rational grounds. We do not subscribe to your Religion.”

While various commentary has focused on the legitimacy of the activists’ Satanic loyalties, we would submit that the concentration on the question of whether or not Satanism is Pro-Life or Pro-Choice misses the point entirely. Surely, there are Christians who consider themselves ‘Pro-Choice’ just as there are Satanists who, following their own conscience, consider themselves ‘Pro-Life’.

(That said, The Satanic Temple believes “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.” Devoid of the presence of a supernatural ghostly essence (soul), the Will is necessarily the product of a developed nervous system, which arguably gives the authority of inviolability to the mother over the fetus.)

The fact is, arguments based upon some notion of religious primacy aren’t going to resolve this debate, nor should they have any place in the argument at all.

We fully support the “Hail Satan” activists in Austin, Texas, and we applaud their courage in reminding the world that ours is a Nation of religious pluralism.

Hail Satan.