{"id":1629135,"date":"2022-09-01T08:02:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T12:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1629135"},"modified":"2022-09-01T08:03:01","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T12:03:01","slug":"satanists-prayer-stunt-isnt-about-free-speech-its-about-silencing-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/satanists-prayer-stunt-isnt-about-free-speech-its-about-silencing-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Satanists\u2019 Prayer Stunt Isn\u2019t About Free Speech. It\u2019s About Silencing Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsatanists-prayer-stunt-isnt-about-free-speech-its-about-silencing-christians%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1629135&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Satanic Temple, an organization that uses religious trappings for the purpose of undermining constitutionally protected freedoms, sued the city of Boston last year, seeking to force it to allow the temple to lead a \u201cprayer\u201d before a city council meeting. The district court dismissed some of the temple\u2019s claims, including that prayers before the council constitute private protected speech. <\/p>\n<p>But after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\/case\/shurtleff-v-city-boston?utm_source=thefederalist&amp;utm_medium=oped\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the U.S. Supreme Court this year found<\/a>\u00a0that excluding a Christian flag from a Boston city-owned flagpole violated the First Amendment free speech rights of the group that wanted to fly the flag, the Satanic Temple\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law360.com\/publicpolicy\/articles\/1514192\/satanists-say-top-court-christian-flag-case-helps-prayer-bid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">asked the district court<\/a>\u00a0to reconsider its earlier decision, asserting the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling supports the temple\u2019s free speech claim. But does it really?<\/p>\n<p>No, it does not.<\/p>\n<p>That legislative prayer constitutes government speech is settled law. The Satanic Temple\u2019s focus on a single prong of a multiprong test is clearly wrong. Further, the temple\u2019s alleged \u201cprayers\u201d are inconsistent with the recognized purpose of legislative prayer.<\/p>\n<p>Legislative prayer offered at public meetings is\u00a0<em>government<\/em>\u00a0speech. The Supreme Court determined\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.casemine.com\/judgement\/us\/59149005add7b0493456f67b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">years<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\/case\/town-greece-v-galloway?utm_source=thefederalist&amp;utm_medium=oped\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ago<\/a>\u00a0that prayers opening government meetings are an act of the government. Justice Sandra Day O\u2019Connor\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.casemine.com\/judgement\/us\/5914b2a1add7b04934761166\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">analyzed and rejected<\/a>\u00a0the idea that prayers opening a council meeting constitute private speech, noting there was not \u201ca single case in which a legislative prayer was treated as individual or private expression.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite this settled law, the Satanic Temple argues that these prayers are private speech because they are not spoken under the \u201cactive control\u201d of the legislature. They argue this because the Supreme Court, in the Boston flag case, identified the level of government control as one prong used to distinguish government from private speech. But, alas, the Satanic Temple\u2019s \u201ceureka\u201d moment fails.<\/p>\n<p>In the flag case, Boston deemed the flagpole a public forum for private speech and encouraged private flags to fly. Nothing unconstitutional there. In contrast, with legislative prayers, the Supreme Court has held that the Constitution prohibits the government from scripting them and requires the government to impose editorial limits. Government cannot permit prayer practices that \u201cdenigrate nonbelievers or religious minorities, threaten damnation, or preach conversion,\u201d nor must a city council\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.casemine.com\/judgement\/us\/591483caadd7b049344ad293\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">be subjected<\/a>\u00a0to a \u201cpolitical harangue\u201d under the guise of \u201csupposed prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Atheists Do Not Appeal to the Divine<\/h2>\n<p>Nearly 40 years ago, the Supreme Court stated the obvious: The purpose of legislative prayer is to \u201cinvoke Divine guidance\u201d on deliberations of a public body. Since then, courts have upheld rules in Congress and state houses that exclude atheists from opening prayer ceremonies because atheists will not appeal to the Divine and thus cannot further the purpose of legislative prayer.<\/p>\n<p>Legislative prayer is not simply words of encouragement and aspirations, philosophical platitudes, or a free-for-all. Rather, it appeals to a higher power for wisdom and favor. The Satanic Temple\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thesatanictemple.com\/pages\/church-of-satan-vs-satanic-temple\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">identifies itself<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cresolutely non-theistic,\u201d rejecting the supernatural. The tenets of the Satanic Temple reject the very existence of a Divine spiritual being; they cannot further the purpose of legislative prayer. Nor does the temple believe in Satan. It claims it \u201cfights for securalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Silencing People of Faith<\/h2>\n<p>At bottom, we are where we began: The Satanic Temple is using legislative prayer to advance its political agenda \u2014 to end legislative prayer in Boston. The temple uses the trappings of a \u201creligious group\u201d \u2014 complete with meetings, rituals, and iconography \u2014 to make politically unacceptable demands to silence people of faith. They demand that communities that allow Christians equal access to public spaces let the Satanists openly pose as equal people of faith, or else exclude the Christians.<\/p>\n<p>The temple\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thesatanictemple.com\/pages\/church-of-satan-vs-satanic-temple\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website<\/a>\u00a0states that it \u201cengages directly in politically charged campaigns\u201d where public religious displays are found. Where \u201cevangelicals have . . . Bible-based after school clubs, the Satanic Temple has offered . . . AFTER SCHOOL SATAN CLUBS\u201d (capitalization theirs). And it established a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/09\/10\/religious-liberty-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-satanic-temples-campaign-to-tear-down-pro-life-laws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cReligious Reproductive Rights\u201d campaign<\/a>\u00a0with the specific aim of tearing down state pro-life laws it apparently assumes are all rooted in nothing but religion. Demanding the podium to deliver a \u201cSatanic message\u201d as a supposed legislative prayer is just one more stunt consistent with the Satanic Temple\u2019s avowed objectives.<\/p>\n<p>In truth, these particular Satanists would rather silence legitimate prayer than deliver their own message. They can try, but the Supreme Court\u2019s decision allowing Boston to fly a Christian flag cannot help them.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Brett Harvey is senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Satanic Temple, an organization that uses religious trappings for the purpose of undermining constitutionally protected freedoms, sued the city of Boston last year, seeking to force it to allow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1320,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1629135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1629135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1629135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1629135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1629135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}