Drama Fiends

The Satanic Temple Makes a Spectacle of Itself While Espousing Christian Values

Background:

In 2013, Florida governor Rick Scott signed a bill permitting student-led prayer in school. In response, Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry (both pseudonyms) planned a rally at the statehouse to thank him. Now Satanist students would be free to invoke Satan, right alongside the little Christians praying to Jesus. They called the press, advertised for actors (unpaid), and a handful showed up in black getups holding posters reading, "I 'Heart' Satan" and "Hail Satan."

It was pure grandstanding, but out of the media stunt, the Satanic Temple (TST) was born. Greaves says TST is an embodiment of his deeply held beliefs and a counterbalance to the dominant religious privilege in...