{"id":12259,"date":"2024-12-13T15:45:03","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T20:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=12259"},"modified":"2024-12-13T15:45:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T20:45:03","slug":"satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html","title":{"rendered":"Satanic Temple Features \u201cdemonic\u201d Stature Near New Hampshire Nativity Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The Satanic Temple \/ Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The city of Concord, New Hampshire\u2019s Nativity scene was joined by a neighbor this year- a demonic \u201cBaphomet\u201d statue erected by The Satanic Temple (TST). The display is part of TST\u2019s efforts to include such symbols in public across the country. According to a post<\/a> from the city\u2019s official page, the TST\u2019s mission is to \u201cencourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice and undertake noble pursuits.\u201d The city framed the installation as a defense of First Amendment rights. \u201cUnder the First Amendment and to avoid litigation, the City needed to choose whether to ban all holiday displays installed by other groups, or otherwise, to allow it. After reviewing its legal options, the City ultimately decided to continue the policy of allowing unattended displays at City Plaza during this holiday season and to allow the statue.\u201d<\/p>\n

TST shared a live feed of the statue being installed. The horned Baphomet, a figure with a bull\u2019s head and man\u2019s body, bore lilacs, New Hampshire\u2019s state flower, in one hand. In the other hand, it held an apple, representing the \u201cforbidden fruit\u201d Satan tempted Eve with in the book of Genesis. The statue also featured inverted pentagrams and a tablet with TST\u2019s seven tenets. Orpheus Gaur, a minister of TST’s New Hampshire and Vermont congregation, designed the display and said the forbidden fruit represented \u201cour quest for knowledge, defiance in the face of arbitrary authority and our commitment to self-determination.\u201d TST founder Lucien Greaves shared a post<\/a> of himself with the statue. \u201cAt the New Hampshire State House where tonight our NH congregation erected a holiday display among various other religious displays. Monuments will come and go, and this one may not last the night, but the spirit of pluralism and personal freedom will not be erased,\u201d he wrote. There had already been attempts to topple the statue, according to reports when it was discovered knocked down<\/a> on December 9. No one has been charged with the vandalism of the statue yet.<\/p>\n

New Hampshire state Rep. Ellen Read (D) defended the installation. \u201cEverything has the potential to offend, even the nearby Nativity scene. Not only is over a third of the state not religious, never mind Christian, but I can imagine those who have been judged, harmed, or abused by the Christian church feeling offended by the Nativity scene displayed on public grounds,\u201d she said. She denounced any attempts to knock the statue over prior to its vandalism. TST has not announced whether it will reinstall the statue. The city stated it will review its policy of allowing religious displays on public grounds next year, which could mean both the nativity and the Baphomet might be ousted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The city of Concord, New Hampshire\u2019s Nativity scene was joined by a neighbor this year- a demonic \u201cBaphomet\u201d statue erected by The Satanic Temple (TST). The display is part of TST\u2019s efforts to include such symbols in public across the country. According to a post from the city\u2019s official page, the TST\u2019s mission is to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":12256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[141,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-political"],"yoast_head":"\nSatanic Temple Features \u201cdemonic\u201d Stature Near New Hampshire Nativity Scene<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Satanic Temple Features \u201cdemonic\u201d Stature Near New Hampshire Nativity Scene\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The city of Concord, New Hampshire\u2019s Nativity scene was joined by a neighbor this year- a demonic \u201cBaphomet\u201d statue erected by The Satanic Temple (TST). The display is part of TST\u2019s efforts to include such symbols in public across the country. According to a post from the city\u2019s official page, the TST\u2019s mission is to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-13T20:45:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/12\/satanic-statue-concord_credit-The-Satanic-Temple-Facebook.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Satanic Temple Features \u201cdemonic\u201d Stature Near New Hampshire Nativity Scene","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Satanic Temple Features \u201cdemonic\u201d Stature Near New Hampshire Nativity Scene","og_description":"The city of Concord, New Hampshire\u2019s Nativity scene was joined by a neighbor this year- a demonic \u201cBaphomet\u201d statue erected by The Satanic Temple (TST). The display is part of TST\u2019s efforts to include such symbols in public across the country. According to a post from the city\u2019s official page, the TST\u2019s mission is to…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2024-12-13T20:45:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/12\/satanic-statue-concord_credit-The-Satanic-Temple-Facebook.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html","name":"Satanic Temple Features \u201cdemonic\u201d Stature Near New Hampshire Nativity Scene","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/12\/satanic-statue-concord_credit-The-Satanic-Temple-Facebook.jpg","datePublished":"2024-12-13T20:45:03+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-13T20:45:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/12\/satanic-statue-concord_credit-The-Satanic-Temple-Facebook.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/12\/satanic-statue-concord_credit-The-Satanic-Temple-Facebook.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"The Satanic Temple \/ Facebook"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/12\/satanic-temple-features-demonic-stature-near-new-hampshire-nativity-scene.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Satanic Temple Features \u201cdemonic\u201d Stature Near New Hampshire Nativity Scene"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/","name":"Christ News Today","description":"Christian News From Around the Globe","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e","name":"rdewing","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/author\/rdewing"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12262,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12259\/revisions\/12262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}