FYI.
– Apparently Ted Cruz Being Compared to Lucifer is an Insult to Satanists Everywhere:
United States — John Boehner rather startlingly characterized Ted Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh” on Wednesday night, when he was asked for his opinion on the presidential hopeful. “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends,” Boehner added. “I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”
But Boehner’s comparison of Cruz to Lucifer garnered plenty of criticism — though perhaps none as notable as from the Satanic Temple itself.
“Cruz’s failures of reason, compassion, decency, and humanity are products of his Christian pandering, if not an actual Christian faith,” Satanic Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves explained to the Friendly Atheist. “It grows tedious when pedophile priests and loathsome politicians are conveniently dismissed as Satanic, even as they spew biblical verse and prostrate themselves before the cross, recruiting the Christian faithful. Satanists will have nothing to do with any of them.”
By equating Cruz to Satan, himself, John Boehner apparently crossed the line.
Though the Satanic Temple’s scoff might seem odd to those unfamiliar with the religion, the Temple’s self-description might shed some, er, light on the matter:
“The mission of the Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people. In addition, we embrace practical common sense and justice […]
“As Satanists, we all should be guided by our consciences to undertake noble pursuits guided by our wills. We believe that this is the hope of all mankind and the highest aspiration of humanity.”
In fact, the Satanic Temple also notes “the principles of individual sovereignty and rejection of tyrannical authority” are concerns of “paramount importance to us.”
Cruz simply doesn’t measure up to the principles Satanists strive to uphold — and certainly, apparently, should not be compared to Lucifer.
As explained by Raw Story, Temple members are “non-theistic activists who eschew religion and adhere to a set of humanistic tenets that promote compassion and reason.”
Satanists, or at least members of The Satanic Temple — widely misunderstood and most often mischaracterized as preachers of evil, among other untruths — maintain “the basic premise that undue suffering is bad, and that which reduces suffering is good. We do not believe in symbolic ‘evil,’” according to the website’s FAQs.
Perhaps the Republican Party should take note. Even Satanists — most typically understood as pushing the outer limits of extremism — think the GOP’s establishment presidential candidate too far beyond the bounds of decency.
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