Yet Another Quitting The Satanic Temple Post (YAQTSTP) Updated: New Information about Adam Parfrey
So I might not be a council member of any chapter, but I am a member of The Satanic Temple, and I feel that it has to be written why I am personally leaving something that I have defended to multiple people, that I have donated money to, that I have put in so many hours of my life getting to know people from all over the world with the same beliefs in the same seven tenets.
For those of you that don’t know what I am talking about, The Seven Tenets of The Satanic Temple can be found here. To me personally, they’ve been the only thing that has brought me back to religion in general. Beyond that, I have found a community of people that for the first time in my adult life accept me for me. You see, joining TST and being an active member gives me the same spirit of church-going that I haven’t had since I was a Lutheran (Excommunicated LCMS). I love the communities that I have been a part of, and in some cases help build to some small degree.
That is why I feel like I have to write YAQTSTP. So before I even begin I’ll give you the TL:DR right here:
- Lawyer with ties to the “Alt-Right”
- A general dislike for how everything has been handled and explained to me since I’ve started having questions
Some of what I’m going to say is just general observation that I have had from taking part in Satanic interlude over the last couple days. I have read both sides of the argument with certain parts, and other parts of this might sound completely bonkers for some but again, I have noticed this activity within TST circles. I will not be using actual names or titles throughout this post as not to out anyone, there is secrecy that Satanism grants.
So, just to get it out of that way, and I can continue rambling like a madwoman, I hereby quit The Satanic Temple of NYC, The Satanic Temple of Colorado, and The Satanic Temple national organization. I am by no means a spokesperson for any of the above organizations, and what I know is just what any community member knows of any of the above organizations. I have no “inside knowledge” of the workings outside of what I have seen posted online, researched myself online, and some general hearsay that I have picked up and what I have researched online.
So take what I have to say with either a grain of salt or don’t read on any further if you don’t wanna re-read accusations.
Ok so now that I got that out of the way, let’s get going. The first part of why I am quitting TST is Marc Randazza. I understand that attorneys don’t represent their clients outside of court but Mr. Randazza has repeated gone on the Alex Jones Show, said things about Political Correctness, and the families of Sandy Hook families. He also has repeatedly gone to “Alt-Right” rallies and espoused the views of his clients. Basically this man is horrible and even being associated with him brings a certain layer of social debt. If you sound like a Nazi and represent Nazis in court, you, yourself, might be a Nazi.
I completely understand a pro-bono lawyer, but to me, the biggest thing has been that The Satanic Temple/Reason Alliance has specifically fundraised off of the lawsuit against Twitter. As evidenced below:
If they’re fundraising off of the legal suit against Twitter, where has the money gone? I went to go do a little bit of digging, and found nothing about the Reason Alliance’s finances over the last couple of years. I searched for their Form 990 in the IRS database, and because they don’t make more than $50k/year, they get to file a 990-N, basically a postcard. I also searched Charity Navigator and a couple other sites, all to basically find nothing of any use on anything Reason Alliance. Started to sound fishy to me, so I went to the Reason Alliance website, surely they’ve got to disclose something on there about where the money is going, and it is yet another dead end.
I started to ask around TST itself, and the only helpful response I was given was, “the money went into the general legal fund”. I’m sorry, but I thought I was donating to the lawsuit against Twitter specifically if I donated to this campaign.
Then came the response (which basically amounted to mansplaining what a lawyer does) and after one of the largest chapters voted unanimously to leave, a former spokeswoman and someone I look up to very much and would someday love to have a conversation with, Jex Blackmore, spoke out against the hiring of the lawyer, amongst other issues including the lack of diversity within the leadership of TST.
When a significant portion of your membership has issues with the way something is being handled, maybe change the way you’re handling it but that concept seems to be too advanced for TST. Instead, it continues to be associated with a right-wing lawyer who is absolutely reprehensible. Then when anyone asks questions, they get a very generic response or no response at all about the issue.
UPDATE: This isn’t well known, but Adam Parfrey spent a lot of his adult life around fascists and Nazis. There is multiple links to fascism that can be found online, including his participation in founding the Abraxas Foundation. I first found this through Trident Antifa and a tweet here. I didn’t first realize the connection between Parfrey and Lucien Greaves until I found this tweet from Lucien himself. I also found this article on SpitfireList about Adam Parfrey, Michael Moynihan, and Boyd Rice.
Since the inception of the group, it has been in close ties with someone with a long history of fascism. This has yet to be adequately addressed by the leadership.
Ave Satanas
