Davil PhotoThe Satanic Temple has had a busy year in Arizona.  Earlier this year, we reported that the Phoenix City Council abolished its 65-year practice of beginning council meetings with prayer in favor of a moment of silence, following a request by the Satanic Temple to give a pre-meeting prayer.  The City Council later decided to re-implement its prayer policy, but now only allows Phoenix police or fire department chaplains to give the prayer.  Read more about the controversy in our posts Satanists Score Victory in Phoenix and All Hell Breaks Loose in Phoenix Satanic Prayer Showdown.

Now, Scottsdale, Arizona is banning the Satanists from leading prayer before a council meeting.  Reportedly, Scottsdale previously said it would allow the Satanic Temple to provide prayer, but has since reversed course.  A Scottsdale spokesperson said that only “representatives from institutions that have a substantial connection to the Scottsdale community” will be allowed to give the prayer.  The newly formed Arizona chapter of the Satanic Temple is based out of Tucson, Arizona, and does not have a “substantial connection to Scottsdale” to qualify it to lead prayer.  A Satanic Temple spokesperson has said: “If our mere presence offends you that’s not our problem.  That’s not our burden.”

According to local reports, the Satanic prayer would urge the community to embrace a “Luciferian impulse to eat of the Tree of Knowledge” and would tell the community to “reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things” and to stand firm “against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens” personal sovereignty.  The prayer would end with “hail Satan.”  Satanic Temple representatives have said that the Temple does not teach the existence of Satan, but instead uses the name to symbolize rebellion against tyranny.  The Temple states that it promotes compassion, empathy, and embarking on “noble pursuits guided by our individual wills.”

The Satanic Temple has not indicated if it will seek legal action.

Photo by elycefeliz, some rights reserved.

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Photo of Evan Seeman Evan Seeman

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of…

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of an amicus curiae brief at the petition stage before the United States Supreme Court in a RLUIPA case entitled City of San Leandro v. International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

Evan serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the APA’s Planning & Law Division. He also serves as the Chair of the Planning & Zoning Section of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section, and is the former Co-Chair of its Municipal Law Section. He has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list as a Rising Star in the area of Land Use Law for 2013 and 2014. He received his B.A. in political science and Russian studies (with honors) from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was selected as the President’s Fellow in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature. Evan received his Juris Doctor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he served on the Connecticut Law Review. While in law school, he interned with the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General in the environmental department, and served as a judicial intern for the judges of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court. Following law school, Evan clerked for the Honorable F. Herbert Gruendel of the Connecticut Appellate Court.