The Day Satan Came to Oklahoma

Abstract

Abstract This chapter begins with a summary and legal analysis of attempts to install monuments of the Ten Commandments on capitol grounds in Oklahoma and Arkansas and The Satanic Temple’s offer to erect a statue of the Satanic deity Baphomet next to these monuments. The author frames battles over the Baphomet statue as part of a larger pattern of “socially engaged Satanism” in which Satanists are increasingly taking their activities into the public square. The rise of socially engaged Satanism is attributed to demographic changes associated with the decline of white Christian hegemony in America. This decline has inspired state actions such as erecting Ten Commandments monuments meant to re-enforce the claim that America is a Christian nation. These actions have triggered a backlash from Satanists. In closing, the chapter argues that religious Satanism should be studied because Satanists affect our national conversation about such topics as religion and religious freedom.