"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain!"

Declare Iowa Satanists...

Much has been written about the Satanic Temple of Iowa erecting a statue to the occult figure Baphomet in the Iowa Capitol last week, and the beheading of the statue by Mississippian and former statehouse candidate Michael Cassidy, 35, a former U.S. Navy Pilot. There was excellent coverage in the Iowa Capital Dispatch, the Des Moines Register, Radio Iowa, KCCI-TV, WHO-TV, KCRG-TV, the AP, Newsweek, Forbes, Newsweek, Vice, The Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, and many more. I wrote a piece about it suggesting that it was further evidence of the radicalization of the Republican Party here.

Fox News also covered the issue, but I won’t say their coverage was excellent. The only thing Fox News is excellent at is undermining democracy.

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I’m not sure that I have much new to add, but as I learned that the group would take down the statue on Saturday, I felt an urge to attend early that morning. It’s my nature. Also my training. As an anthropologist, I have to observe and talk to people or I have a hard time writing about an issue. The two men above attended the event on Saturday in some official capacity. They were nice guys. After I took this picture, I said “You two look scary!” They both grinned.

Almost everyone I talked with was, as far as I could tell, blue-collar workers.

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Above is what the statue looked like before it was beheaded.

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This guy explained to me that the group doesn’t actually believe in Satan and that it is all about community, freedom of religion, logic, empathy, and kindness. They don’t like the state abusing its power.

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This woman was born in Florida, lives in Germany, and is visiting relatives in Iowa for the holidays. She came to offer her support.

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Here are some of the other nice people I met. The guy with the horns on the left came all the way from Chicago. I wish I knew what all of the symbols mean. I did learn that Knoll is a band from Tennessee. According to the Metal Archives, their genre is Grindcore/Death Metal/Noise, and their themes are Esotericism, Death, Occultism, and Abstract horror.

Or in the words of my generation, “far out!”

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On the left is the start of the ceremony associated with the removal of what remained of the statue and altar. To the right are two of the women who helped with the ceremony.

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The woman in red above carrying a briefcase was interesting. Almost eerie. She circled at a distance, always moving, up and down the stairs, and around us, quietly observing. I started to walk up to her and engage in a conversation but the way she looked at me as I approached suggested that it wasn’t a good idea. I’m a big believer in trusting one’s instincts, so I will likely never know who she was or what she was doing observing us. Maybe a mistake on my part, but I’m good with it.

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Above is a video of the closing ceremony. Please watch it—and learn what the group is about. Oddly enough, the values they speak of are the values the vast majority of Iowans share, unlike the values of right-wing MAGA “Christian” nationalists.

Being proud Iowans, they celebrate our motto, “Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We will Maintain!”

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Please check out the work of my fellow members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. They are doing amazing work. We are the largest source of feature writing and commentary in the Midwest, and I am proud to be a part of it. I don’t have room to list everyone, but you can check us out here.

The Iowa Writers Collaborative is also proud to ally with the Iowa Capital Dispatch.