Post by Joanna on Sept 18, 2018 23:55:21 GMT -5
The Devil Isn't Welcome in Arkansas
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Christians came together two weeks ago to protest an event promoting Satan on the steps of the Arkansas state capitol building. Held on August 16 and organized by the Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple, the “First Amendment Rally” was attended by roughly 150 mostly young, tattooed individuals in black attire. Atheists, Satanists and one Christian minister addressed the crowd as police stood guard. A 7½-foot Baphomet statue, a half-man, half goat creature representing the devil, was transported to the site on the flatbed of a truck.
The Satanic Temple argues their statue should be allowed to permanently stand alongside a Ten Commandments monument installed on capitol grounds in 2017.
Christians were on hand to protest the Satanic Temple’s rally, singing and holding signs featuring Bible verses. One woman’s sign quoted Matthew 4:10: “Away with you Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’”
One protester, Lisa Hayes, a Catholic from North Little Rock, told The Arkansas Catholic, “I just felt the need to pray over people who worship Satan and give support where needed for our faith.”
The grassroots Catholic group America Needs Fatima organized a reparation event for the gathering the day before it took place. Equipped with banners reading “Satan has NO rights” and “We are a Christian Nation,” roughly 275 Catholics of all ages peacefully prayed under the shadow of the Arkansas capitol dome as dozens of cars honked their horns in support. A statue of Our Lady of Fatima was also present. Buses from as far as Topeka, Kansas, carrying more than 80 people, traveled more than seven hours so men, women and children could participate. One woman traveled all the way from Australia.
Following the protest, a petition with 25,000 signatures against the Satanic statue and in favor of the Ten Commandments monument was hand-delivered to Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson at his office by an Arkansas family and José Walter Ferraz, an America Needs Fatima chauffeur.
John Horvat, vice president of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, told LifeSiteNews: “State officials like the governor of Arkansas should oppose the placement of a demonic statue and the Satanic rally that was held. Their role in society is to uphold and defend the common good. Satanism and the destruction of the moral order clearly do not favor” the common good, he continued. “Protest and petitions like ours encourage public officials since they see just how unpopular Satanism is.”
The Satanic Temple has 15 chapters in the United States and one in Canada. Members of the organization claim the Ten Commandments monument violates their freedom of religion and are attempting to join the ACLU in a lawsuit to get it removed.
Arkansas Republican state Senator Jason Rapert told THV 11 the Satanic Temple is nothing more than a group of “pranksters” who “take advantage of gullible people” and “promote the profane. It will be a very cold day in hell before an offensive statue will be forced upon us to be permanently erected on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol.” Rapert sponsored the 2015 bill that approved the Ten Commandments monument, which was eventually erected in 2017. Within 24 hours of its installation, the monument was smashed to pieces when a man yelling “Freedom” drove his car into it. The same man was arrested for destroying a Ten Commandments monument outside the Oklahoma state capitol in 2014.
Source: Stephen Kikx, Life Site, August 28, 2018.