The Satanic Temple's 10-year anniversary celebration in Boston, Massachusetts, this weekend is facing counter-events from several Christian groups, including revivalist demonstrations designed to "ambush" the group's SatanCon convention.
The temple, unlike the Church of Satan, does not worship the biblical Satan as a deity, but instead has historically used its religious association to "reject tyrannical authority," according to the organization's website. Friday kicked off the group's second annual SatanCon at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, roughly 25 miles south of the organization's symbolic home in Salem, Massachusetts.
The group's organizers have dubbed the three-day event as the "largest Satanic gathering in history," and the convention will include presentations, rituals and a "Satanic Marketplace."
The sold-out event, however, has garnered the attention of opposing groups, including the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, who told Catholic News Agency last week that the diocese is responding to SatanCon with "intense prayer."
"At the direction of the cardinal [Sean O'Malley], we are approaching it through a response balanced and focused on prayer," said a spokesman for the archdiocese, Terrence Donilon.
A separate Christian activist group is also hosting an event titled "Revive Boston," which is scheduled to take place on the same dates as SatanCon, at the Revere Hotel Boston Common, less than a mile from the temple's event. The weekend of "revival" will include worship, prayer services and a "city-wide outreach" to "preach the gospel in key locations" throughout Boston, according to Revive Boston's website.
In a video shared to YouTube in February, leader of Revive Boston, Dr. Jaymz Sideras, said that the event is a "counter-response" to The Satanic Temple's "weekend of blasphemy."
"While they think they are coming to ambush Boston, little do they know that God has planned to ambush them," Sideras said.
While The Satanic Temple does not preach a belief in Satan, the group does encourage empathy, compassion, justice and separation of church and state. Most recently, the temple has used its position as a religious organization to push back on abortion bans following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the summer.
In October, the temple sued Idaho and Indiana for the states' near-total bans on abortions, arguing that the restrictions infringe on its members' religious freedoms. The temple has also filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas, and describes an abortion procedure as a religious ritual for its female members, acting as an "affirmation of self-worth and bodily autonomy."
Attorney James Mac Naughton, representing temple members in the lawsuits against Idaho and Indiana, previously told Newsweek that the "view of The Satanic Temple is that a fetus is a part of a woman's body."
"As such, she has absolute dominion and control over it and can dispose of it or keep it as she sees fit," Naughton said.
Newsweek has reached out via email to The Satanic Temple's press team for comment.
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