There is No Constitutional Right to Satanism – The American Conservative

There are two important concepts that rebut the idea that Satanism is protected by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. First, anti-blasphemy laws were consistently upheld as compatible with free exercise of religion: According to the Harvard Law Review, the blackletter rule was clear. Constitutional liberty entailed a right to articulate views on religion, but not a right to commit blasphemy the offense of maliciously reviling God, which encompassed profane ridicule of Christ. Throughout the nation s history and even into the twentieth century, the federal courts have consistently upheld state anti-blasphemy laws as constitutional. There is no binding precedent stating that anti-blasphemy laws violate the First Amendment.

This is where the actual content of religious claims matters. A simple look at the Church of Satan website or its Wikipedia page (for both of which I intentionally choose not to provide a link) clearly show that the views of the Satanic sect revile God and ridicule Christ. Thus, the practice of Satanism is itself blasphemous. By law it ought to be punishable, not protected.

The fact that the practice of Satanism is itself blasphemous and thus historically does not deserve First Amendment protection leads to the question that emerged in discussing the Carpenter case above: what is religion under the First Amendment? We get very little guidance from the text of the Constitution itself. The text tells us that Congress shall not prevent the free exercise of religion; the incorporation doctrine based on the Fourteenth Amendment extends this protection to the state governments. But nowhere does the text of the Constitution define religion.

via www.theamericanconservative.com

Satanism might be a religion. Especially if you include its unconscious adherents, it is probably one of the most popular religions in the US. Indeed, I would guess it is *the* most popular religion among those currently in power in our nation’s capitol, though as I say, this may include unconscious Satanists, at least in some cases. It recalls the situation in Haiti, where sadly the religion of Voodoo (or however it is currently more politically correctly spelled) prevailed among the ruling class. That colorful set of beliefs included the practice of Zombification, or the rendering of human beings into a permanent or semi-permanent mentally disabled state by their surreptitious poisoning with Pufferfish venom and then temporary entombment, all accompanied by various apparently efficacious religious rituals. Our leaders seem often similarly Zombified, though whether this is the result of Satanism, religious or otherwise, is controversial.