I don’t like this display. I find it offensive. But my views on the display are a bit different than people like MAGA worship-leader and Christian nationalist Sean Feucht:
To be short and sweet, I don’t think any religious symbols should be displayed in the Iowa capitol building or any capitol building for that matter. Religious freedom is the right to worship freely and express one’s religious views without government interference. It has nothing to do with religious displays in capitol buildings. Of course, many on the Christian right do believe religious freedom has something to do with religious displays in capitol buildings. Well, if that is their view, they will need to deal with this Satanic altar for a couple of weeks.
This is why I’ve argued that American evangelicals need more secularism.
“Shellie Flockhart from Dallas Center says she was shocked to see at the capitol. ‘It’s a very dark, evil force, and I truly hope people know how to battle that,’ Flockhart said.
Flockhart organized a prayer group on Wednesday around the Christmas tree in the center of the rotunda to oppose the satanic display near the stairwell.”
https://www.kcci.com/article/des-moines-satanic-temple-display-inside-iowa-state-capitol-building/46057210#
A prayer circle around a tree to combat paganism.
Anyone else detecting some irony here?
Well put, John.
Representative Jon Dunwell (a conservative Republican and an ordained C&MA pastor) shares some very good thoughts in this thread:
https://x.com/jdunwell/status/1733191110858559506?s=20
And gets a ton of abuse.
It’s rather amazing how often Jesus’s cleansing of the Temple shows up as the catch-all response to Dunwell’s well-thought-out points here.
People seem to think that keeping money-changers out of Temples was Jesus’ full-time job, rather than a one-off episode that he never instructed his disciples to repeat. The money-changers were all back the next day.
Not being an X-er I didn’t see the responses, but Jesus threw the money-changers out of the temple because it was the house of God. (“Zeal for your house has consumed me.”)
Two things:
1) The Iowa State House is not the temple of God, and
2) Jesus said “I have overcome the world” without EVER raising his hand against the world (the oft-cited temple cleansing is not against the world but in-house business)
ps: agree that we should keep religious symbols out of state houses, but if we let some in then real “religious freedom” means let ’em all in…