Put simply, The Satanic Temple is a relatively new atheistic religion (without belief in an actual Satan) with core beliefs in the seven tenets as listed below:
I. One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
II. The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
III. One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
IV. The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own.
V. Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.
VI. People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
VII. Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
Check out https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/about-us for more info.
Hope all is well! Hail Satan!
So I’m by no means an expert in the nuances of modern liberal Satanism, but I’ll do my best to give my own viewpoint.
First and foremost, TST promotes respect between individuals, as it’s the first tenet. But sometimes you are going to do something that inadvertently offends someone else. Like if you are a woman out and about in a heavily fundamentalist Muslim country. Showing too much leg skin would be offensive to many (and quite frankly unwise due to safety concerns, but that’s besides the point). But she is simply exercising her own freedom of expression which is not actually harming anyone.
I will say I do agree that it is a bit of an odd tenet, but I see why it’s on there. Satanism may offend many religious individuals, but we are just out here trying to live our lives the best we can.
Forgive me, as I’m not the best with words.
The nice thing about the tenets is that there is room for nuance. TST was never designed to be a rigid set of unwavering core beliefs without any room for discussion. I would say your question would be more of a personal one in nature, and not a question for TST themselves. However, I would say that most of TST members do not seem to support capital punishment.
The reason that tenet exists in the first place is that TST was borne out of an attempt to fight against religious oppression, which is a very real issue. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we advocate for mowing down people with AK-47s, just that we believe in fighting for human rights.