Tucker Carlson, host of Fox News’ Fox and Friends show, said Saturday that the Satanic Temple does not have the right to erect their own holiday display on the steps of the Florida State Capitol and implies that Satanism is not a “legitimate religion.”
His reasoning? The Satanic Temple is just a joke religion meant to “stick a finger in the eye of Christians,” while Christianity is obviously a faith totally based on the facts, and Christians have never done anything offensive or wrong whatsoever. Obviously.
As Carlson put it, not allowing the Satanic Temple to have their First Amendment rights like everyone else is to “draw reasonable distinctions between reality and what is a pretty offensive prank.”
Apparently Christianity is the “reality,” and I must have missed the memo. My life as an atheist activist has all been for not. Oh woe is me! What ever shall I do now?!
(Can you see the sarcasm dripping from your screen?)
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The holiday display (pictured to the right), which honestly looks like it was built out of science fair materials, features an angel falling into a pit of fire with the words “Happy Holidays From the Satanic Temple” scrawled across the top.
I can see why many Christians might find this offensive, but I can also see why many people are offended at cross burnings, neo-nazi marches, protests at the funerals of American soldiers, and other “distasteful” forms of free speech. Just because a majority of people don’t like something someone is saying doesn’t mean that their First Amendment rights should be denied to them.
Carlson also said, “I’m assuming that there aren’t a ton of Satanists in Tallahassee.”
So what? Does being a minority mean your rights don’t exist?
If it were the case that only the majority got what they liked, Jews, Muslims, and Baha’is, who Carlson specifically mentions as groups he would not have a problem with setting up holiday displays, would also not have their rights.
Tucker Carlson presumes that anything with the label of “religion” must be something he doesn’t have a problem with. Logically (at least as logically as one can get on Fox News), the Satanic Temple must not be a “legitimate religion” and therefore should not have their right to free speech like everyone else.
Bill O’Reilly called atheists a “merry band of fascists” for what we do. It’s not us who are the fascists. We want equality for all. We want government to treat every single one of its citizens, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status, and religion or lack thereof, with fairness and respect.
That is not fascism. That is justice.
Fascism is the idea that only the religions and forms of speech one doesn’t find personally upsetting are allowed. That is fascism.
Personally, I think this whole issue could be resolved if the states just prohibited all types of holiday or otherwise religious and/or political displays on government property. Our state capitols, our town halls, and our public schools should not be places where religion is fought over.
