# Do Satanists have a branding issue? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 9, 2024, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031 "2024-04-09T00:30:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/61 "2024-04-09T18:51:55Z")
A friend of mine is a Satanist, but I’ll be damned (pun unintended) if I can remember if it’s Satanic Temple or Church of Satan. Either way, I’m pretty sure it’s more a taking-the-piss thing than belief in the supernatural or a desire for the end times. Wouldn’t mention it except she lives in Northern feckin’ Ireland, which has gotta be an interesting place to loudly profess anything beside Catholicism or Protestantism. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/62 "2024-04-09T18:52:01Z")
And how do you know this. An atheist may have hung them up. Hey, they need jobs too. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/63 "2024-04-09T18:53:13Z")
An atheist can sing Adeste Fidelis. It remains a Christian song and a Christian message. I don’t know what point you think you’re making. But, you’ve failed to make it. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/64 "2024-04-09T18:54:27Z")
I’m not trying to make any point. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/65 "2024-04-09T18:55:20Z")
My son went to high school with Anton LaVey’s nephew. I have sympathy for both kinds of Satanism, but man that kid was always getting my son into trouble. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/66 "2024-04-09T18:55:32Z")
If it’s just “a silly ornament” why not hang it upisde down? Why not some beautiful Arabic proclaiming Allah?? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/67 "2024-04-09T18:56:12Z")
‘It’s just a cross! I don’t see why y’all are gettin’ so upset?’ [![](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:4000/1*8XU3sY_mbNlSFoUz1vccKQ.jpeg) ](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:4000/1*8XU3sY_mbNlSFoUz1vccKQ.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/68 "2024-04-09T18:57:40Z")
Why not? We’re not gonna answer it here. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/69 "2024-04-09T19:43:00Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > A cross lit up on a light pole isn’t religious On what fucking planet is a **cross** not a religious symbol!? It doesn’t bother _you_ because you are a Christian so Christian symbols are just standard. That’s the entire _point_ of the baphomet statues. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/70 "2024-04-09T20:01:54Z")
I’m not a Christian. Thanks for cubby hole-ing me. I’m saying I just can’t work myself up to care all that much. If they burnt you when you walked under them I might could. But as they are not really harmful, I don’t give two shits. I feel the same way about swastikas and rebel flags. They are nothing. A starving kid. A elder alone and sad. An animal suffering. I can get worked up. But not about this crap. This America has bigger problems than an ornament. People are hyper focused on these things to the point of not seeing the forest for the trees. (Any way an image of a lit up cross is not the holiest of crosses hanging in the Vatican. It’s just not. No more than the cross necklace a passerby might wear.) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/71 "2024-04-09T20:10:07Z")
Crosses I’ve seen: graveyards, far and wide Church steeples in every town Jewelry On T-shirts On peoples butts on jean pockets, usually bejewelled Dollar store replicas Graffiti Hanging from rear view mirrors that smell up your car Oh, and that image of a little boy peeing on one on lots of back windshields How can you manage to survive if you don’t wanna see them? I didn’t make it this way. Don’t blame me. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/72 "2024-04-09T20:36:52Z")
Jesus, here we go again. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/73 "2024-04-09T20:39:00Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I feel the same way about swastikas and rebel flags. They are nothing. To you they’re nothing. To lots of other people, they’re symbols of danger **at best** , and at worst they’re the last thing they see before the violence starts. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/74 "2024-04-09T20:39:10Z")
God, aren’t you tired of all the random references to religion? Heaven help us! ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/75 "2024-04-09T20:52:13Z")
Why, I’m losing my religion over it, swear to God! ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/76 "2024-04-09T23:15:51Z")
Religion? Heck, I’m l’m losing my lunch. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/77 "2024-04-09T23:35:30Z")
Is it a marketing success when someone tries to bomb one of your facilities? > **[Explosive device thrown onto porch of Satanic Temple](https://www.wrdw.com/2024/04/09/explosive-device-thrown-onto-porch-satanic-temple/)** > > The device was thrown onto the porch at about 4:14 a.m. Monday and not discovered until staff arrived about 4 p.m., police said. (I would argue “yes”, actually. If you antagonize a majority to the point that their extremists resort to violence, at least someone feels threatened by the point you’re making.) ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/78 "2024-04-09T23:41:02Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > (I would argue “yes”, actually. If you antagonize a majority to the point that their extremists resort to violence, at least someone feels threatened by the point you’re making.) That would be them that feel threatened, right? How messed up do you have to be… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/79 "2024-04-09T23:41:10Z")
People who grow up christian are, in the old cliche, like fish not recognizing water. Christianity is all-pervasive in America. Christmas is an official federal holiday and Easter might as well be. Imagine being a non-christian kid in even a secular school approaching Christmas. You think that every other sentence spoken doesn’t have some relationship to Christmas? You think crosses are mere ornaments with no larger meaning? Tell a non-Christian kid that. I’ll pass over (ha: joke) the long history of Catholics in northern states and Protestants in midwestern and southern states writing their beliefs into state laws and consolidating them into federal laws. I have to mention the current stink about ending abortion (Arizona’s Supreme Court just said that an 1864 law banning abortions and criminalizing practitioners is controlling: 1864!). And that a group of Christian Nationalists want to create a theocracy and expect the Republican Party will help them do it. Religion: it’s not just for believers any more. Oh, by the way, I stared death in the face in a hospital without it affecting my beliefs an iota. And as a fictional character, anyone can do anything with Satan with or without a belief in an antagonist good guy. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/80 "2024-04-10T00:44:41Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Canonically, Satan appears in the Torah all of once- in the Book Of Job. There is debate over whether it’s a proper noun or could just be replaced with ‘prosecuting angel’. What side? What story? ⁢ Nitpick: Job is not in the Torah, which is the first give books of the Bible. Job is part of the Tanakh, which is an acroynym/portmanteau of Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim—Law, Prophets, Writings—which are used to refer to the three sections of the Hebrew Bible. Job is specifically part of the latter, like Psalms, Esther, Chronicles, and others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031.md?page=5)