# 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:** 5
**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 10, 2024, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/81 "2024-04-10T01:40:30Z")
Yeah… “Torah” is pretty much always used to refer to the Tanakh as a whole rather than just the Pentateuch, at least in casual English. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/82 "2024-04-10T02:05:48Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I ain’t got no time or the convenience to worry about crap like that. That’s your privilege as a member of the majority. People who aren’t Christian don’t really have that option. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/83 "2024-04-10T02:12:19Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > This America has bigger problems than an ornament. It is a symbol to rally around. It is a statement that says “Never let it be forgotten that my religion is more important than your personal beliefs”. ---
**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 10, 2024, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/84 "2024-04-10T02:13:17Z")
I’m not a majority of anything. I promise. Do not identify as Christian. Not a member of any group. It’s just me. My thoughts don’t amount to a hill of beans. Y’all don’t need to get all worked up about it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/85 "2024-04-10T02:17:39Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Do not identify as Christian. > Not a member of any group. If any religion gains control of this country, being an “innocent bystander” that did nothing to hinder such a thing will not be enough to satisfy them. Gods (and their followers) tend not to compromise once in power. ---
**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 10, 2024, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/86 "2024-04-10T02:22:45Z")
I’ll be dead anyway Can y’all get worked up about the price of my insulin and stop focusing on crap that don’t really change anything? Please. It just went up again. If these idiots take over I’ll die in weeks if I can’t get the right insulin I need. But, hey. Worry about a lit up cross. A satanic whatsyamacallit. Or some yahoo with a red hat on. They mean so little. March for health care for goodness sake. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/87 "2024-04-10T02:29:52Z")
I think I am capable of caring about more than one thing at a time. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/88 "2024-04-10T02:35:03Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > It’s all well and good to have rights. Until they compromise mine. > I’d like the right to have a restful and peaceful death. I’d like a friendly place to go. My right to this is just as important as the separation of church and state. > I think all the amendments are important. > > But no one’s rights should dismiss mine. > > A cross lit up on a light pole isn’t religious. That’s to get people in the mood to spend that green piece of paper with “in god we trust” printed on it. There is _so much_ irony here I don’t even know where to start. A cross on a light pole is _exactly_ as religious as a statue of Satan. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > It’s a silly ornament So is the statue of Satan or Baphomet or Tiamat or Orcus or whoever. > [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > It doesn’t bother _you_ because you are a Christian so Christian symbols are just standard. A fish cannot tell that it swims in water. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/89 "2024-04-10T02:36:59Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > 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. It probably helps. The Catholics can say “well, at least he isn’t Protestant” and the Protestants can say “well, at least he isn’t Catholic”. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/90 "2024-04-10T05:01:12Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Crosses I’ve seen: > graveyards, far and wide Individual expressions of religious sentiment displayed on the property of the cemetery corporation. Not a government-funded display on public property. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Church steeples in every town Religious symbols on places of worship owned by religious organizations. Not a government-funded display on public property. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Jewelry > On T-shirts > On peoples butts on jean pockets, usually bejewelled > Dollar store replicas All commercial merchandise purchased from some business entity (or maybe in some cases homemade) and displayed by individuals in their capacity as private citizens. Not a government-funded display on public property. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Graffiti Individual public expression of personal religious sentiment (which is legal) by vandalizing the public or private property of others (which is not legal). Not a government-funded display on public property. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Hanging from rear view mirrors that smell up your car Commercial merchandise purchased from some business entity (or maybe in some cases homemade) and displayed by individuals in their capacity as private citizens. Not a government-funded display on public property. The point you’re missing is that people who object to seeing a Christian cross as part of a government-funded display on public property aren’t objecting because they just can’t stand to look at crosses. They’re objecting because that shit violates constitutional principles. The secular US government has no business officially promoting the symbols of any religion, especially not on public property with taxpayer money. If the government chooses to let some religious proponents promote the symbols of their religion on public property, then it has to let proponents of other religions promote their symbols as well. Otherwise it’s violating the important principle of religious neutrality in government. That’s the point that the Satanists are making when they insist on adding statues of Baphomet to government-funded displays of crosses on public property. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/91 "2024-04-10T05:14:28Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > If these idiots take over I’ll die in weeks if I can’t get the right insulin I need. > > But, hey. Worry about a lit up cross. A satanic whatsyamacallit. Or some yahoo with a red hat on. They mean so little. Haven’t you noticed that to a great extent it’s the yahoos with the red (MAGA) hats on that are enabling the idiots who want to take over and exploit privatized health care even more than it already is, thereby increasing the suffering and difficulty for you and millions of other ordinary Americans? It’s not a bunch of separate unrelated issues, some of which matter while others don’t. It’s a clash of entire political philosophies. Pushing back against part of the undemocratic tyrannical bullshit is pushing back against all of it. I get it that for you personally right now, it’s hard to think that anything matters except your medication costs, and I’m sorry that that situation is being such a hassle for you. But the way forward for the country as a whole is not to tell us that we shouldn’t care about other important freedoms as well. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/92 "2024-04-10T05:55:35Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > But, hey. Worry about a lit up cross. A satanic whatsyamacallit. Or some yahoo with a red hat on. They mean so little. > March for health care for goodness sake. Belittling issues that are important to other people is a _terrible_ way to get them to care about issues that are important to you. ---
**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 10, 2024, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/93 "2024-04-10T06:34:20Z")
But you can tell me what to care about? You can make me want to fight that crosses, symbols, flags, logos shouldn’t be seen. Isn’t that freedom of speech, after all? I do not care about religion, or religious symbols or any other one. Because, well I just don’t give a crap while I slowly die here. I’m sorry if it burns your eyes so horribly when you see a cross on a church (or someones jeans) that you have to shut your eyes and scream curses as you pass by. I understand the difference in government sanctioning Christianity symbols or commercial places doing it. I was just saying they are everywhere. The cross symbol has been around for much time. I don’t think you can erase it like civil war iconography. Drive by my pharmacy and see the old people counting pennies to get enough meds for 10 days. Drive by my hospital and scream at the unattended poor. Drive by the billing office and scream quit over charging people. If satanic groups cared they’d quit making big statements about whatchamacallit statues and putting them somewhere to get in the news and maybe go work in a soup kitchen. Better time spent. No one will care if they wear their shirt with some emblem on it. If rebel flag waving Maga hats would shut their mouths and help people the world could be better. Better for them, better for us. Like it or not churches help people. (Yes I know there are problems with some) But for the most part they work for and in the community they’re in. I don’t subscribe to any religion or beliefs. It’s not logical to me to believe in something so seemingly magical and hard to grab on to. That’s not to say I don’t hope there’s an afterlife. Jeez, I hope this isn’t all there is. I would like that place to be pleasant. Who wouldn’t? Can we maybe look at the bigger picture? I’m not trying to talk anyone out of their beliefs or what they’re willing to fight for. Or what amendment they find important. But remember when you get old, you get sick. All of us. If you’re lucky that’s the only time in your life you’ll need good healthcare and medication and the ability to afford it. If you’re like me and spent your whole life (My youngish life, I won’t get very old) and much money in the care of doctors and requiring insulin _everyday_ of these years you’d have different priorities. Wear your Barbie t-shirt in a flag bikini. I care not. Even tho’ it’s sexist and not licensed. Wear your MAGA hat. I can ignore it. Fly your stupid rebel flag on your truck. I’m southern and I don’t feel a bit nostalgic about it. Carry a cross and wear a hair shirt. You the one gonna itch. Look at the healthcare news just today. Remember the pandemic. Eldercare crisis. It’s a bigger problem than satanic statues. Their branding does lack. They need to work on 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 10, 2024, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/94 "2024-04-10T06:38:55Z")
Exactly. It’s a two way street. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/95 "2024-04-10T08:31:34Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I’m sorry if it burns your eyes so horribly when you see a cross on a church (or someones jeans) that you have to shut your eyes and scream curses as you pass by. NOBODY here is saying this. This is a total misrepresentation of what is being said in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/96 "2024-04-10T08:35:31Z")
never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/97 "2024-04-10T08:36:55Z")
Who here is belittling your issues? Saying that there are issues other than the ones you care about does not belittle your issues. ---
**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 10, 2024, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/98 "2024-04-10T12:16:34Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > NOBODY here is saying this. Crossses are OK, but anytime I’m splashed with holy water, it leaves weird scars that look like sixes. I wonder if I should go see a doctor or something. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/99 "2024-04-10T12:23:37Z")
My excuse for not going inside a church is that the last time I did, something horrible happened. I was married in a church ---
**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 10, 2024, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031/100 "2024-04-10T12:26:37Z")
Zing! My B-I-L is a pastor, so I go from time to time. The crosses never seem to burn my eyes, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking that nativity scenes and ten commandment monuments don’t belong on public property. I also think that insulin should be cheap or free. Look at me, juggling several thoughts at the same time! Someday, I’ll be able to walk _and_ chew gum, all at once! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-satanists-have-a-branding-issue/1000031.md?page=6)