BOSTON (AP) – The Satanic Temple has asked to wave a flag over Boston City Hall after the US Supreme Court ruled this week that the city violated the right to free speech of a conservative activist who seeks to wave a Christian flag in front of the downtown building. of the city.
The Salem-based group tweeted a request Tuesday to the city’s property management department to raise a flag marking Satan’s Thanksgiving Week from July 23rd to 29th.
Mayor Michel Wu’s cabinet declined to comment on the group’s request, saying it was reviewing the Supreme Court’s decision while assessing its flag-raising program.
Lucien Greaves, co-founder of the organization, said in an email Wednesday that the group wanted to show that religious freedom should mean respect for “all forms” of religious practices and views.
“When government officials are able to impose arbitrary restrictions on the demands of conscience or reduce the civic capacity of some on the basis of their religious identity, we fail to be a free, democratic republic,” he wrote in part.
The organization has not decided which of its official flags it will ask the city to raise, Greaves said, but a possible option reflects the American flag, with only black and white stripes and a pentagram emblem and goat skull where the 50 stars would be.
The Satanic Temple is separate from the Church of Satan, which was founded in the 1960s. Founded in 2013, the Satanic Temple does not believe in Satan and describes itself as a “non-theistic religious organization” that advocates secularism.
She challenged religious freedom across the country, including a federal lawsuit alleging that the traditional opening prayer of the Boston City Council at its public meetings was discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that Boston discriminated against activist Harold Shertlef because of his “religious views”, although he routinely approved other requests to raise the flag.
In 2017, Shertlef and his camp constitution wanted to unfurl a white flag with a red cross on a blue background, called a Christian flag, to mark Constitution Day on September 17.
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