Filmmaker Penny Lane takes an eye-opening, myth-busting look at a religion thatโsย growing rapidly
This feature via Dazed Digital
โThe night Donald Trump was elected president, we saw a huge spike in people becoming members of the Satanic Temple,โ says Lucien Greaves, enigmatic leader of the dynamic and rapidly growing religion. In fact, the Satanic Temple is expanding at such a pace, itโs become the focus of a new documentary โ but what exactly is a 21st century Satanist?
To find out, filmmaker Penny Lane takes us deep inside the inner-workings of Greavesโ grass-roots movement inย Hail Satan?, a movie detailing the Templeโs efforts to highlight the importance of the separation of church and state. That question mark is no typo, either. In addition to gathering a mammoth amount of controversy, the Satanic Temple is surrounded by a glut of misinformation, but withย Hail Satan?, Lane aims to set the record straight about what being horny in 2019 is really all about.
โIโd seen news stories about the Satanic Temple, and they were all pretty similar,โ Lane tells Dazed. โThey were saying it was a satirical prank and that they werenโt really Satanists. It wasnโt until I came across a longer piece where I learned more about what was going on โ and that there were all these new chapters forming all over the place. It became more interesting the more I engaged with it.โ Eventually Laneโs research led her to Greaves, the Templeโs self-described โreluctant leaderโ and figurehead for all media dealings.
โThe first thing that struck me was how quiet and unassuming he was,โ she says, recalling their first meeting. โHe didnโt come across as your typical religious leader: heโs quiet, studious, serious and private, and wasnโt exceptionally excited to be on camera. It felt like heโd been called to do this work so was going to do it the best he could.โ
Laneโs first impressions were accurate. For Greaves, the Satanic Temple is no gimmick. Itโs a place for those who feel disenfranchised with the world and want a community to help them combat it. โI didnโt take it lightly when I determined to become the voice of this movement โ it really felt like suicide to me,โ Greaves reveals. โI was keenly aware of the Satanic Panic from the 80s and 90s and how lives were ruined by the attribution of Satanism. I felt like if we werenโt vindicated in what we were doing, we would ruin our lives. We live in a Google era and I would never be able to walk away.โ
Itโs truly no wonder Greaves was so wary. Talk to anyone about Satanism, and blood-drenched ritual sacrifice and tired old stereotype emerge. โThe Hollywood conception of Satanism? That doesnโt exist,โ asserts Lane. โThere arenโt people like there are in Rosemaryโs Baby or American Horror Story that literally worship the devil, do acts of evil, and try to bring about the apocalypse. The people who exist in the world and call themselves Satanists are typically atheists who embrace the idea of Satan as a literary figure that stands for rebellion, skepticism, and the value of being an outsider,โ she explains. โThe Satanic Temple is one instantiation of that belief system.โ
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