Last night, in a 5 – 4 vote, the City of Phoenix voted to no-longer open their city council meetings with prayers.

The move came after The Satanic Temple of Tucson applied to give an invocation and was approved back in December. The Satanic invocation was scheduled for February 17^th.

Conservatives on the city council had what can only be described as a complete meltdown. Councilmembers Sal DiCiccio, Jim Waring, Bill Gates, and Michael Nowakowski wanted the city to adopt an emergency measure that would change the process by which prayers were selected. When the Temple first applied, the scheduling was handled by the city clerk’s office. The proposed change would have amended the process to allow the mayor and city councilmembers to select invocators on a rotating basis. They planned to retroactively apply the measure, thereby disinviting the Satanic Temple. In doing so, the City of Phoenix would have violated the constitutional rights of the temple members scheduled to give the invocation.

Instead, the city opted for a half-measure. Instead of disinviting the Satanists, the city amended the procedure by which invocations are given. In lieu of a spoken prayer, there will now be a moment of silence.

Though the move is obviously meant to silence the Satanists, it is not technically a constitutional violation since the new procedure applies to everyone, not just the Satanic Temple. In other words, the City of Phoenix has managed to discriminate against the Satanists without technically discriminating against them.

The February 3^rd City Council meeting was heated, with passions running high. Some public commenters accused the Satanic Temple and its spokesperson, Lucien Greaves, of mocking 9/11 victims and being misogynistic, pro-rape, anti-Semitic. Councilmember Nowakowski joined in the slander, saying that the Satanic Temple was a “hate group” and had a “book of rape.”

None of the accusations thrown out at the Temple are even remotely true. In fact, in its basic tenets, the Satanic Temple says, “One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason.” Hardly the stuff of racism and misogyny, but something tells me the naysayers didn’t do their homework before speaking out against the Temple.

In the end, the silencing of the prayers is a victory of sorts for the Satanic Temple, which promotes, among other ideals, the separation of church and state. Though the Temple itself is being underhandedly discriminated against, the change in procedure ensures that no religious person or group will face the same discrimination in the future.

 

Image: The Satanic Temple / Facebook