Satanic Temple condemns vandalism of its statue by Christian military veteran

The leader of an organization whose satanic altar at Iowa’s state capitol was torn down by a Christian military veteran on Thursday has dismissed the vandalism as “a real act of cowardice”.

“There’s a certain point at which we need some adults in the room to tell people what … liberal, democratic values are; what their value is; why we uphold them; what they’re good for; and they need to stand up for these values or we are going to further degenerate in our polarism towards autocracy,” the co-founder of the Satanic Temple, Lucien Greaves, told CNN’s NewsNight on Thursday.

The Satanic Temple obtained permission from Iowa’s government to erect a statue of a goat-headed figure at the state capitol in Des Moines along with the group’s seven fundamental tenets, which call on members “to act with compassion and empathy toward all” and declare people’s bodies as “inviolable”.