The Church of Satan is fraudulent, as in legally, putting aside the evil etc.
“Atheists running a church for satire” are committing tax fraud if nothing else.
An example of fraud:
My former landlord from years ago, didn’t strike me as exactly a good guy but he likely wasn’t a satanist either which I mention so we can rule out prejudice against the poor oppressed satanists. However, he was pretty open about running a scam church for a tax shelter. He had three houses that backed onto the same area. He rented out rooms in two of the houses to poor people and rented out a big room on the back of the house he lived in for a dance studio and somehow got this classified as a church specifically to get tax write offs. (He happily told anyone who’d listen that he got that status through his friends downtown in the local government.)
That is a scam. It’s not legal. It’s not a church. Anyone knows that’s not a church and not at all what anyone intended to be covered by the laws put forth to protect places of worship.
Same with the church of Satan- It’s NOT an argument of freedom of religion because the people involved aren’t practicing a religion according to their own statements.
Can’t have it both ways.
If there’s no “worship” going on you can’t expect your “freedom of worship” to be protected. …or your freedom to skip paying taxes.
Otherwise, people could go exploit the same thing for tax exemptions for their grocery store or whatever. Anything. (That former landlord shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it either, by the way.)
Please revoke their status as a church and the tax exemption that goes with it.
Some proofs:
Satanic Temple says IRS recognizes it as a church, gave it tax exempt status | U.S.
Satanic Temple Becomes Tax-Exempt Religion
“This acknowledgement will help make sure The Satanic Temple has the same access to public spaces as other religious organizations, affirm our standing in court when battling religious discrimination, and enable us to apply for faith-based government grants,” stated the group.
[F.A.Q. Fundamental Beliefs - Church of Satan]
“Why do Satanists worship The Devil? We don’t. Satanists are atheists. We see the universe as being indifferent to us, and so all morals and values are subjective human constructions.”
(Sorry, their links don’t work when I copy them over, but it’s on the churchofsatan.com)
Feb 10, 2018 ·" Satanism is not Devil worship. That comes as a shock to many who haven’t explored our philosophy and it is the prime misconception outsiders have regarding the Church -" (as is this quote)
“Many of The Satanic Temple’s political campaigns and legal actions depend on invoking their religious rights. However, critics have responded that The Satanic Temple is not a “real” religion but merely “trolls” who only pretend to have sincerely held beliefs. These critics typically point out that The Satanic Temple do not believe in a literal Satan or any supernatural force. This argument featured prominently when The Satanic Temple sued the state of Missouri over its abortion laws…” Religion or Trolls? How The Satanic Temple Is Changing the Way We Talk About Religion | Speak of the Devil: How The Satanic Temple is Changing the Way We Talk about Religion | Oxford Academic
I wrote a thread about this in homeland security which was much more detailed with several arguments, but it got misinterpreted, I think. So, the above is much more concise and directed at the aspect people seem to care about. I’ve placed it in Economics now as that’s the angle of this argument and it was going to be lost at the bottom of the other post anyhow.