Iowa State Capitol by Thesavagenorwegian / Wikimedia Commons
The Satanic Temple (TST) in Iowa filed a complaint June 10 with the Iowa Office of Civil Rights, claiming that it is a religious group and that state officials discriminated against it by denying it permission to host a satanic event in the Iowa Capitol.
TST applied to hold a winter celebration in the Capitol in December 2024 in an attempt to educate Iowans about satanism and its beliefs, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which filed the complaint on behalf of TST.
Mortimer Adramelech, a satanic minister of TST Iowa, claimed that he and his group are simply “seeking to exercise our right to freedom of religion.” The event would have included “satanic holiday carols,” DIY satanic ornaments, a Krampus costume contest, and a ritual.
State officials denied the application, stating that events involving violence, gore, or sexual themes are not permissible. TST claims that the event would not have included such content and would have remained family-friendly.
This is not TST’s first incident at the Iowa Capitol. In December 2023, the group placed a satanic display in the rotunda of the building, prompting Christian Navy veteran Michael Cassidy to destroy the figure, CatholicVote previously reported.
“I saw this blasphemous statue and was outraged. My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted,” Cassidy said at the time. “The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment.”
In response to Cassidy’s actions, CatholicVote Vice President Josh Mercer explained that tearing down the statue was not a violation of TST’s First Amendment rights.
“The state of Iowa has every right to exercise its own government speech on its government property,” Mercer stated in 2023. “You do not have a First Amendment right to have every viewpoint represented.”
