Filmmaker and “Hail Satan?” director Penny Lane said in an interview that aired Wednesday on “Rising” that Satanists are fighting for the religious liberty of all Americans.
“At the end of the day, the fight the Satanic Temple is fighting is one that is about pluralism and the values that the United States has enshrined in the Constitution from its founding,” Lane told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball on Tuesday.
“It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter if you are Catholic, if you are Protestant, or Muslim or a Satanist or an atheist,” she continued. “This battle is super for important for you. So whatever you think of these people, whatever you think of their religion, whatever you think of their organizing tactics, they are actually fighting for your rights.”
Members of the Satanic Temple made news last year after they brought statues to two state capitols in an effort to make a statement about religious liberty and freedom of speech.
The group’s followers in August brought a statue of Baphomet, a goat-like figure associated with Satanism, to a free speech rally at the Arkansas State Capitol, where there was monument dedicated to the Ten Commandments.
In December, members brought a monument with the words “Knowledge is the greatest gift” to the Illinois Statehouse rotunda, joining other religions’ holiday displays.
“Hail Satan?” gives viewers an inside look at the group’s founding and its political activism.
The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is set to hit theaters on Friday.
— Julia Manchester
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