OPINION: In Satan can we trust?

By Dora Guerrero
Assistant Editor
Published Friday, Sept. 27, 2024

Sometimes it’s so much easier to fear the things you don’t understand; sometimes people demonize them so they don’t have to look at them for too long. As children, they tell us to not misbehave or “el cucuy” is going to take us; the cucuy represents some evil that is out of this world, which goes against everything we have been taught. This ungodly presence steals misbehaving children and takes them away, but are all “ungodly” things really that bad?

The Satanic Panic from the 1990s created a false vision of the “occult” focused on a great conspiracy of Satanic cults that abduct children for human sacrifices. What many people failed to realize is that those who feel welcome in the occult don’t really have any desire to do those things. The Satanic Temple was founded in 2012 with the mission to promote empathy and benevolence. The only reason why they even use any form of satanic imagery is to create religious skepticism, with theatrical ploys to highlight religious hypocrisy.

TST views Satan as a symbol that represents a rebel against a greater authority instead of an evil supernatural being. According to the Satanic Temple website, members of TST “publicly confronted hate groups, fought for the abolition of corporal punishment in public schools, applied for equal representation when religious installations are placed on public property, provided religious exemption and legal protection against laws that unscientifically restrict people’s reproductive autonomy, exposed harmful pseudo-scientific practitioners in mental healthcare, organized clubs alongside other religious after-school clubs in schools besieged by proselytizing organizations and engaged in other advocacy in accordance with our tenets.” So, in short, they are a non-theistic organization that simply uses the imagery for show, without worshiping anything.

When going deeper into TST tenants, there is a clear image of progression and a want to uphold values that can be considered morally correct by anyone with half a sense of humanity: things like don’t sexually assault someone, be compassionate, be just and don’t try to forcefully convert people; these are all found in the philosophy. When looking into all this, is there really something to fear? Really, who knows, maybe el cucuy isn’t always that bad.