Make no mistake about it: The Satanic Temple is a political activist group first and a religious organization second. The fact that it has been around for about a decade and has yet to expound on a philosophy, still only listing seven ambiguous but generally reasonable and mostly agreeable tenets, is evidence that its resources are spent elsewhere than religious principles: the attention of the head of The Satanic Temple is directed at its many court appearances and political actions. Its stance as a religion is a means to an end that provides the Temple with the legitimacy required for legal combat against religious affairs. It is a weapon that changes the Temple from an interest group whose opinion existing religious groups can safely disregard to an equal whose rights and complaints must be taken seriously.
This does not imply that the religion is mere self-delusion to the members of The Satanic Temple. Satan thinks that the Temple’s reason to found a new religion is as good as any, if not better than yet another uneducated joker who believes he has discovered the truth, and the resulting religion is as authentic, meaningful, and legit as any religion based on fantasy creatures. But, Satan thinks that with such limited doctrine, the religion lacks the unification and direction that are some of the positive aspects offered by religion. Members are instead on their own with no guidance. The organization made the absolute minimum effort on this matter: it has secured legal recognition as a religion but does not provide religion beyond a very superficial level.
The Satanic Temple has chosen the strategically sound approach of appearing to be “for” something not “against” something. Hence, its official stance is to promote religious tolerance and pluralism and to ensure that its own members have equal rights as those of other religions. It does not take a genius to understand that The Satanic Temple thus turns the system upon itself and that its primary agenda is to oppose and combat Christian dominance in society and legislation, but its battles are fought in the arenas of believers, politicians, and lawyers, not geniuses, where subversive or hidden agendas are common. Thus, although it was important to establish a religion, the glaring absence of scripture and teaching shows that the founders of The Satanic Temple evidently are not invested in creating and maintaining a religious ideology. In practice, all The Satanic Temple is “for” is a very shallow body of opinions and values.
Satan thinks this reality is not entirely lost on the membership. Some naïve members may fall for the narrative that The Satanic Temple is truly bent on religious tolerance, and some members with diplomatic flair will claim so for political reasons, but moderately perceptive people soon learn that the Temple is—deservedly, let us not deny it—directly antagonistic towards Christians.
With scarcely any philosophical content to discuss or examples of articulated ideology from representatives of the governing body of The Satanic Temple to appropriate, the lay membership adopts its antagonism and acts accordingly. Ideology boils down to a concentrate of anti-Christian sentiments, mutual reassurances of the evils of Christianity, a continuing compulsion to vilify the enemy, and repeated ridicule and constant criticism of their superstitions, with a majority of its membership creating and chiming in with such animosity. Satan agrees that Christianity is an atrocity of mankind, but He thinks that if one declares oneself a Satanist, one is already abundantly informed about their inhumanity and needs no daily dossier—in fact, Satan thinks that if one is a Satanist, one feels no need to revisit their territory and prefers to not be reminded of their existence. Hell may be a place of eternal suffering, but even His Focality of the Nine Circles would not inflict more Christianity upon the damned than they have already endured. Such preoccupation with Christianity has no place within any ideology of His.
Satan thinks that, based on the declarations and commentary from the active majority of the members of His temple online, The Satanic Temple is becoming a hate group—defined as a social group that practices animosity, hostility, malice, or hatred towards designated segments of society. The Devil defends His absolute sole right to torment Christian souls because it is His designated role, but will not lend His magnificent name to groups who sustain the proud Christian tradition of hating their enemy while outwardly subscribing to a religion of professed tolerance and compassion. Satan thinks that His temple’s haters need culling if not elimination.