Satanists use Hobby Lobby decision to ask for exemption from anti-abortion laws

[angus]

Some of them have filed for tax-exempt non-profit status, others have not.  The Satanic Temple is an example of one that has not.  From its website:  "Please note that The Satanic Temple believes that religious organizations should not be tax exempt and for that reason contributions are not tax deductible."  In fact, it is officially a Limited Liability Company (LLC).  (They also have a Facebook page which makes a similar claim regarding their philosophy about contributions to religious organizations.)  My guess is that a taxpaying LLC is not a religion, at least in the eyes of the government.

[angus]

I'm not defending anything the government does or doesn't do.  Moreover, I have no legal training, so I really don't know how their case will play out.  I'm just saying what I think the courts will say.

Still, as long as we're on the subject, I don't really think of them as a real religion.  Ever read their websites?  All they do is bitch about stuff and attack stuff.  All of them.  Church of Satan.  Satanic Temple.  Satanic Chapel.  Knights of Satan.  They're pretty much all a bunch of stuck-up primadonnas who think the world owes them something.  And they're awful bigots.  They love attacking each other.  And I mean even worse than different brands of Muslims attack each other.  They're just really nasty, narrow-minded people.  Even more narrow-minded, perhaps, than the sorts of folks who judge the reasoning of others to be "stupid."  I just don't see anything "religious" about any of what they do.  To be fair, there have been some pretty horrible religions.  Drunken builders who need to cut the still-beating hearts of the enemy soldiers to feed their gods.  High priests who need to de-flower hundreds of virgins in order to propagate the true blessed peoples.  Visionaries who must consume mind-altering narcotics in order to become oracles.  At least they pay a courtesy homage to the idea of an Ultimate Reality.  These satanist guys are basically the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, except slightly more nerdy.  Don't take them so seriously.