THE SATANIC TEMPLE NEWSLETTER May 2020

LATEST TST NEWS & CAMPAIGN UPDATES

"SURVIVORSHIP" CONFERENCE CAN NO LONGER PROVIDE CONTINUING EDUCATION
CREDIT


Following a complaint from The Satanic Temple's Grey Faction
campaign to the American Psychological Association, Survivorship's
conference can no longer provide continuing education credit.


"Survivorship courses and presentations heavily focus on Satanic
cults, mind control, and related unproven conspiracy theories.
Needless to say, this material is anything but informed by the
latest scientific developments in the field of psychology," notes
Grey Faction Director Evan Anderson.


The complaint includes extensive quotations of Survivorship
presentations. Quoted speakers include Alison Miller, a psychologist
who resigned last year following a complaint submitted by Grey
Faction to Miller's licensure oversight board; Neil Brick, the
President of Survivorship who claims to believe he was a brainwashed
assassin for the Illuminati; Eileen Aveni, who spoke about supposed
ongoing military mind control experimentation used to create
assassins; and Wendy Hoffman, who talked about "generational Satanic
cult children" and "cult plant therapists" who she claims are
themselves victims of mind control and ritual abuse.


"This is more than a symbolic victory," said Anderson. "For far too
long, the APA has allowed conferences steeped in bizarre conspiracism
and pseudoscience to offer continuing education units, in
contravention to their own course guidelines. Hopefully, this
represents a turning of the tides, and the mental health field can at
long last rid itself of the Satanic Panic hysteria that has plagued
it for decades."

Grey Faction is a campaign of The Satanic Temple dedicated to
fighting conspiracism and pseudoscience in the mental health field.


WASHINGTON STATE REP. VANDALIZES CAPITOL STEPS

IN FAILED ATTEMPT TO FOIL SATANIC INVOCATION


State Rep. Matt Shea recently attempted to upend members of TST's
Washington chapter prior to their invocation in March by pouring
olive oil on the Capitol steps. Shea was issued a cleaning bill for
$4,761 after surveillance videos caught him in the act. More on this
from King5 News:

https://www.king5.com/article/news/politics/washington-issues-4000-cleaning-bill-to-embattled-rep-matt-shea-for-incident-on-capitol-steps/281-9d497f3a-e7e8-490c-82cf-2fd7b080ab66

TST Washington chapter media liaison, Tarkus Claypool, noted:

"The fine people at DES (Department of Enterprise Services) are
actually very protective of those granite steps. They asked us to
change to our ritual to ensure that our invocation didn't damage
them. We showed respect for public property as all responsible
citizens should, especially elected officials. It's going to take a
lot more than Matt Shea and his bottle of salad dressing to stop us
from exercising our first amendment rights. So he and the rest of
the WA State legislature can count on us asking to give an
invocation next year."


Lucien Greaves gave a statement to Hemant Mehta on Friendly Atheist
about the incident:


"This brings to question Mr. Shea’s state of mind, his ability to
distinguish reality from fantasy, and his competence in acting
appropriately in ways that do not threaten the safety of himself or
others. But while one might reasonably question whether or not Mr.
Shea should at least temporarily be denied access to sharp objects
and his own bank account pending further evaluation, there is no
question that anybody possessed of Mr. Shea’s flagrant antipathy
towards the most fundamental principles of the United States
Constitution should not be holding the office of one charged with
upholding those principles. If Mr. Shea is so offended by our First
Amendment guarantees that he finds it impossible to accept public
religious expression that does not align with his own, then I hope
the people of Washington will demand his immediate resignation. This
is America, Mr. Shea. Love it or leave it.”

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/05/15/wa-lawmaker-matt-shea-owes-4700-in-cleanup-costs-after-anti-satanist-protest/

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