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A Political Candidate Beheaded a Satanic Temple Statue. Now He Faces Charges.

www.vice.com A Political Candidate Beheaded a Satanic Temple Statue. Now He Faces Charges.

Michael Cassidy, a former U.S. Navy pilot, destroyed a display of Baphomet, which was being featured at the Iowa State Capitol.

A former Mississippi political candidate is facing criminal charges after a bedazzled statue of Baphomet, a figure associated with the Satanic Temple, was discovered decapitated at the Iowa State Capitol.

Michael Cassidy, 35, a former U.S. Navy pilot, told Fox News that he saw the controversy surrounding the display, which was heavily criticized by Republican politicians like Ron DeSantis, and drove to the Iowa Capitol to see it for himself. He said it hit a “nerve” and went on to destroy it.

…

According to an archived version of his campaign website, Cassidy pushed for a 10-year prison sentence for anyone who destroys a statue in his own state.

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For reference, the seven tenants listed next to the destroyed display:

I One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.

II The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.

III One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.

IV The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.

V Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.

VI People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.

VII Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

It makes a lot of sense to me why Christians would be against this.
- I absolutely love how the TST actually stands for the shit christians have pretended to care about for centuries.
- Hail Satan!
- Tenets to live by if you ask me. I wished we all did.
  
  TIL I'm a Satanist.
- Wow that really hits a nerve!
  
  What a jackass. Meanwhile supports statues of people who lived by the credo of "I feel so strongly that people should own other people as property that I'm willing to kill for that right, look here's my gun!"
- "tenets"
  
  Huh, didn't even know. Thanks
  
  I'm not changing it.
- Yeah, it's difficult to take issue with any of those.
  
  Personally, I don't need (or want) the baggage associated with organized religion in order to believe and follow those tenets, so I'm not a member. But I'm a big fan.
- Christians have an utter landslide of reasons to believe the most outlandish of complete nonsense, but I've always been a fan of science, facts, and reality.
  
  So I thank you. <3
He has since been released, and raised $40,000 in legal fees following praise from Republican politicians and far-right pundits across the country.

This is the real travesity.
- Just another story reminding me how rich I could be grifting money off these assholes if I didn't have any morals.
  
  Counter-balance it by taking the money earned and putting it toward programs to help combat racism, bigotry, and other indifferences.
- If one of us beheaded a jesus statue could we generate a similar response?
  
  No and we'd just have all the national media talking about how the left are just a bunch of godless communists that hate America. We have enough of that already :(
this is a hate crime and it's not being charged as such because our government favors violent christian fundamentalist terrorists
- I'm scared he might run for president and actually win.
According to an archived version of his campaign website, Cassidy pushed for a 10-year prison sentence for anyone who destroys a statue in his own state.

I'm sure he expects exactly the same punishment for himself.
- This is true Leopards Ate My Face territory.
  
  Not quite lol Leopards Ate My Face is more Turkeys Voting for Christmas, where someone aligns with someone else in spite of the person they're aligning with clearly not having their interests at heart. Like the vast majority of Trump supporters, or LGBTQ hexbear users supporting Putin.
  
  This is just plain hypocrisy, like "the only moral abortion is my abortion".
- Surely he's ideologically consistent
  
  /s if anyone really needs that
- Seems like a Perfect setup for a judge to sentence him with. It won't happen, but it should.
Cassidy was arrested and faces vandalism charges, which could carry a one-year prison sentence and a $2,560 fine. He has since been released

Why is he not being charged under Iowa's hate crime laws?
- I would like to see this, although I wonder if the correct answer is that religion is not a protected group. If religion is a protected group, this is a hate crime.
  
  Come now, we both know Christians would just then cry that non-belief isn't a religion.
  
  In fact, I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that come up in the past... They're using motivated reasoning. They want a specific outcome, not a set of principles applied.
  
  I don't know the right answer. Religious persecution is a real thing and has caused the deaths of countless people across the years that humans have existed. BUT Christians aren't being persecuted in America (at the moment at least) and have an undo influence on the levers of power. I feel like a good thing to do would be to give the IRS teeth and and have individual Churches or Church organizations that violate the terms of their non profit status actually lose it and have to pay taxes on the huge amount of wealth they own (mostly land but I am sure other shit).
- Because Iowa is still under a Christian stranglehold behind the scenes.
  
  Iowa used to be purple, it's since turned into a red shithole. You got a few bright spots in Des Moines and Iowa city, but the rest of the state is rednecks and meth heads.
- Yep. Otherwise who’s to say a random cross somewhere doesn’t ‘strike a nerve’ precedent of him getting away w it just leads to chaos.
  
  "I saw the cross and it struck a nerve. When I think of those men in those dresses molesting children... I saw red, white, and blue... and I knew I needed to stand up for those children's freedom from this den of paedophiles"
  
  This is the news story I'm waiting for. If only the people larping as protectors of children knew the call was coming from inside their own house of worship.
- Because those laws only exist to protect christians?
Now imagine for a moment what would happen if someone were to decapitate a statue of Mary or Jesus.
- Fox News would talk about it for the next week.
- Let try it out? It's not like it will be hard to find one religious shit are everywhere
  
  If everyone did it across the country, people would flip
But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Or, was that behead your enemies?
- In their minds, this is loving your enemy. Because Christians are right and everyone else is wrong. So forcing your beliefs on people is a good thing because you're saving their souls.
  
  This is why slavery was a good thing for Africans.
  
  [/s because 2023]
  
  https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/07/ron-desantis-florida-slavery-curriculum
  
  edited in the article in case people didn't know that this is an actual thing GOPs believe
- Love your enemies, sure. But when they put a goat statue in a government building, that's a bridge too far! As a good Christian, you've got a right to defend yourself in life-threatening goat statue situations.
  
  Who knows what it's up to once you're not looking at it?!
  
  It's far more than just a goat statue, have you seen it? It's dope. I've always liked the children at his feet looking up to him lol I'm sure that triggers Christians so hard.
- Awww the only words he can read are: enemies, hate, curse, mistreat. Bless his lil heart.
- They say they love Jesus but they only talk Old Testament stuff. The Christian far right would have lynched Jesus the second they would have heard of some woke commie bum becoming popular.
- Love your enemas?
- That's some commie shit
- I think it went something like this, "Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan: for it is written, The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve."
  
  Pretty sure there's an ocean of difference between Jesus Christ rebuking the literal devil and a politician traveling across state borders to illegally deface a statue as a publicity stunt to fundraise and get an interview on Fox about how he totally "decapitated Satan." Even if his conviction was somehow driven by religion and not pure vanity (it wasn't), any form of religious supremacy has no place in society at large, let alone a government building. The law recognizes this, "freedom of religion" is the backbone of this in the US, and I'd hope people understand why it might be a worthwhile and important protection to have and uphold.
  
  Additionally, I have a suspicion that anyone who favorably compares a person who postures as a Christian supremacist to Christ is less the sort of person with an understanding of their religion and more the sort of person who knows how to search for the word "Satan" in their YouVersion Bible app.
  
  Was this the guy who didn't even have the decency to put the world's population in a sack before he drowned them? "Oh he's changed now"
  
  Kinda sure that's not Satan but Baphomet. Completely different characters if you know what you are talking about; which is not your case since your Christian mindset doesn't allow for the retaining of useful information as it is normal for a sheep mindset
  
  Pretty sure it went something in Ancient Greek and that you're just parroting an interpretation without any introspection of the source text nor the context from which it was lifted.
  
  Try doing something scholarly next time. Hot-take-Bible-Quotes are worthless.
  
  Oh neat, can I try?
  
  "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
  
  I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
  
  Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
  
  -- Paul Atreides, Dune - Frank Herbert
  
  Did I do it right? We're sharing quotes from our favorite fiction books, right?
I'm actually surprised that the satanic temple isn't pushing for him to be charged with some kind of hate crime. Pretty sure if so decapitated a statue of Jesus it wouldn't just be destruction of property?
- I would love this to happen. For two weeks straight, conservative radio shows, Fox News specials, all talking about the "War on Christianity".
Don’t you just love political candidates that don’t believe in the first amendment, probably not a fan of the 19th or 13th either.
- And technically he fought for the freedom he is now trying to suppress.
  
  I love how these right wing "Christians" have such a selective definition of "freedom". Thankfully the Satanic Temple keeps shining a spotlight on their hypocrisy.
- What about the 21st?
- But you don't understand, he's all about respecting the establishment of religion but this wasn't a religion.
  
  But you don’t understand, he’s all about respecting the establishment of religion but this wasn’t a religion.
  
  I can't tell if this comment is missing a /s or not.
His headshot looks like Jeff playing the dean.
- He looks like he couldn't handle male pattern baldness so he went completely shaven, but he needs the beard or else he'll look like the freshly shorn scrotum Dr Evil was talking about.
- Take off the bald cap.
  
  I AM BALD!!
- Lights, camera, DEAN!
I'm completely unsurprised that this was a political stunt. If Trump taught these assholes anything, it's that the free press (and in turn, the crowd funding/find raising) they get from their virtue signaling demonstrations like this one will help them weather any punishments they may face--if they really face any at all
- Yep, he failed to build a political career the old fashioned way so he found a controversy right wingers were freaking out about and inserted himself into the equation. Now he gets to grift and probably build a right wing media career of some type. It's sad that it works, but it does work on republicans. Tell them what they want to hear and they'll love you forever.
He traveled across state lines to commit a hate crime, he should be getting some serious charges not some slap on the wrist BS
Seems like this would be a hate crime. Very un-American behavior from this Republican goon.
- No true American. Don’t a significant amount of Americans think and behave like him ergo making it American behavior.
  
  America is a melting pot of people and cultures and religions from all over the world. Republicans don't like this. They want a Christian Nation.
  
  A significant amount of Americans support a would be dictator who would gladly make himself dictator for life, but that doesn't make it American behavior.
  
  I think they meant it in reference to the stated ideals. Kind of like how so many of the ardent Christians in this country act in a very “un-Christian” way. Obviously we know the way real Christians act is all over the map, but they can be judged against the ideal of Jesus or his teachings.
  
  American vs un-American isn’t as well defined, but I think it was meant as favoring truth, justice, equality, inclusivity/melting pot, etc. Again NOT an accurate representation of the real population.
I think it should become customary that if a politician advocates for a certain punishment for a crime, and then commits that particular crime, that they receive the punishment they advocated for (within the bounds of current law of course). He wants a 10-year prison sentence for destroying a statue, he should get a 10-year prison sentence for destroying the statue.
This guy hits a nerve for me.
So it's OK if I destroy him, right?

I mean, using his reasoning anyway.
I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Make sure future statues are in pentagrams, and put a little side blurb that "maiming, disfiguring, or destroying this statue will complete the act of sacrifice to the deity". Basically, anyone who defaces the display is, in effect, performing the "ritual of display destruction" - which pleases TST.

Edit: Make it a three- or four-panel cartoon. Reading is a tough concept for some people.
- Yo, any card carrying Satanists here that can run this idea up the flagpole?
  
  A card carrying satanist is just someone who paid $30 for a card (me!).
  When I reached out to the "local" group they were pretty tight lipped and I never followed up. I was just asking about volunteering opportunities and they seemed almost offended I was emailing them.
  I should try to reach out again.
What a dickhead.
According to an archived version of his campaign website, Cassidy pushed for a 10-year prison sentence for anyone who destroys a statue in his own state.

Well well well, let's see if he sticks to his guns or of he's going to be your typical Republican hipicrite little removed...
Harvard graduate 🤣
- Just shows how meaningless that is.
  
  I mean it's statistically a huge increase in lifetime earning potential, among a few other things, but that's not to say this dude is in some magic statistical valley of "lucky enough to get in, dumb enough to blow the massive headstart it supplies"
- Probably legacy.
"Charges" are a slap on the wrist.
hilarious. the power demonic symbols have is bestowed entirely by christian idiots who think that shit is real.
This will only make him more popular with the MAGoos. He won't spend a day in general population but will be a 'martyr' for his great suffering.
See you in 10 years I guess, Douchebag!
This is the first time in history Iowa’s Satanic Temple chapter has been allowed to put up a display at Iowa’s state capitol alongside holiday displays from other religious groups.
Does anybody find it ~~weird~~ ironic he looks like Anton LeVey?
Lock him up! Lock him up!

135 comments