The Devil Walks into the Satanic Temple

The man spoke about why they were all there, because they had been outcast and hurt by a world drunk on scripture and which used sacred words to justify the isolation, the oppression, and the inequality of the status quo and all things which those very same scriptures were supposed to teach were evil. He talked about the fact that they had all been looking for something better, something which would bring people together to fight against the isolation and inequality they had all suffered, something which would embrace those who had been made outcasts by society and show them that they weren't what they had been told they were. The man assured the crowd that, together, they had created a group which would advocate for peace, equality, and understanding, and that all of them would have a safe place to ask questions, to explore themselves, to fight for what they believed in, and to find a place where they belonged. Together, they would work to build a better world, a world which held things like equality, compassion, acceptance, and justice as just as sacred as righteousness, dogma, orthodoxy, and conformity. Together, they would fight back against those who would make the world conform to what they thought was the righteous path and expose the hypocrisy in the words of those who said they spoke and acted in the name of God's will. Together, they would tear down all that divides the world and those who would seek to reinforce that division, they would demolish the walls constructed by those who would only see them made taller and taller, and prove that love truly was the most powerful force on Earth. And, as if they couldn't contain themselves any longer, the crowd erupted in cheers and cries of happiness, some of them weeping happy tears that they hadn't been able to shed before, and the man couldn't stop himself from chuckling as he abandoned the last of his speech, seeing that it obviously was no longer needed. The man gestured to one side of the stage and several people came up to approach the great shrouded form, each of them taking hold of the black cloth as the man announced the beginning of their organization and their fight for a better world, before the cloth was pulled off the form to reveal a great, towering statue underneath, the bronze it had been forged from gleaming in the lights that shone down onto it. The statue was of an imposing goat-headed man, a pentagram on his forehead as his great black wings spread out from behind his shoulders and his one hand up as if in benediction or as if he was bidding his followers and all those who looked upon him to go out and do his work. And, while many in the world would see the statue as a symbol of evil and malice, the crowd before him saw the kindness and sympathy in the statue's bronze eyes as they all began to cheer and cry out and as the music began once again. "God, is that really what they think I look like?" scoffed the tall, blonde man who stood in the center of the crowd, seemingly unmoved by the grand display of emotion unfolding around him as his words came with a great exhale of cigarette smoke.