The Satanic Temple Vs. Romans 1:18 - 32

According to their own principles: 

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

  • Which in their philosophy is an individualistic phenomenon, ie reason delimits empathy & compassion — and this is an individualistic/individualized phenomenon.  
  • In other words, an individual’s reasoning facility determines if any given person, place, or thing (or group(ing) thereof is worthy of one’s empathy &/or compassion, then one should behave accordingly.  If not — oh well.
  • How does naturalistic reasoning select for this principle?  We aren’t told, it just does. 
  • In truth naturalistic reasoning might or might not select for a moral agent acting with empathy &/or compassion depending on whom you consult.   History is littered with the results of naturalistic theology, philosophy, & ethics.  
  • How so?   Romans 1:18 - 32 is right, when people look to the created order & use/deploy it as the epistemic basis of theology, philosophy, &/or ethics especially, prejudice, hate, bigotry, &tc are the inevitable result.  Whole civilizations have fallen & risen on this principle. 

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.

  • …In accordance with reason. 

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.

  • In other words, concepts like reason, compassion, & empathy — like theology, philosophy, & ethics —- ought to be based on ***one’s*** best scientific understanding of the world.   
  • In addition, supernatural causes are automatically ruled out.  
    • According to their own statement: No, nor do we believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural. The Satanic Temple believes that religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition.

Their worldview is a living testament to what Romans 1:18 - 32 calls “futility.”  


As we have here observed repeatedly: 


Romans 1:18 - 32:


Paul is following the outline of Leviticus 18, following the form of a Hebraic lawsuit/Suzerain Covenant. 


Shema and Decalogue (1:18 - 21) 


God’s Image testifies to His attributes & authority. 


God created people. His temple bears His Image & runs according to His Law & Gospel.


Historical Prologue (1:22 - 23)


They suppressed God’s image & authority substituting their own, & made idols that looked & behaved like themselves.


Stipulations/Prohibitions (1:24 - 28)  In Canaan & Rome, people did heterosexual & homosexual sex for their gods.  At times they deployed animals too.  (Lev. 18: 6 - 23).  


Document Clause, Covenant Sanctions/Renewal & Witnesses, Victory (1: 29 - 32)


Kitchen sink immorality will lead to Rome’s burning, just as it did to Sodom, Egypt, Israel, Babylon, &tc.


The text is about how we are supposed to think/reason.  God’s created order testifies to His image & authority.   God indicts us for suppressing His image & authority & supplanting it with our own & other created images & reasoning accordingly.  When someone teaches that human &/or animal anatomy, physiology, &/or psychology &/or the environment is a proper warrant for theology, philosophy, & / or ethics, they are teaching the opposite of what the Bible teaches & positioning themselves at the font of all manner of prejudice, bigotry, injustice, &tc.  


Natural = Male Dominance/Hegemony 

Unnatural = Egalitarianism 

= Misogyny 


Natural = White/Caucasian

Unnatural = Anything else 

= Racism


Natural = Heteronormative

Unnatural = Homosexual 

= Homophobia 


Natural = Conservative 

Unnatural = Liberal 

= Political Idolatry 


Natural = Liberal

Unnatural = Conservative 

= Political Idolatry 


Natural = Non-Jewish

Unnatural = Jewish 

= Anti-Semitism


In other words, any interpretation of “natural” & “unnatural” Romans 1:18 - 32 

as a functional callback to any image drawn from the created order, the human image, included is forbidden by the text. 


Romans 1:20 is clear that the purpose of the created order is to testify to God’s INVISIBLE attributes not to our VISIBLE attributes.  The surrounding text indicts humanity for looking to the created order’s VISIBLE attributes to do faith & practice, so reading “natural” & “unnatural” as referents to sex/gender, sexual characteristics, race, political affiliation, age, ability &/or disability, ethnicity, &tc are all incorrect, insofar as these are all VISIBLE attributes drawn from the created order —- not INVISIBLE attributes of God, & according to the text, unless God decides to deeply intervene, that sort of thinking has the potential to so invade & permeate just about every area of life & has led to the downfall of multiple civilizations since (almost) to the dawn of time itself. 


No wonder they come across as anarchists from time to time.   


Great Is the Lord

Of David.


Psalm 35 

1 Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me;
    fight against those who fight against me!

2 

Take hold of shield and buckler
    and rise for my help!

3 

Draw the spear and javelin[a]
    against my pursuers!
Say to my soul,
    “I am your salvation!”

4 

Let them be put to shame and dishonor
    who seek after my life!
Let them be turned back and disappointed
    who devise evil against me!

5 

Let them be like chaff before the wind,
    with the angel of the Lord driving them away!

6 

Let their way be dark and slippery,
    with the angel of the Lord pursuing them!

7 

For without cause they hid their net for me;
    without cause they dug a pit for my life.[b]

8 

Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it!
And let the net that he hid ensnare him;
    let him fall into it—to his destruction!

9 

Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord,
    exulting in his salvation.

10 

All my bones shall say,
    “O Lord, who is like you,
delivering the poor
    from him who is too strong for him,
    the poor and needy from him who robs him?”

11 

Malicious[c] witnesses rise up;
    they ask me of things that I do not know.

12 

They repay me evil for good;
    my soul is bereft.[d]

13 

But I, when they were sick—
    I wore sackcloth;
    I afflicted myself with fasting;
I prayed with head bowed[e] on my chest.

14 

    I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;
as one who laments his mother,
    I bowed down in mourning.

15 

But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered;
    they gathered together against me;
wretches whom I did not know
    tore at me without ceasing;

16 

like profane mockers at a feast,[f]
    they gnash at me with their teeth.

17 

How long, O Lord, will you look on?
    Rescue me from their destruction,
    my precious life from the lions!

18 

I will thank you in the great congregation;
    in the mighty throng I will praise you.

19 

Let not those rejoice over me
    who are wrongfully my foes,
and let not those wink the eye
    who hate me without cause.

20 

For they do not speak peace,
    but against those who are quiet in the land
    they devise words of deceit.

21 

They open wide their mouths against me;
    they say, “Aha, Aha!
    Our eyes have seen it!”

22 

You have seen, O Lord; be not silent!
    O Lord, be not far from me!

23 

Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication,
    for my cause, my God and my Lord!

24 

Vindicate me, O Lord, my God,
    according to your righteousness,
    and let them not rejoice over me!

25 

Let them not say in their hearts,
    “Aha, our heart's desire!”
Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”

26 

Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether
    who rejoice at my calamity!
Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor
    who magnify themselves against me!

27 

Let those who delight in my righteousness
    shout for joy and be glad
    and say evermore,
“Great is the Lord,
    who delights in the welfare of his servant!”

28 

Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness
    and of your praise all the day long.

Footnotes

Psalm 35:3 Or and close the way

Psalm 35:7 The word pit is transposed from the preceding line; Hebrew For without cause they hid the pit of their net for me; without cause they dug for my life

Psalm 35:11 Or Violent

Psalm 35:12 Hebrew it is bereavement to my soul

Psalm 35:13 Or my prayer shall turn back

Psalm 35:16 The meaning of the Hebrew phrase is uncertain



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