IIRC, The Satanic Temple started as a satirical project (“if cruelty and oppression is Christian, what if Satanism was about being nice?”) and then ran away. When the flaws in the organisation/the founders’ histories came to light, dissatisfied members/supporters formed new groups more sincerely committed to basically humanism and social justice in Satanistic theatrical costume, such as the Global Order of Satan.
Both of these groups are still ahead of Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan, which started as an Ayn Rand-inspired backlash against 1960s hippie peace-and-love, but these days would be indistinguishable from Republican Christianity except for the symbols.
IIRC, The Satanic Temple started as a satirical project (“if cruelty and oppression is Christian, what if Satanism was about being nice?”) and then ran away. When the flaws in the organisation/the founders’ histories came to light, dissatisfied members/supporters formed new groups more sincerely committed to basically humanism and social justice in Satanistic theatrical costume, such as the Global Order of Satan.
Both of these groups are still ahead of Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan, which started as an Ayn Rand-inspired backlash against 1960s hippie peace-and-love, but these days would be indistinguishable from Republican Christianity except for the symbols.