Fact check: Posts call for removal of satanic statues in cities where there aren't any

Ian Richardson, USA TODAY
·7 min read

The claim: There are satanic and Baphomet sculptures located in several U.S. cities.

In response to the removal of several monuments across the country representing Confederate leaders and other controversial historical figures, some Facebook users have begun circulating posts calling for the tearing down of satanic statues across the United States.

The wording of the posts specifically names statues of Baphomet, a winged, goat-headed figure that's used as a symbol by the Salem, Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple.

"Since we are removing offensive statues and monuments in America, I want all the satanic and Baphomet statues and monuments removed!" the posts say. "They are very offensive to me!"

The posts name several locations where such statues are allegedly located: Salem, Massachusetts; Detroit; Sabrina, New York; and the state of Illinois. The posts includes a photo of a Baphomet statue that the post says was used at the Arkansas Capitol building.

Is this statue real?

The photo in the posts matches a 2018 photo used in media reports when the Satanic Temple unveiled the statue in front of the Arkansas State Capitol to protest a separate monument of the Ten Commandments that was previously installed on the capitol grounds.

However, the event was temporary and the statue was not allowed to be erected on Capitol grounds.

Like Arkansas, multiple locations named in the posts are places where this same statue or another satanic statue has appeared, but none of the statues is now standing publicly in those cities.

The Satanic Temple has only one Baphomet statue, and it's on private property

Founded in 2013, the Satanic Temple is a nontheistic religious group that was granted tax-exempt status by the federal government as a recognized church in 2019. It is not affiliated with the Church of Satan, a group formed in 1966 by Anton LaVey.

The Satanic Temple's creed does not actually include belief in Satan or the supernatural, according to its website. Instead, members believe that religion should be "divorced from superstition." The adoption of the name Satan is symbolic of "the heretic who questions sacred laws and rejects all tyrannical impositions."

Over the past few years, the Satanic Temple's activities have made headlines in multiple cities for challenging the display of Christian symbols in public places.

In 2013, a year after Oklahoma erected a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the state capitol, the Satanic Temple began commissioning its sculpture of Baphomet, with plans to place it there as well. Plans changed after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the Ten Commandments statue be taken down.

The Satanic Temple then unveiled the completed statue in 2015 in Detroit during what was billed as the "largest public satanic ceremony in history." The 8½-foot-tall sculpture reportedly weighs about a ton.

The statue resides at the Satanic Temple's headquarters in Salem, where it sits indoors, co-founder Malcolm Jarry told USA TODAY in an email.

Outside Salem, the statue has only been displayed briefly

Two locations mentioned in the Facebook posts, Arkansas and Detroit, are places where the Baphomet statue has appeared, but only on a temporary basis. It is not now displayed in either city.

Jarry said the statue was only displayed in 2015 in Detroit, which at the time had the Satanic Temple's largest chapter, for the unveiling event before it was transported to Salem.

More: Will the Black Lives Matter movement finally put an end to Confederate flags and statues?

This display from The Satanic Temple-Chicago has been placed in the Statehouse rotunda at the Capitol in Springfield, Ill. It joins the Nativity scene to mark the Christmas season and the Menorah to mark Hanukkah.
This display from The Satanic Temple-Chicago has been placed in the Statehouse rotunda at the Capitol in Springfield, Ill. It joins the Nativity scene to mark the Christmas season and the Menorah to mark Hanukkah.

After a Ten Commandments monument was installed in 2017 on state grounds in Arkansas, the Satanic Temple brought its Baphomet statue to the Arkansas Statehouse for the public event in 2018, which is where the photo in the Facebook posts was taken.

But in Arkansas, monuments must receive the approval of the state Legislature. The monument has not been granted approval, and Jarry said the church is suing the state to have the statue placed there.

"We have the mold and we can create more if we are successful in donating the statue to Arkansas or other states," he said.

In Illinois, a satanic statue is part of a holiday display

In Illinois, a statue of a snake-wrapped arm holding an apple, called "Snaketivity," was installed in the rotunda of the Illinois State Capitol by the Satanic Temple's Chicago branch in December 2018. The sculpture was part of a holiday display that recognized several religious traditions.

Dave Druker, a spokesman for the Illinois Secretary of State's Office, told USA TODAY that the statue is not on display year-round but has appeared as part of the Capitol's holiday display for the past couple of years. He said the group has the same First Amendment rights to place the sculpture there as other groups have. The display also includes a Nativity scene, a menorah and a winter solstice exhibit from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

An image of George Floyd is projected on the base of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue, Monday, June 8, 2020, in Richmond, Va.
An image of George Floyd is projected on the base of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue, Monday, June 8, 2020, in Richmond, Va.

Where is Sabrina, N.Y.?

It's unclear what the posts refer to by mentioning "Sabrina New York." The U.S. Census Bureau does not list Sabrina as a current city or county in the state of New York.

One possible connection: The Netflix show "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" was sued for copyright infringement by the Satanic Temple in 2018 over the show's use of a Baphomet statue. That lawsuit has since been settled out of court.

Baphomet is not Robert E. Lee

Addressing the viral Facebook posts, Lucien Greaves, co-founder and spokesman for the Satanic Temple, said in a statement that the call to remove satanic statues is not comparable to calls to remove Confederate memorials because the Confederate memorials aren't religious monuments.

He added that the Baphomet statue has only been proposed in areas where Ten Commandments monuments have been installed already, and the monument doesn't "denigrate anybody."

"All of these arguments aside, however, it is worth noting that the Baphomet monument (of which there is only one) does not currently reside on public grounds at all, which moots the entire argument from the start," he said.

Our ruling: False

The claim that there are satanic sculptures in several locations around the U.S. is FALSE, based on our reporting.

Multiple locations named in the posts are places where the Satanic Temple's Baphomet statue has briefly appeared but is not on display. It's unclear what was meant by another place — Sabrina, New York — which is not a real city.

The Baphomet statue resides in Salem, but the sculpture is on private property, unlike several Confederate monuments that have been removed from display on public property.

A satanic sculpture has appeared at the Illinois State Capitol, but the piece is not permanent and is part of a seasonal display with other religious symbols.

Our fact-check sources:

Ian Richardson covers the Iowa Statehouse for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at irichardson@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8254, or on Twitter at @DMRIanR.

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Satanic statues aren't located in Arkansas, Detroit