I love this as a “society hack.”
Write exceptions for religious sacraments into law? Outlaw abortion ostensibly as a secular matter? Fine, abortion is now a sacrament for our religion.
It forces a dillema upon courts and the state:
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Tolerate a legal loophole for abortion, which may spread out of control.
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Write in more specific exceptions to religeous freedom, and open a legal can of worms with the Constitution.
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Explicitly codify the law for “recognized” religions like specific forms of Christianity, instead of doing it with a wink an a nod while acting like its for all religions. This is also a can of worms.
I didn’t know about this aspect of the Satanic Temple until this year, and now I absolutely love it. It makes me want to join, if only to throw a monkey wrench in the aspects of religion that have crept into law.
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I’m atheist but I don’t think this can stand up in court. I can’t make the “Church of Punch a Nazi.” and get free reign to punch Nazis. The law considers it assault despite my religion.
So far it’s lasted years in New Mexico with the Satanic Temple’s “Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Abortion Clinic”. If NM can’t shut it down, I don’t know that it can be done.
Edit: I had the wrong state
The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic is in New Mexico, where abortion is legal at all stages of pregnancy. The new one, the Right to Your Life Clinic is in Virginia, where it is legal in the first two trimesters.
Possession of peyote is a crime, yet the courts have ruled that the 1st amendment overrides that for certain Native American tribes that use it in their rituals.
Native Americans get to choose their own laws on most things because they are in many ways, reservations are separate countries inside of the US. It’s why there are casinos on reservations inside of states where casinos are illegal.
Who doesn’t want a good sacrifice to Moloch?