Dave Leshtz is the editor of The Prairie Progressive.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
–John Milton, Paradise Lost
It was a beautiful day for a drive, with big clouds billowing in a vast Iowa sky. My destination was the town of Toledo, where an “Iowa 99 County Bible Reading Marathon” was taking place on September 16.
Iowa’s past two governors have signed annual proclamations encouraging Iowans to read the entire Bible at the state capitol building and at all of Iowa’s county courthouses.
When I arrived at the Tama County Courthouse, a balding man in overalls and a white t-shirt stood at a podium in the center of a large concrete platform about five feet off the ground. He was reading from a bible: “God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.”
But the man in overalls was not the only one reading.
Bible reading outside Tama County courthouse on September 16 (photo by Dave Leshtz)
Only a few feet from the platform was a stand of fir trees. Behind the trees was a tall concrete monument with the letters GETTYSBURG chiseled near the bottom. Nestled between the trees and the monument was a large table with a microphone and two speakers. The table was draped with a large black sign with white letters: The Satanic Temple of Iowa.
Behind the table sat a bearded man who was reading from Paradise Lost, John Milton’s epic poem from the 17th century: “Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven.”
How did these side-by-side readings come to pass in a town of 2,388 people?
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The Satanic Temple of Iowa gained statewide notoriety last December, when a defeated legislative candidate from Mississippi traveled to Des Moines and vandalized the temple’s display at the state capitol. The display featured a statue of Baphomet, a pagan deity popularized by British writer Aleister Crowley (you can see Crowley’s picture on the album cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band).
The statue of Baphomet, damaged beyond repair by the Mississippi loser, had been permitted in the Capitol rotunda as part of an annual holiday display. The perpetrator of the damage was immediately charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, a misdemeanor. Soon after, the Polk County Attorney’s Office raised the charge to felony third-degree criminal mischief – and a hate crime. (Prior to trial, the vandal pled guilty to reduced charges and received a deferred judgment with two years’ probation.)
This alleged hate crime didn’t prevent The Satanic Temple from marching in Pride parades over the summer, sponsoring a book club, and planning a two-day public reading of Paradise Lost, an epic poem that the temple considers foundational to a contemporary understanding of Satan. Milton’s blank verse masterpiece, according to The Satanic Temple’s Facebook page, has been “pivotal in imbuing the figure of Satan with enlightenment-era values in Romantic literature, the religion of Satanism, and popular culture.”
The marathon reading was planned for the state capitol rotunda in Des Moines, but a strange coincidence occurred. The same day the temple’s event appeared on the Capitol Building Complex’s calendar, Iowa’s Department of Administrative Services changed its policy on multi-day events, no longer allowing them on the Capitol grounds.
And that’s why two marathon readings took place on this fall day in Iowa. The Satanic Temple of Iowa had followed the lead of the Iowa 99 County Bible Reading Marathon and scheduled its reading of Paradise Lost on the grounds of the Tama County Courthouse.
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Milling near The Satanic Temple’s table were four temple members dressed in black. As I approached, one smiled at me and asked, “Would you like a slice of pizza? We’re on our lunch break.” That’s how I met Adramelech, a thirty-ish man with a goatee and sideburns. (Adramelech, roughly translated as “magnificent king,” appears in the Hebrew bible as well as in Assyrian demonology.)
Adramelech and his colleagues, they told me, are all Iowans. One of the women is from Waterloo; her brother-in-law taught in the Tama school district. Adramelech’s grandfather worked at the nearby Meskwaki Casino. The group started The Satanic Temple of Iowa five years ago.
Adramelech and the other church members laughed often as we talked, occasionally exclaiming “Hail, Satan!” in response to something from Paradise Lost being read aloud at their table. They turned serious when explaining why their multi-day reading was at the Tama County Courthouse rather than at the state capitol in Des Moines, as originally planned.
They were concerned that the state’s abrupt policy change also affects a three-day resource fair for homeless veterans held annually on the Capitol grounds. As the dual readings continued, I walked into the courthouse and said hello to some administrative staff members in their offices. “Thank you for hosting these events,” I said to a clerk at her desk.
She responded in a friendly but firm tone, “We are not hosting anything. The Board of Supervisors had it on the agenda. We have nothing to do with what goes on out there.”
The Satanic Temple received no pushback from the supervisors after its reading was approved for the courthouse lawn. Some county residents later questioned the decision, but all was peaceful during the side-by-side events.
The Satanic Temple is waiting to see whether Governor Kim Reynolds makes an exception for the veterans’ event or for the Iowa Congressional Prayer Caucus, which still has events listed on the Capitol Building Complex’s Calendar.
The governor’s proclamation suggests state favoritism toward Christianity, one of many religions practiced by Iowans. It is the kind of proclamation usually issued by the leaders of theocracies.
Anyone who feels strongly about the separation of church should remind Reynolds that neither the state of Iowa nor the United States has an official religion, that all religions are equally welcome, and that the state capitol building is not a church.
Editor’s note: You can listen here to a short recording of these dual readings in Toledo on September 16. Michael D. Davis also covered the Satanic Temple and Bible reading events for the Marshalltown Times-Republican.