TIRED OF RELIGION

Zealots Wanted Religion in a State Capital and Got a Goat Instead

Christians were played by the Satanic Temple of Iowa

André Alyeska
4 min readDec 16, 2023

--

Picture of a brown goat with white face and two horns and black background. There’s nothing ‘Satanic’ about it.
Photo by Peter Neumann via Unsplash.

It’s off-the-charts stupid, but here we are anyway. A certain type of Christian wants to tear down the wall between church and state. So the good folks of Iowa petitioned and won the right to display the nativity in the State Capitol.

What could go wrong? (If you’re not a Medium subscriber, click here.)

Well, for starters, we’re in the United States of America and, for now, that still means if one religion can display its religious symbols in a public place, then any religion should be able to do the same. And the Satanic Temple of Iowa took them up on the offer.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the commentary and outrage that followed! It first came across my radar when I read a tweet by Iowa Rep. Jon Dunwell, a Republican, who is a pastor to boot. I encourage you to read it. It is one of the most level-headed responses that I’ve ever seen on a contentious issue.

Dunwall explains the background of how a goat head in a Satanic display ended up in the capital building and offers his observations as an Iowan, State Representative, and Pastor. He is fair. While he finds the display “objectionable,”…

--

--

André Alyeska

Editor of Animated Man, Time Traveler and QMHA. Writes on Politics, Social Issues, Men, Mental Health, and Mindfulness with the goal to fix this mess we’re in.