Undesirables

Russia, The Satanic Temple, and HR 9495

Wednesday morning I woke to find news alerts about The Satanic Temple flooded with stories about our new Hellion Academy of Independent Learning (HAIL) program in Ohio that, like a Christian program already in operation in the same school district, allows students 55 minutes each week to engage in off-site instruction by religious organizations. Select European outlets, however, were reporting an alarming bit of news: The Satanic Temple is now deemed “undesirable” by Russia's Prosecutor General’s Office.

“In a statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office accused members of The Satanic Temple of ‘promoting occult ideology’ by using Satanic symbols to “discredit traditional spiritual and moral values” as well as ‘spreading destructive pseudo-theological ideas and justifying violence … with the support of US government agencies’.”

It is difficult to know if these accusations even attempt to mischaracterize anything that can be found in reality, or if the Prosecutor General’s Office simply made them up. In any case, “occult ideology” is incredibly vague and makes one wonder if it was written with any awareness that The Satanic Temple does not promote any belief in the supernatural. “Justifying violence” seems easy to dispute, as The Satanic Temple is, and always has been, an explicitly non-violent organization. But then, those who campaign against Free Speech and civil liberties in general have always been fond of claiming a state of emergency, insisting that certain ideas or criticisms that might discredit them or reduce their reputations are “justifying violence” against them, regardless of whether or not an actual call to violence exists. The accusations grow even more serious:

“‘The Satanic Temple actively supports participants of extremist and terrorist movements, speaks negatively about the special military operation [and] calls for the overthrow of the constitutional order in Russia’, [the Prosecutor General’s statement] continued, adding that the organisation’s website contained information on ‘fundraising for the Armed Forces of Ukraine’.”

Where any of these claims might derive from is anybody’s guess. We do not support extremists or terrorists. But then again, by Russia’s definition, it seems that we are now considered extremists and terrorists, so they could really be talking about anything. The Satanic Temple never called for government reform of any kind in Russia. But there is nothing subjective about the claim that we were ever fundraising for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is a flat lie. When Russia invaded Ukraine, we fundraised to relocate members of The Satanic Temple away from the war and into safety. It defies credibility to imagine that anybody could possibly have truly mistaken that effort for a fundraising effort for Ukrainian Armed Forces.

When I posted a report about this on social media the general response was one of congratulations. The feeling seems to be that it is not a bad thing to be recognized as an enemy of an autocratic state, and that this official designation of “undesirable” should be accepted as legitimizing. This, I believe, is mistaken, not least because we do have Russian membership who now must hide any attachment to The Satanic Temple that they have had, and they are well advised not to have further contact with us while we are designated as undesirable in Putin’s regime. Because while “undesirable” may sound fairly benign, as though the Russian government is merely stating a general preference of taste, the punishment for associating with undesirables is severe, and Russian citizens may spend 6 years in prison.

But while we do have membership in Russia, our activity there is, and always has been, nearly nonexistent. We have never waged a campaign there, we have never supported, as an organization, either in word or action, opposition parties against Putin, nor (again) have we called for an overthrow, or even revision of their “constitutional order,” such as it is. This, of course, raises the question as to why Russia feels moved to make this statement about us at all. Why are they concerned about The Satanic Temple to the point that they would release a statement with provably false charges against us? And the list of undesirable organizations is alarmingly short at under 200 entries.

The Russian “undesirable organizations law” was signed by Putin in 2015 targeting groups deemed by the state to be “a threat to the foundation of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, the defense capability of the country or the security of the state.” The law has been widely condemned for the fact that it bypasses the courts and any appearance of due process, putting the ability to label undesirables solely in the Prosecutor General’s hands without any avenue of appeal.

Now consider a bill that recently passed the House in the United States. HR 9495 “would allow the Secretary of the Treasury to designate section 501(c) nonprofits as ‘terrorist supporting organizations’ at the Secretary’s discretion, without requiring the Secretary to share their full evidence or reasoning with accused nonprofits. Furthermore, the legislation runs counter to constitutional due process protections by placing the burden of proof on the accused organization and providing only 90 days for organizations to demonstrate their innocence before revoking their tax-exempt status." It is similar enough to the undesirable organizations law to suspect that the Russian law was influential, especially given the unashamed zeal many in the incoming administration have expressed for Russia’s brand of increasingly flagrant autocracy concealed under an insultingly unconvincing veneer of democracy, like an elephant concealed behind a twig.

Could Russia’s designation of The Satanic Temple in fact be a favor to their American friends? Could the incoming Secretary of the Treasury be shameless enough to cite Russian intelligence in deeming us a “terrorist supporting organization” in the near future? Incidentally, Tucker Carlson, who made a fool of himself losing debates to me 3 times on Fox News, was in Moscow shilling for Putin’s party on the very day our “undesirable” designation was announced. Carlson has allegedly been influential in “driving controversial Trump nominations” while he is not busy fellating foreign dictators.

This all bodes ill for the near future, I think, and it is disturbing to me that a grand total of zero news outlets in the United States have thought this worthy of reporting. I have been reaching out to experts in Russian affairs and international lawyers to get a sense of what their consensus might be for what our optimal next steps are in doing everything we can to secure the safety of our Russian membership, determine whether or not we should make an attempt to dispute the Russian categorization of our activities, and how we might best steel ourselves for the near future in light of this development.

This is no small concern, and nobody can claim not to see the dark clouds on the horizon now almost directly overhead.