Source: eastidahonews.com 8/8/24
[ACSOL note: this article makes an important point about the lack of relevance about a persons religion]
CASCADE (Idaho Statesman) — The Valley County Sheriff’s Office included an intriguing detail recently when it announced that a suspect pleaded guilty to possessing or accessing sexually exploitative material of a child.
The result was a lot of online chatter and controversy.
In a Facebook post, the Sheriff’s Office wrote that the 22-year-old man was “a member of the Idaho chapter of The Satanic Temple.”
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Groups such as the Idaho Liberty Dogs and other far-right websites jumped on the tidbit, running and linking to stories and posting photos of Satanic Idaho members on social media. (Satanic Idaho split from The Satanic Temple of Idaho congregation a couple of years ago, according to an official.)
Others questioned whether the mention was necessary or even accurate.
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Steve Gorski, the detective on the case, said the man had a membership card with his name on it and stickers, and said he was a member of the Idaho chapter. He was knowledgeable about Satanic Temple, Gorski said.
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So why did Valley County include this detail?
The McCall man pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, and at sentencing on Sept. 20 he could receive 12 years in prison, according to a plea agreement.
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“If Satanism is going to be judged off of the worst of its groups, does that mean that every other religion needs to be judged off their worst groups?” Astra said. “If you’re not careful, you start another Satanic panic.”
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“We have children,” Satanic Idaho co-facilitator Hauns Snyder said, and the Valley County Sheriff’s Office is “putting our children in danger.”
This is just a cheap jab at Satanists. These backward cops will look for anything to pin on a religion that they don’t agree with to crimes that aren’t relevant. Besides how many “good Christians” have they busted for the same over the years? Hypocrisy much?
Satanism is not a normal practice of religion, this guy obviously doesn’t belong in society.
These government stooges are criminals and they need to be sued.
If they are going to start listing religions on their propaganda then they need to do it for all religions and everyone.
With respect to the Registry, the first thing that anyone should be thinking is how to harm the criminals behind it. Target government employees.
There is absolutely no relevance. Its only the sheriff trying to portray satanists as evil, child harming monsters, which is simply not the case. Although I do not agree with their ideology, and I do not know if they are affiliated with Anton Lavey’s church of satan, Lavey made it clear in his writings that his church does not seek to physically harm others and held children in high regards and that absolutely no harm should be done to children.
This is nothing more than an attempt to stir up an unwarranted panic.
Wow, following the teachings of Christ really does give you a license to judge and hate other, huh?
If the guy was an Atheist, the sheriff would absolutely have made hay out of that as well. So, anything “unGodly” is received with scorn and hate. This is today’s modern Christian narrative and MO,nothing to see here.
Using shame and outrage as a weapon for leveraging public opinion is something that won’t go away thanks to the Internet.
“I don’t know how they run their membership or meetings. … All I know is that he said he was a member, and we have his ID card with his name on it sitting in the evidence room, I’m kind of taking him at his word. ”Gorski said the videos the suspect possessed were terrible and disturbing, and the man was trying to find groups online and in-person he thought might share his interests.”
Hey listen Mr. Dumbf*ck Sheriff. If this man had his Sam’s Club card on him, are you going to call up their headquarters in Arkansas to find out if they share the same pedo interests as your man?
This is the same hysteria that got Damien Echols falsely sent to death row