Satanic Temple warns UK: 'Trump's arrogant stupidity is his saving grace, Pence is worse'

“I think Trump is all too willing to pander to theocrats and to that end he chose Pence as a Vice-President. I do think however the best part about Trump is his stupidity and arrogance. These are also some of the worst elements about him but, unlike George W Bush who was willing to take a back seat and let Dick Cheney run everything, Trump has the ignorance and arrogance to think he actually has an intellectual hold on what’s going on around him, even though he clearly doesn’t. This is his saving grace. If he were to step back and put it all in Pence’s hands, we would be in much much more trouble much faster. I’m really hoping Trump gets voted out of office this time around but I think there’a  good chance he will get reelected.”

The Satanic Temple is a legally recognised church is the US.

No, they don’t sacrifice babies, or goats. No, they don’t believe the devil exists. In fact, they do not advocate or tolerate violence at all. 

A new documentary – Hail Satan? – explores the rise of the church and its mission to champion social, religious and individual freedoms, most notably combatting the recent rise in anti-abortion legislation in the US.

The church uses religious iconography of Lucifer as the spirit of rebellion to strike back at the extreme right-wing Christian groups they believe are taking over US politics, spearheaded by Vice President Mike Pence. 

Greaves adds: “I feel you can’t credibly remove your religious values from your political values. When I say we’re apolitical, I mean we will never identify with a particular political party.

“We won’t endorse or even denigrate a specific candidate. But at a certain point, like when you have a guy like Mike Pence in office, it would be remiss of us to pretend that somebody as a theocratic nationalist pushing forward for laws that encroach against our own views on bodily autonomy and other such issues… We have to admit Pence is a real problem.”

Interestingly, the church believes the recent explosion in protest marches and social media campaigns are usually frustratingly ineffective. 

Greaves explains that The Women’s March or March for Science, and presumably all the recent UK protests about Brexit and Trump’s visit are unfocused, without a clear plan of what they seek to achieve.

He says: “It’s become this cultural norm where we now consider protest to be activism, and grandstanding is considered to have some tangible effect in the real world. In reality, it keeps people more complacent, more inactive. My major criticism of those marches is they generated a lot of energy but then it just disperses and goes away,.Nothing is done and it is energy squandered. I felt they at least should have had petitions available. They should have been making specific demands. There should have been model legislation.”

Hail Satan? is out in cinemas and on demand on August 23