Observations On The Satanic Temple

Lucien Greaves

All references are linked at the end of this page.

Preface

This is a long read. One of the things you come to realize when you start looking at TST and Greaves and Jarry is that there is just so much they've done and are doing which is disturbing. An obvious example of this is the reference numbering for this piece - my first draft was fininshed with references sequentially ordered, but then as I kept digging and finding more, the reference numbers became impossible to keep sequential. The challenge then becomes keeping everything readable and engaging but without skipping over the multitude of details that matter. I hope I've achieved that.

Introduction

The Executive Ministry is comprised of two people - Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry¹. These are both pseudonyms with Lucien Greaves legal name being Douglas Alexander Misicko. He also uses another pseudonym - Douglas 'Doug' Mesner - at times². Malcolm Jarry's legal name is Cevin Soling³. These two men are the creators of The Satanic Temple and also it's legal owners⁹⁹ as the copyright for The Satanic Temple is held by the for-profit business United Federation of Churches, LLC. This enables TST to operate as both church and for-profit business. Being a church grants them tax-exemption status, being a business allows them to make profit.

Doug Mesner, Shane Bugbee, Might Is Right, Dysgenics: 2001 - 2008

Up to 2001, Lucien Greaves was still using his legal name of Douglas Misicko and then, sometime prior to 2003, he started using the pseudonym Doug Mesner and befriended a man named Shane Bugbee shortly after Bugbee had organized and toured his Angry White Male show, which featured alt-right figurehead Jim Goad and was stage-decorated with Confederate flags⁴.

Bugbee, who freely admits he had white supremacist ties at the time ¹⁹, was also a prominent member of the Church of Satan. Lucien Greaves and Shane Bugbee cemented their friendship by producing a reprint of Might Is Right, a book that says:

"...that weakness should be regarded with hatred and [has] the strong and forceful presence of Social Darwinism. Other parts of the book deal with the topics of race and male-female relations. The book claims that the woman and the family as a whole are the property of the man, and it proclaims that the Anglo-Saxon race is innately superior to all other races. The book also contains anti-Christian and antisemitic statements."⁵

Might Is Right was a large inspiration for Anton LaVey when creating his Church of Satan and his book The Satanic Bible⁶, hence Bugbee's interest in creating a reprint. Lucien Greaves, using the name Doug Mesner, did the illustrations for the reprint⁷.

In 2003 and 2004, Bugbee and Lucien Greaves (still Doug Mesner at this point) did two Internet radio shows. In 2003 they did a 24-hour Internet radio show to celebrate and promote their joint venture in reprinting the book Might Is Right called Might Is Right Special⁸ and in 2004 they did a series of shows under the umbrella title of the abc's of the alphabet show⁹ in which various extreme right-wing topics are discussed.

Please note that ref 8 and 9 contain the full audio of each show so any quotes I put here can be found in them. Please also note that I will mark each quote as either 2003 or 2004 to indicate which of the two shows the quote is from.

I will be quoting Lucien Greaves (and others) directly. Please be aware that everyone involved uses very offensive racist, antisemitic and ableist language.

(2004): 22:57 Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Yeah, eugenics. Right right, right, right. No, no, no. Eugenics is the practice of proper breeding to produce a better gene pool, and a lot of people try to say that it doesn't work, and that you can't breed people better because of too many variables or anything else, but everybody knows through common sense that's a bunch of shit because we've seen horse breeders, we've seen animal breeders, we've seen everything else. I mean, people give a shit about the papers when they get their dog. People give a shit about those things because they know it works. We know there's facts of heredity. We know that smart people can have a stupid kid, and you know, stupid people can sometimes have a smart kid, but that's called deviation from the mean, and it's not uncommon. That happens, but nonetheless, I feel there should be a eugenics policy, or at least something to curb it's opposite, which is dysgenics, which is producing inferior breeds through, like fetal alcohol syndrome, or crack babies, or whatever. We shouldn't promote that, and often people will ask me, you know...

(2004) 24:11 Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
People will often ask me “How can you promote an idea like eugenics? Who is qualified... Who's going to decide who is qualified to have a kid, and who's not?” You know? And I always tell them that I would be happy to decide. I would be happy to put up some kind of standardized test, like driving a fucking car, Y'know?

(2003) 05:27:50 Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Natural selection and modern civilization have ceased to exist. Today we live in a world overpopulated with bottom feeders. The pool is overfilled with the dregs, there is no inherent value on human life. The value is earned and most people are running a deficit. They're worse than worthless. They're counter-productive. What can be done? www.dysgenics.com

The website Lucien Greaves mentions is his:

(2004) 11:55 Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
And I own the domain name dysgenics.com...

The first appearance of dysgenics.com in the Internet Archive is 2001. The last published article on the site is dated June 7, 2018¹¹. The last published article on the site directly attributed to the author 'Doug' is March 19 2015¹² and the last capture of the site fully operational is 20th October 2018. At some point after that date, the site goes dark. The WHOIS domain history is not much more revealing as Lucien Greaves registered the domain privately back in 2001 meaning all details are redacted. The latest activity on the domain was in September 2023, possibly reflecting a change in ownership but as all details are redacted it's impossible to know for sure¹³. All we can say for sure is that Lucien Greaves was actively operating dysgenics.com up until October 2018 and that there was activity on the domain records in September 2023 which suggests, but definitely does not confirm, he still owned it then.

So, as of October 2018, Lucien Greaves was fully onboard with a eugenics policy he first talked about publicly in 2003.

Lucien Greaves was born in 1976¹⁴, meaning he was aged 27 in 2003, 28 in 2004, 39 in 2015 when the last article by 'doug' was posted to the site and 42 in 2018 when dysgenics.com went dark. I mention his ages purposefully because I often see Lucien Greaves defenders say that he was a young hothead, a stupid libertarian/xenophobic youth and that one mistake shouldn't condemn him for life. This is a position that might just about be tenable when someone is 27-28 if they are extremely immature but it is a lot harder to write his eugenics beliefs off as the horrific misplaced passion of youth at ages 39 and 42.

Back in 2003/2004, who did Lucien Greaves feel made up these bottom-feeding dregs polluting the gene pool?

The next quote is from the 2003 Might Is Right Special when Lucien Greaves is helping to interview Tom Metzger. Metzger, who died in 2020;

"...was an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi skinhead leader and Klansman. He founded White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a neo-Nazi organization, in 1983. He was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s."¹⁵

Greaves and Metzger are discussing whether eugenics should be applied to black people:

20:03:26 Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
But that being the case, you still wouldn't have to enact racial laws, you just have to enact intelligence laws. And if that was being the case, then that good segment of the population would have to drop off, you could still do it on an equal level around the board.

Lucien Greaves feels that simply enacting intelligence laws would take care of black people for Metzger because, as the illustrator and fan of Might Is Right (Metzger was also a big fan) he feels that black people are naturally inferior when it comes to intelligence.

Is Lucien Greaves a racist then? Based on that statement alone it seems pretty clear that he held racist views in 2003 based on his opinion that intelligence based eugenics will cause a 'drop off' in a 'good segment' of the population of black people. An opinion he owned in the form of an operational website until at least October 2018, aged 42.

Is there any other evidence Lucien Greaves held racist views?

(2004. Exchange begins at 07:44)

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Yeah. And best thing you can do to Detroit is burn it all down.

Shane Bugbee:
And why is that Doug? Is it the coloreds?

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Yeah, the place is just a shithole...

later, starting at 12:01:

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Well, I gotta tell you, the f-word still has 'em all beat. (Shane Bugbee: What?) F-word still has 'em all beat internationally. I go to other countries, I still see "fuck" on the wall. I never see "n****r" written on a wall.

Shane Bugbee:
Interesting.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
When I was in Italy, I didn't see "n****r" anywhere.

Shane Bugbee:
But you went to the fascist leader's house. (Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner): Actually, I was in a fascist-) The guy who started the fascist-

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
I was in a fascist neighborhood, right outside the Vatican, and it was a real nice, clean area, but you would see swastikas spraypainted. You know, like the crosshairs. I don't know what you call that, you know, but it was a fascist symbol. A circle with just the crosshairs in it. With… little fascist logos or anything else. It was a clean area, nice area. If you went to the shitty side of town on the wrong side of the tracks in Rome, saw little hammers and sickles painted on the walls and shit like that. That was the difference.

Amy Bugbee:
Wow, that's crazy.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Well, I think it says a lot, and I think it stands to reason...

Amy Stocky:
And you bought that T-shirt. What did your T-shirt say?

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Uh, in Italian it says “you're with us, or you're against us.” And it was- it's a- It's a fascist shirt. It was a fascist logo on it. I actually got it at a little fascist kiosk outside of Gabriele D'Annunzio's palace.

Shane Bugbee:
And who is that again?

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
He was a- y'know- he was like the first fascist. He was the godfather of fascism. Italian World War One hero that occupied the promised territories, after the First World War. With the Blackshirts. One of those- One of those hidden heroes. People should look him up. Look him up on the internet...Good deal.

(2004. Exchange begins at 12:01)

Shane Bugbee:
What are your N words, Doug?

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
I have neighbors, Nazi...

Shane Bugbee:
Did you say neighbors?

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Yeah.

Shane Bugbee:
Is that the other N word? (Amy Bugbee: laughing)

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Other N word? You mean be-

Shane Bugbee:
That's the other N word. Like “n****r”. And then you go, “n****r”, and the other N word is neighbors. They're a n****r.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Why “n****r”! I didn't think of that.

Shane Bugbee:
Amy's uh, father gave us that one.

Amy Bugbee:
That's what my dad says.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
What? He says “neighbors” is the other N word?

Amy Bugbee:
He says that “neighbors” is the other N word, yeah.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Oh, Right. Well… then what- what do you do if your neighbor's a n****r?

Shane Bugbee:
Fuckin' hang him high. (Amy Bugbee: Sell your house.) Hang him high, OK?

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
[laughs audibly into the mic]

Aside from the appalling casual use and reuse of the n-word, of equal note is Lucien Greaves admiration for the nice clean fascist neighborhoods of Rome and his admiration for fascist leaders, to the point he bought himself a t-shirt with a fascist slogan and symbols on it.

(2004) 20:58 Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Oh, I know recently in France, they were talking- they were trying to pass a law that nobody could wear any religious apparel at a school. No- no turbans, no goddamn little Jewish- (Shane Bugbee: Where was this at?) In France! No goddamn Jewish little frisbee caps on their heads.

(2004) 21:33 Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
God damn right. I would like to slap everybody's fucking turban off their head, every goddamn Jewish frisbee off the back of somebody's fucking skull.

(2003. Exchange begins at 03:31:23)

Gerod Staaf:
Well, yeah. I mean, you know, it's, it's funny how people associate Naz- like the Nazi thing immediately with that social Darwinist... It's the only thing they can put together, you know what I mean? There's they have a ner- a knee-jerk reaction. All you have to do as mentioned social Darwinism, they immediately think of World War Two.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Right. That's exactly what I was talking about, that the unconscious collective trauma of World War Two, apparently.

Gerod Staaf:
Exactly. It was just- it just threw things off. And I think- it you know, speaking of eugenics, it kind of gave eugenics, a bad name too... completely ruined it.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Threw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.

Amy Bugbee:
Exactly.

Gerod Staaf:
Precisely.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
I mean, just like antisemitic to me isn't a bad word, it just depends.

The first two of the last three sets of quotes contain no direct eugenics-based statements but I think it's fair to argue that if Lucien Greaves thinks enforcing a eugenics based intelligence law to help Tom Metzger with the 'problem' of black people, coupled with the fact that he held a belief in eugenics up to at least October 2018 when dysgenics.com went dark, that someone who openly admires fascists, apologizes for Nazi's and wants to slap turbans and kippah's off people's heads might happily extend his eugenicist beliefs to them too.

But other races are not the only people Lucien Greaves wants to target with eugenics:

(2003. Exchange begins at 11:16:57)

Hart Fisher:
Been like a little cripple time down here at the RadioFreeSatan.com.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Yeah, we love the retards.

Hart Fisher:
Oh, very important. Kids of Whidney High.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Right. Make some beautiful music.

Shane Bugbee:
First ones in the fuckin showers.

Hart Fisher:
[Mimicking] "The fuckin showers."

Shane Bugbee:
First go the retards and then go the Jews.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
The retards are entertaining.

Shane Bugbee:
Next is the n****rs and spics and then more Jews.

Hart Fisher:
...right.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
You can tell a retard it's got a bug on the back of its head and watch it spin in violent circles, and everybody has a good time.

(later, starting at 11:17:58)

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
I heard retards have quite the sexual appetite, too.

Hart Fisher:
Oh, yeah. And then I was dating this girl and she had an older aunt that was a, uh, a 'tard. And she she got knocked up by the mailman. 'Cause the mailman would come and sweet talk his way in until eventually he knocked her up. And that was in Texas. Friendly.

Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
Yeah, it doesn't even sound like the 'tards are at a loss to find somebody to do it with them. What is going on!? That's dysgenics.

Dysgenics again. The fascist and Nazi leaders of the 1930's and 40's that we earlier read Lucien Greaves expressing admiration for also feared dysgenics. The Nazi's had a term for these people: Unnütze Esser which translates to 'useless eaters' or 'useless mouths', which is;

"...a designation for Jews unable to work, people with serious medical problems or disabilities, and other Untermenschen [translation: subhumans] not deemed to be useful to Germany. The term was also applied to Jews, in general."¹⁶

It behooves us at this point, to recall that this is all known to people within The Satanic Temple and when it became widely known more generally and caused a schism in the ranks of The Satanic Temple, a lot of excuses were made. A Reddit comment section on The Satanic Temple's unofficial subreddit will give an accurate summation of a lot of TST members position¹⁷:

"This has been covered at length. Graves (sic) used to be part of the far right and saw how fucked up it was and changed his viewpoint, founding TST in part out of that shift. People can change and grow."

"Why so open about it? Because just like Greaves said in 2018 when this first came up, he simply says that when he was younger he found these kinds of extremist libertarian and LaVeyan-tinged bigotries appealing, but in time he realized this was a mistake, and he now refers to his younger self as "ignorant white trash" and to the Temple as a repudiation of his onetime views."

The general view is that Lucien Greaves was repugnant white trash when he was younger and that he has since admitted his faults and apologized for his words. But let's not forget that 'younger' is a relative term. He was 27 in 2003 and 28 in 2004, he wasn't a kid. And whilst the second commenter is correct that Lucien Greaves words were spoken in 2003 and 2004, what the commenter may not have known is that Lucien Greaves' dysgenics.com website was still live and posting articles in late 2018. That's less than six years ago at the time of writing (2024).

They might have also not known about the existence of another website Lucien Greaves was involved with, process.org. We'll return to a discussion of what 'process' might mean to Lucien Greaves later.

In January of 2008, Lucien Greaves, using the name Doug Mesner, posted a blog entry entitled 'Mothers Day'⁸⁷ in which he vented his anger at the fact anyone can become a mother, leading to a state of degenerate dysgenics in the US. This blog entry was live on the process website until at least November 2022⁸⁸.

In fact, it has become plain to see that the least responsible and least informed are ever the most likely to become mothers...again, and again.

....

One needs to demonstrate proper cognizance to scrub toilets or pick produce, but nobody is too simple to have a child. Motherhood may be the most important job a person could take, and yet nobody is too incompetent to be denied the task.

....

It is disgraceful form to suggest that Evolution isn't necessarily equal to improvement, or that the death of natural selection in the civilized world may have brought with it the side-effect of dysgenics, a deterioration of beneficial traits. Such thinking may lead us to believe that the gene pool has become stagnant and putrid, and the dregs have over-flowed to the surface. The argument would surely shift from whether or not abortion should or shouldn't be legal, to whether it should - at times - be mandatory.

Criticism of the role men play in the creation of Greaves dreg-filled, stagnant, putrid gene pool is notable by it's absence. The post itself is entitled 'Mother's Day' (and posted several months before that day) to make it crystal clear where the blame lies. Maybe Lucien Greaves thinks men bear no responsibility for parenting children? Lucien Greaves was 32 years of age when he wrote this. Can someone still be considered just a messed up kid in their thirties? And recall that this blog post was live on the process.org website until at least November 2022⁸⁸.

Does Lucien Greaves opinion that abortion should be mandatory at times cast any light on TST's ongoing litigation to prevent the removal of abortion rights across the US? That might be a bit of a stretch but neither is it, in my opinion, something to dismiss out of hand.

The Absent 'S' Word, 28 Year Old Kids, Empty Tenets

Lots of Lucien Greaves defenders insist he has apologized for his words on the two online radio shows and he did indeed offer a statement, distributed internally in 2018 and then, eventually made public in 2020. It's long but worth replicating in full:

“Even as I may be defending myself against what that material was NOT, I still must admit that I today do not agree with my opinions expressed then in any way. To me, back then, I was speaking of people who would take, say, Leviticus literally and try to impose its laws upon the world. I grew up as ignorant white trash in a deeply divided and violent area which heavily affected my world view. At the time of this recording, while still in my early twenties, I thought that the triumph of Laveyan Satanism was that it de-racialized a “survival of the fittest” productive, merit-based social darwinism. I used to hold the position that religious superstition shouldn't be “normalized” as I saw it as such a problematic force in the world. My assumption then was that if we scoffed at such expressions openly, those expressing such things might think about their superstitions more clearly and abandon them. The founding of TST was ultimately a refutation of that viewpoint, a product of my complete removal from that mode of thinking. To me, there were “the religious,” and they were the majority, and then there were the beleaguered nonreligious who suffered from the dogmatic impositions of the religious. I would speak of superstitions in equally dismissive terms with unfortunate lack of concern, due to no real understanding, of familial/cultural attachments, or the effect of such rhetoric upon minority religious groups. I was an ignorant kid with a lot of outrage and a big idiot mouth that received just as many threats to my life by Nazis as I do today. TST will always be for anybody, of any background, who identifies with the values we espouse, and today, you can count on me to vigorously defend any religious group's right to equal representation and expression anywhere.”

This was accompanied by a statement from TST (author unknown) which includes:

"People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused [a quote of TST's sixth tenet]....We ask you to recognize that people do change their opinions over the course of 15 years, and Lucien is no exception."

Firstly, lets note that the words 'sorry' or 'apologize' appear nowhere in Lucien Greaves statement. Neither do the words 'ashamed', 'regret' or even 'embarrassed'. Surely something that people insist is an apology should at least contain the words 'I'm sorry' or 'I apologize'. Without that very basic inclusion, what Lucien Greaves has said is not an apology at all.

In fact it took Lucien Greaves until 2022 to say the actual word 'sorry' in relation to his antisemitic statements. And that was in a short tweet, not in a TST statement, not in an internal document and certainly not circulated officially.

In May 2022, the very popular YouTuber 'iilluminaughtii' posted a video to her YouTube Channel about The Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves in particular. She specializes in researching and exposing questionable people and organizations and has over 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube. When introducing the video, she says:

"The Satanic Temple has only been around for about a decade, but already they've had a massive impact on those around them. Whether that's by arranging for LGBTQ couples to kiss on the grave of the Westboro Baptist Church founder's mother, or through their advocacy for abortion rights, or the extremely alarming anti-Semitic remarks of one of the Temple's founders because, of course, that had to be a thing."⁵³

She then had a Twitter exchange with Lucien Greaves where she asked him:

"so you're incapable of apologizing or even recognizing when you fucked up?"⁵⁴

To which Lucien Greaves replied:

"Of course I'm sorry for saying those things. And I feel terrible for anybody for whom those words caused any harm."⁵²

Which begs the question - If he's that sorry why did it take Lucien Greaves so long to utter that one simple word? At that point it had been nineteen years since he said those things and four years since they were unearthed. The statement from TST/Lucien Greaves I'm discussing now was made (internally to TST) in 2018 and recycled again (publicly) in 2020. Why didn't that one contain an apology? Why didn't he apologize immediately in 2018? And why was the statement only made internally in 2018?

Importantly, Lucien Greaves - when he finally after four years says the 's' word - is responding only to the antisemitic statements he made that iilluminaughtii called him out on in her video. He has never to my knowledge apologized for the anti-black racism or the ableism or the open admiration of fascism, or the eugenics.

But back to the statement.

Let's now note that he leads this statement off with a complaint about having to defend himself. A cynically arrogant position from which to start something so many people insist is an apology.

He then claims the recordings were made when he was in his early twenties. This is a straight up lie. As was his later claim that he was an ignorant 'kid'. He was 27 years old in 2003 and 28 years old in 2004¹⁴ when those recordings were made. Neither of those ages can be described as your early twenties and neither can you realistically describe yourself as a 'kid'. Minor points maybe, but they demonstrate Lucien Greaves willingness to bend the truth to make the whole thing seem a bit more palatable.

The rest of the statement is a self-pitying attempt at justification basically talking about how hard he had it growing up. Lots of people have very hard upbringings and hardly any of them find solace in fascism, racism, antisemitism, ableism and eugenics. To me, the tone of the whole statement is petulant and grudging. He takes no responsibility, offers no apology and leads with a complaint about having to defend himself.

The tenet that was quoted alongside Lucien Greaves statement says that we should forgive mistakes and give the person who made them the opportunity to rectify any harm caused. Lucien Greaves had the opportunity in 2018 and again in 2020 when the subject arose once more to take the chance to rectify his mistakes but he didn't. The first step in rectifying a mistake is a genuine apology that acknowledges the enormity of what you said or did. He didn't get around to that until 2022 and even then it was solely in relation to one aspect of his words - antisemitism. Not the racism, not the ableism, not the fascist admiration, not the eugenics.

A Manual For Coercion, Process Church, Free Speech For Me Not For Thee, Might Is Right Wing: 2011 - 2018

Another aspect of rectifying your mistakes is to not repeat them. In Lucien Greaves case this would mean not saying or doing the sort of thing you'd expect right-wingers to do or say. Has he achieved this? I don't believe he has and I am skeptical about the idea that Lucien Greaves has really changed that much at all. Why do I think that?

Firstly, Lucien Greaves was still good friends with Shane Bugbee as of 2011-13 when the idea of The Satanic Temple was coming together. Malcolm Jarry also knew him then¹⁸ and I think we can all agree at this point that Shane Bugbee most definitely is (or was then) both a racist and fascist. He's admitted having white supremacist ties back then¹⁹. Bugbee was brought in to advise on getting The Satanic Temple up and running.

Not far into that process Shane Bugbee and Lucien Greaves pitched the idea of a sequel to Might Is Right to Malcolm Jarry in a series of emails. ⁹². I'll reproduce extracts of those emails in text form below:

Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 11:47 PM - Bugbee to Greaves (Doug) and Jarry (Cevin)

greetings cevin and doug.
sorry I missed the skype session.
I've presented to doug some options on how I might work with you on the satanic temple, a great project and something I'm very into.
1. p.r. work
2. obtaining the rights to my version of Might Is Right which includes a foreword from anton lavey and a peter gilmore afterword.

Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 10:26 AM - Jarry to Greaves and Bugbee

Regarding Might Is Right - I have to think through this carefully with Doug and David Guinan (who is the 3rd person involved). The issue for me is that while I like the concept on one level, we have been trying to make publications consistent with our own collective beliefs and that text would not perfectly conform, so I don't know how it fits in the TST doctrine and it would send a confusing message.

Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 6:08 PM - Greaves to Jarry and Bugbee

Sorry, Cevin -- I should have given you more context to Might Is Right. MIR is known as "The Book of Satan" and is important in Satanic lore. Anton LaVey did not endorse the book in its entirety, but enjoyed its florid anti-God, anti-Christ poetry and its attempt at a strictly naturalistic philosophy -- which to the author of MIR was a Social Darwinistic view. LaVey saw the book as a great leaping off point and pillaged full passages to construct The Satanic Bible. The language of MIR is outdated in that it refers to Jews in an ambiguous fashion that I took to mean religious practitioners, however, certain anti-Catholic segments of neo-Nazism have taken the book as one of their own. Shane's publication of MIR was a middle finger to the neo-Nazis, and one that did not go unnoticed. Shane received some grim death threats then. LaVey was of Jewish blood, he pillaged the book, and they hated him for it. Shane's edition has a forward by LaVey explaining how and why he took some passages, discarded others, and created the Satanic Bible. In short, the idea is one of evolution of ideas. Just as LaVey took portions of Might Is Right and converted into something for his time, I think we are evolving Satanism still further by accounting for what's been confirmed by recent advances in cognitive science -- compassion and altruism, selfless actions without tangible benefit -- are very real, and they do serve an evolutionary function. Shane and I spoke of writing a MIR II in which we would expound upon an up-to-date naturalistic philosophy will retaining the godless poetic style of the first. A TST version of the book, I felt from the start, should contain an explanation of what MIR is and what we can learn from it today, while being quite clear about what we also disagree with.

Anyone who's forced themselves to read Might Is Right either in part or (God forbid) in full will know that Lucien Greaves interpretation of both it and of LaVey's take on it is disingenuous to say the least. As a body of work it is completely irredeemable and Lucien Greaves knows this. It's further evidence to me that he really hasn't strayed that far away (if at all) from the extreme right-wing view it espouses. And this is 2013 remember, as TST was forming and ten years since the online radio show.

To his credit, it would appear - since the book never appeared - that Soling/Jarry point blank refused to have any truck with it as an idea once he looked into it. And whilst he might be the quieter of the two owners, he is most definitely the source of the money and therefore power. Not long after that, Bugbee walked away from the whole project.

This wasn't the first time Bugbee and Lucien Greaves had discussed publishing a sequel to Might Is Right. Only 19 months before the above email exchange in 2013, they had discussed what form the sequel should take⁸¹.

Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 3:28pm Douglas Mesner [Lucien Greaves] wrote:

Might is right 2. Let's do it. We could even call it "the book of satan: might is right" without the "2", and who's going to be able to bitch? We have carte blanch, really - it's public domain. Did you have a format or chapter themes in mind already? I think it might be interesting if it weren't a reiteration of might is right but an evolution of might is right taking into account the current science regarding altruism, collectivism, and general behavior. The strong theme, of course, should be individual gain and how best to achieve it -- but the most successful today are not the violent. It is those who can drive others to do their violence for them... while making them believe it was their own idea. A manual for coercion and manipulation. More evil than the first book by orders of magnitude.

This 'manual for coercion and manipulation' that Lucien Greaves intends to be 'more evil than the first book by orders of magnitude' doesn't exactly square with how he described it to Malcolm Jarry 19 months later. The proposed inclusion of modern evolutionary theory regarding altruism etc is mentioned but he must've forgotten the part about making it a 'manual for coercion and manipulation' and how persuading others to commit violence on your behalf leads to success with the main theme being how to best achieve individual gain.

And in case you think this was nothing to do with TST, earlier in the email exchange, Lucien Greaves asked Bugbee;

Tues, Oct 25, 2011 at 9:21am Douglas Mesner [Lucien Greaves] wrote:

What do you think about possibly coming here and looking at it with the temple of satan crew?

I have also had a conversation with someone who was going through the steps necessary to become a Minister, or its early equivalent, back in 2018 who claimed that Might Is Right was on the mandatory reading list for applicants. However, as this was a vocal conversation and the person is reluctant to 'out' themselves or provide traceable proof, I cannot verify for sure that this is accurate. I will also say that I have had a conversation (again, vocal) with an ex-TST Minister who went through the program in 2022 and they said that Might Is Right was definitely not on any sort of reading list, mandatory or otherwise then. Either the first person is mistaken, or the second person is mistaken or (and this is, I admit, pure guesswork on my part) it was on the list back in 2018 and was removed sometime after the fallout from the re-discovery of Lucien Greaves radio shows in 2003/4.

In 2020, Bugbee also gave his opinion of Lucien Greaves in a court deposition¹⁹;

"I stopped publishing Might is Right in 2016 and disavowed any connection with White supremacy or related groups. I took responsibility for my past actions, but Doug did not. He is sympathetic to fascist ideology and its emphasis on power. He has taken a particular interest in Mussolini, even visiting Italy to see Mussolini's birthplace. Doug also has a Process P Cross tattoo, which is a power symbol derived from the Swastika."

The man Lucien Greaves spoke of so admiringly in 2004 regarding fascism in Italy, Gabriele D'Annunzio, was described as an inspiration for Mussolini by author Michael Ledeen in his book: D'Annunzio: the First Duce⁸⁶.

A quick note on the tattoo Bugbee mentions. The Process⁷⁴ was a philosophy collective intent on reviving the 'deviant psychotherapy cult' of The Process Church of the Final Judgement⁷⁵

The Process Church of the Final Judgment was set up in the UK during the 1960's by two ex-Scientologists who later relocated to New Orleans and who achieved notoriety through being linked to Charles Manson and the Manson murders.

Lucien Greaves (and Shane Bugbee) have researched, interviewed and met with numerous members of The Process Church of the Final Judgement at various points in time.⁹²

Secondly, in April 2016, Lucien Greaves was due to be a scheduled speaker at the Left Hand Path Consortium in Atlanta. In March he announced he was not going to attend in protest at the removal of Augustus Sol Invictus, who was also invited to speak until the organizers realized that Sol Invictus;

"...is an American far-right political activist[...]and white nationalist....He was controversial within the Libertarian Party for his neo-fascist political views and history of racist associations. He has been described by media reports as being associated with the alt-right movement. He has proposed the repeal of several amendments to the US Constitution, stipulating that only white male citizens should be allowed to vote or own real property."²⁰

Lucien Greaves offered the following rationale for withdrawing from the event in solidarity with Augustus Sol Invictus:

"...his perspective, from what I know, legitimately falls somewhere on a broad spectrum of recognized "Left Hand Path" philosophies, whether I find that perspective tenable, consistent, and reasonable, or not (just as Fascism legitimately has a place in discussions upon political philosophies without fear that such a discussion lends undue credibility to its contemporary implementation. Do we truly know what we're for if we refuse to discuss what we're against?). From what I know, he's part of a larger dialogue regarding the Left Hand Path that I feel is worth engaging in.

I am not withdrawing from speaking because Invictus was invited to speak, but rather because he was recently dis-invited. Protesters have harangued the organizers, and the organizers have expressed concerns for the security of their attendees were Invictus to remain on the speaker's list. I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the organizers, however, I feel that the dis-invitation sends a harmful message in support of censorship."²¹

Leaving aside Lucien Greaves eyebrow-raising statement that fascism has a legitimate place in political philosophy, It might also be worth noting that in 2015 Augustus Sol Invictus;

"...was accused by the Libertarian Party of Florida of advocating for eugenics and "state-sponsored murder"".²⁰

Presumably it's merely a coincidence that in 2016 Lucien Greaves came out in solidarity with someone who is a fellow admirer of fascists and a fellow eugenics enthusiast.

Thirdly, in 2017, far-right British figure Milo Yiannopoulos was due to give a speech/presentation at UC Davis. Local members of The Satanic Temple, amongst others, organized a protest against this event and it was subsequently canceled. The alt-right publication, Breitbart, wrote an article about Yiannopoulos' cancellation, largely blaming The Satanic Temple²². This prompted a reply from Lucien Greaves, which was published in a separate Breitbart article²³;

""The Satanic Temple was not in any way involved in this, nor would we be,” said Greaves. “The Satanic Temple are firm advocates for free speech and, while we may not agree with the speaker in question on some issues...we would never move to have him censored from speaking. We are mortified to have our name falsely attached to this and hope it can be corrected immediately.”

Greaves condemned Cal Poly Students for Quality Education (SQE) for their efforts to censor MILO, noting that “TST has had no contact with Cal Poly SQE, and rejects their celebration of the shutdown of MILO events.”"

Lucien Greaves is clearly either a free speech absolutist in much the same vein as Elon Musk, or he doesn't like right-wing extremists getting canceled. It's striking to note that in both the Sol Invictus case and the Yiannopoulos case, Lucien Greaves was quick to condemn protesters for exercising their right to freely speak, referring to them later as a..."screaming mob of mindless fascistic 'anti-fascists'..." and ..."ignorant little assholes"...⁸². Possibly Lucien Greaves believes the right to voice your opinions should only be extended to those on the extreme right wing.

And in yet another example of being quick to lambaste 'antifa' but not so quick to lambaste far right figures, in 2019, Lucien Greaves furthered the spread of misinformation that right wing extremist Andy Ngo had had a concrete milkshake thrown at him by 'antifa'⁸³.

Antifa has always advocated for violence. What's perplexing to me is that now some of them are acting like the cement milkshake was the work of one bad actor. How would this action be non-representative? When you advocate violence don't feign horror when a hit lands.

To the best of my knowledge, Lucien Greaves has never called out or attacked Andy Ngo's or Milo Yiannopoulos' or Augustus Sol Invictus' often violent rhetoric. Neither has he spoken up in defense of the free speech rights of those who have called out or protested against these people.

Interestingly, another person in a position of substantial authority at The Satanic Temple (or he was up until May 2024 when Lucien Greaves confirmed he had stepped down), their Director of Ministry - Gregory 'Greg' Stevens²⁴ - is (or used to be) good friends with Yiannopoulos and also used to write for Breitbart²⁵. Greg Stevens and Milo Yiannopoulos are captured posting to Stevens' Facebook page about a friendly game of miniature golf²⁶ in April 2016.

This gives us a rough timeline of;

• Greg Stevens joins The Satanic Temple in 2015. He and Yiannopoulos are already 'good friends and colleagues' at this point²⁷.
• Greg Stevens writes an article on Satanism for Breitbart, enthusiastically comparing LaVeyan Satanism/Church of Satan and The Satanic Temple with the alt-right. He makes particular mention of the book Might Is Right and talks with Peter Gilmore, current head of the Church of Satan and also a guest on the Shane Bugbee/Lucien Greaves Might Is Right Radio Special in 2003²⁵
• Greg Stevens is elevated to The Satanic Temple's National Council (they govern all the local chapters) in 2016 - 2018 ²⁴. The National Council at that time was below only the Executive Ministry (Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry), making it the 2nd highest point in the pyramid across the whole organization²⁸.
• Greg Stevens and Milo Yiannopoulos enjoy their golf game in April 2016²⁶
• Milo Yiannopoulos has an event at UC Davis canceled in Jan 2017, 9 months after the golf game.²²
• Lucien Greaves is 'mortified' that Satanic Temple members are involved in getting Yiannopoulos canceled and condemns them for censoring Yiannopoulos ²³.

It's hard to not at least countenance the possibility that Greg Stevens asked Lucien Greaves to go in to bat for Yiannopoulos. Or possibly its as straightforward as its presented and Lucien Greaves simply needs no prompting to go in to bat for far right figures.

One of the things to note here is that in the article in ref 27, originally posted in 2014, Stevens has at some point in time posted an update saying his and Yiannopoulos friendship "...had been deteriorating for some time, but I still hadn't “given up” on the idea that I could reform his thinking." and yet it still hadn't deteriorated by April 2016 - 18 months after he wrote the original piece - when they went to play golf together. The update was not posted before July 2017, several months after Yiannopoulos event cancellation and Lucien Greaves intervention on his behalf²⁹.

Greg Stevens used to be an established part of the so-called 'manosphere' which is loosely defined as;

"The manosphere is a diverse collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism....

The manosphere overlaps with the far-right and alt-right communities. It has also been associated with online harassment and has been implicated in radicalizing men into misogynist beliefs and the glorification of violence against women."⁶⁵

He was friends with multiple figures within the manosphere, notably the afore mentioned Milo Yiannopoulos and other far-right manosphere figure Mike Cernovich^{66, 67} for whom Stevens edited a book (Gorilla Mindset) in 2015. Stevens published a number of manosphere type essays on his personal website (gregstevens.com) and held a number of video interviews about alt-right issues with right-wing figures, including Cernovich.⁶⁸

As previously noted, Greg Stevens was on the National Council of The Satanic Temple. He was their Director of Ministry until May 2024. In this role he was responsible for developing the program and resources as well as overseeing the acceptance and progression of people who wish to become Ministers.²⁴ In short, Greg Stevens controlled the program that tells TST Ministers what to teach their congregations.

It's hard not to see an emerging pattern here. Men who used to (or claim they used to anyway) hold fairy extreme right-wing views seem to join and rise quickly within The Satanic Temple. It's striking to me how they seem to hold these extremist beliefs right up to the very point of joining the Satanic Temple and then claim they no longer do. We'll be discussing more on this characterization of The Satanic Temple being a right-wing vehicle, based on the words and actions of those in positions of power, later.

Fourthly, in May 2020, The Satanic Temple posted to their Facebook account that individual chapters were henceforth prohibited from supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. I'll reference the link but the post is no longer there. Facebook suggests it has either been limited to a select audience, hidden or deleted, ³⁰. In June 2020, the Boston Chapter of The Satanic Temple disregarded this directive and declared unequivocal support for the BLM movement³¹. This was not well received by the Executive Ministry and I think it tells its own story that now when you visit the official website for the Boston Chapter (thesatanictempleboston.com), it redirects straight to thesatanictemple.com because following that episode, the Boston Chapter no longer exists.

Explaining his decision, Lucien Greaves said that because TST are Satanists they might offend the BLM movement and they shouldn't get involved. On the surface that sounds reasonable but when you consider that's not a rationale they've extended to their involvement with the queer community or the trans community or pro-abortion groups or educational groups, it seems less reasonable and more a personal intolerance. Nobody from TST, as far as I know asked, or even approached the BLM movement to ask, their thoughts on the matter. Nobody from TST considered that its black members might want to offer an opinion.

Ordering Chapters to not support the Black Lives Matter movement only seems an odd action for The Satanic Temple to take if you are unaware of Lucien Greaves opinions about black people and eugenics. Once you are aware of them, it makes absolute sense that he wouldn't want his organization to support a movement like Black Lives Matter.

To me, there seems to be no real change in Lucien Greaves' stance regarding race and eugenics. He might've realized that actually saying those things out loud is not a wise thing to do but his actions in speaking up on behalf of known fascists, eugenicists and members of the alt-right whilst simultaneously lambasting ordinary members of The Satanic Temple who protest against these same people is striking. It was, after all, less than six years ago, in 2018, that his dysgenics.com website went dark, an event that happened after he spoke up on behalf of both Augustus Sol Invictus and Milo Yiannopoulos.

Resurrected Extremism, The Randazza Effect, Disappearing Dysgenics, TST's #MeToo: 2018 - 2022

Something else happened in 2018 - the radio shows Lucien Greaves had participated in under the name Doug Mesner alongside Shane Bugbee in 2003 and 2004 that I have discussed above were discovered by rank and file members of The Satanic Temple and a tempest of shock, horror and revulsion followed. By August 2018, several of the largest Chapters had broken away from TST in disgust at Lucien Greaves history. First to leave was the UK Chapter and several fledgling Chapters in Europe and Australia (although they had already been distancing themselves due to what they saw as a too controlling National Council), closely followed by the LA Chapter, then the Portland Chapter. Two months after these events Lucien Greaves dysgenics.com website quietly disappeared. I don't know if people had discovered it and then Lucien Greaves removed it or if Lucien Greaves preemptively removed it in fear of its potential discovery, either way the fact that he killed it so soon after all this happened is of note.

The reason the radio shows resurfaced after 15 years is one more example of Lucien Greaves predilection for the company of far right figures. In January 2018, Twitter (seemingly misunderstanding a situation Greaves found himself in) temporarily suspended his Twitter account. He decided to sue them on the grounds of religious discrimination. The lawyer he retained was a man named Marc Randazza. In his book Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism⁸⁴ (part of the Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right run by Teeside University UK and the University of Oslo in Norway), Dr Spencer Sunshine⁸⁵ dedicates an Appendix to TST, particularly Lucien Greaves, and recounts the story;

Lawyer Marc Randazza was representing TST in a legal complaint; he was known for defending numerous Far Right clients, including Alt Right neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin, editor of the Daily Stormer. The TST leadership justified the choice of representation because Randazza was working pro bono; furthermore, as a First Amendment lawyer, Randazza had clients with different political perspectives. But it was public knowledge that he had done more than that, including attending Far Right political events and making personal political statements reflecting those politics—as well as previously being fined for unethical professional behavior.

When ordinary members of TST discovered Randazza's involvement they were very unhappy and in the course of digging into Randazza, someone discovered Lucien Greaves radio shows.

A series of aftershocks followed the radio shows coming to light, culminating in multiple people once high in the organization - notably women - recounting why they had left The Satanic Temple. They all had a similar tale to tell - that at the highest levels of the National Council and the Executive Ministry, The Satanic Temple was an alt-right cis white mens club. The women who had left included Emma Story, the then Co-Head of The New York Chapter³², Gwendolyn Lesch and Nikki Moungo, (both co-Chapter Heads of The Satanic Temple of Saint Louis at the time^{33, 34}) and Jex Blackmore, the then Official Spokesperson for The Satanic Temple³⁵. All of them said very similar things about TST which Blackmore sums up ³⁵:

"Over the years, members and chapter heads have requested and proposed the implementation of a gender, sexual, and racial diversity policy to ensure equity within TST leadership and alignment to the mission. The demand was not simply ignored but completely dismissed. The demand was not hollow; there was a clear and pressing need for this policy. While I was part of the organization, I witnessed male members of the organization exploit their position and influence to behave inappropriately and disrespectfully towards women. I myself experienced harassment and abuse from members who have now left the organization. I was not supported by leadership during these times, but was asked to let it all “blow over.” I don't speak for anyone but myself, but I know that my experience is one of many examples of systematic gaslighting, degradation, and bullying that many women have experienced within TST over the years."

Nikki Moungo's experience was deeply troubling ³⁴. She explains how, in 2015, Lucien Greaves asked her to lead the St Louis Chapter of The Satanic Temple. She had some reservations regarding the fact she worked full time, had a family and was also suffering through appalling grief at the death of her son. Lucien Greaves recommended that she co-lead with an unnamed man of his choosing that Moungo refers to by the pseudonym 'Donklin'. She accepted Lucien Greaves recommendation of Donklin. Later in 2015 she and Donklin were asked to join the National Council. They both accepted and started that role in early 2016.

Donklin started behaving poorly towards the St Louis Chapter almost immediately, who reacted with hurt and bewilderment. Eventually it became clear Donklin's sole interest was his newly elevated status on the National Council which led to the St Louis Chapter, including Moungo, asking him to resign as co-Chapter Head which he did. In a subsequent report to the Executive Ministry (Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry), Donklin is quoted as saying to TST's Springfield Chapter Head:

"I don't give a shit about her dead kid, or trans issues."

in reference to both Moungo's child and his own replacement as co-Chapter Head of St Louis, that being Gwendolyn Lesch.

Lucien Greaves response to this was to decide that it was the Springfield Chapter Head that was the problem and questioned his motives and intentions in sharing the conversation, rather than addressing Donklin's appalling statements and attitudes. He (Greaves) made the official decision that there was no malfeasance on Donklin's part and no action was taken to admonish him. Lesch recounts the next act by Donklin³³:

"I was there when “Donklin” made his threat against Nikki [Moungo] and her family. He threatened in print, via email to have her family swatted by feeding false information to law enforcement. With all the police violence toward people of color, this was an especially poignant threat for Nikki to endure. You see, her husband is a person of color. Their son is mixed race."

No malfeasance. No action taken. I don't know Donklin's actual identity beyond him being a cis white male who was suggested to Moungo by Lucien Greaves and who was then subsequently fast-tracked onto the National Council. I have no idea if he is still on the National Council but there is nothing that I have seen or read to indicate he is not. Admittedly, not knowing his identity makes that a difficult thing to ascertain.

It should also be noted that following these statements, the various women involved have, to the best of my knowledge, made no more comment. This is due to the fact that they were 'legally reminded' that whilst members they had signed an NDA. Not a non-disclosure agreement, but a non-disparagement agreement, in perpetuity. They were not allowed to ever say anything disparaging about TST and if they did they would be sued⁷⁹.

You might come to your own conclusions about the nature and motivations of an organization purporting to be a progressive religion that also requires those in positions of authority to sign an NDA when the 'D' stands for 'disparagement'.

These then were the aftershocks to the schism that followed the two radio shows coming to light. There are more stories, a lot more, but this piece is already in danger of becoming the length of a Stephen King novel.

However, one interesting event is worth taking note of - when members of the Washington Chapter of The Satanic Temple started sharing all this information with their members and supporters in 2020, they were sued for defamation by The Satanic Temple. They are a group of four individuals who came to be known as 'Queer Satanic'. TST also claimed they 'stole' or 'hacked' two Facebook Pages to disseminate this information. The fact that neither of these things is either credible or true is attested to by the fact that TST has so far lost (or in one case withdrawn) at every stage of all of their legal actions against 'Queer Satanic' including all appeals so far³⁶. Remarkably, TST have also sued Newsweek (also for defamation) for merely reporting on the situation with Queer Satanic (of the twenty-two statements TST claim were defamtory in the Newsweek article, all but one has been dismissed in a pre-trial hearing⁶¹) and also a TikTok user who goes by the name of 'The Satanic Housewife' who discussed the Newsweek article in a TikTok post. After she posted the video, TST threatened to sue her unless she posted a retraction and feeling somewhat intimidated, she did. Lucien Greaves then said that proved she knew what she was saying was wrong and they sued her anyway⁶². The Satanic Housewife is a low-income young Mom with a special needs child.

These are all very odd actions for an organization co-led by a man (Lucien Greaves) who's commitment to free speech led him to defend certified fascists and eugenicists. But possibly Lucien Greaves is only a fan of free speech for the things he believes in, such as the afore mentioned fascism and eugenics.

Possibly some might argue that freedom of speech is not the same as freedom from consequences and if someone libels/defames you you have every right to go after them. True enough, but reading through the court decisions, legal articles and posts^{36, 61, 62} where the claims and all their many and continuous dismissals are discussed, it seems more like The Satanic Temple are using the law as a cudgel to try and silence those who speak out against them. I am not an expert on law but some of the claims they make are laughable. For example, the letter TST's lawyer sent to The Satanic Housewife said that her claim that Lucien Greaves used fund-raised money to pay his personal bills was false and therefore defamatory. In her video, The Satanic Housewife had referenced a deposition made by Lucien Greaves in the legal matter Cave vs Thurston in which Lucien Greaves was asked if he took an income to which he replied "Some -- sometimes to pay rent and that kind of thing."⁶³. I have no idea how TST imagines The Satanic Housewife's statement can be considered defamatory as it is the literal truth, confirmed in court by Lucien Greaves himself.

In February 2023, The Spectator published an article on Queer Satanic's legal battle with TST which gives a lot of weight to my opinion that TST use the law as a cudgel to silence dissent;

Further complicating TST's legal battle is a series of online posts by [Matt] Kezhaya [TST's lawyer] that suggest the intent of the lawsuits is not to reach arbitration, but to incur as much personal damage against the former members as possible. In a post to Reddit, Kezhaya called the former members “morons” and “pathetic” and said he hoped their lawyer “squeezes every last penny from you living corpses” as they fight TST's lawsuits. In additional comments, Kezhaya spoke of coming up with a “credible justification” to maximize the damages he could grab from the defendants. Finally, in a November tweet, Kezhaya taunted the defendants, asserting, “I'm coming for you” and daring them to “tell the judge on me again.”

Such statements could give the former members grounds to file an anti-SLAPP motion in any future filings. Anti-SLAPP motions are intended to protect individuals who speak on areas of public interest from baseless lawsuits meant to intimidate or financially drain them.⁶⁴

Silverman in Salem, Trans TShirts Sell Well, Lucien Hates Questions: 2023

Some might consider it passing strange that Lucien Greaves and The Satanic Temple are suing a collection of people who are members of a community (queer and trans) that The Satanic Temple have garnered a reputation for being on the side of. Many rank and file members of The Satanic Temple are part of that community, either as queer/trans people themselves or their allies and indeed, in The Satanic Temple's online shop there are many products that clearly align them with queer and trans support^{37, 38, 39, 40, 41}.

So it came as something of a surprise when, in June 2023, Lucien Greaves was shown in a photograph on X/Twitter with a known transphobe after apparently giving him and a friend a guided tour of The Satanic Temple HQ in Salem⁴². The tweet is a picture of David Silverman, Lucien Greaves and a friend of Silverman's at The Satanic Temple HQ in Salem.

The text reads:

"Thanks to my friend @LucienGreaves for a great tour for me and Kris @CShellska at @satanic_temple_! Great to see you again and thanks as always for your activism!"

Who is David Silverman? He used to be President of American Atheists, one of the leading secular organizations in the US but he was fired from that position following multiple allegations of sexual assault and undisclosed conflicts of interest as he had not revealed financial and personal conflicts of interest relating to the promotion of his book, 'Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World'⁴³. He was then hired by a smaller group called 'Atheist Alliance International' who then suspended him after two months which led to him later resigning from the organization after yet more sexual assault allegations were made⁴⁴.

Since then he has descended into fully alt-right mode, reposting tweets from the likes of the anti-trans extremist group Gays Against Groomers, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan, and various individuals complaining about 'woke' trans issues, 'woke' books for kids that tackle racism, 'woke' science that promotes affirmative action, how dumb people who wear masks in a pandemic are, the dangers of vaccines, COVID conspiracies, tweets in support of Russell Brand, tweets claiming supporting the people of Palestine is interchangeable with supporting Hamas, the list goes on and on - basically if you can think of an alt-right opinion there's a good chance David Silverman supports it. And of course, he retweets The Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves too.

In April 2023, two months before heading off to Salem to get his tour of The Satanic Temple HQ from Lucien Greaves, Silverman retweeted Greaves, praising the organization:

"WOW! A well-organized atheist movement convention that sounds like fun, includes real activism, and is SOLD OUT well before the event! Competence. The word is competence"⁴⁵

A Twitter user replied to him suggesting he turn up, express his anti-trans views and see how long it'd take for him to be kicked out. Silverman replied:

"I'd love to do that. I bet many at tst would agree with me on most things. Including Lucien."⁴⁶

On this, if not a lot else, I absolutely agree with David Silverman.

And so two months after that exchange, Lucien Greaves the co-owner of The Satanic Temple, one the two people who make all the decisions regarding The Satanic Temple and who's website sells a lot of merchandise suggesting they support queer and trans rights gave David Silverman a tour of it's HQ. During Pride month no less.

This led to another explosion among rank and file members of The Satanic Temple and a second major schism. Yet another iteration of the UK Chapter left the organization as did The Satanic Temple Sober Faction⁵⁵. I cannot reference their statements on the matter as The Satanic Temple deleted them and the Internet Archive cannot access Facebook. Other people who protested, but remained with TST included Dex Desjardins, TST's Media Relations Specialist - I cannot reference this either as it is also on FB and has since been hidden, TST Minister Richard Proctor⁴⁷ and over 120 TST members who signed a letter of protest, including Chapter Heads from California, Alabama, Texas and Minnesota⁵⁵. Carmen Love - Friends of TST Maine Chapterhead⁴⁸ - actually left the organization and a lot of other members were understandably hurt, dismayed and angry and demanded an explanation from Lucien Greaves. When it came it was remarkable.

"There are numerous photos of me with visitors at HQ. A photo, circulating around recently, is no more significant than any of the others. I refuse to let this contrived non-story divert our attention from the crucial work TST is undertaking to support our LGBTQ community members. I have no desire to dignify assumptions that claim I agree with individuals simply because I have interacted with them. It is highly likely that I may interact with someone who doesn't reflect my personal views or TST's platforms again in the future."⁴⁹

And in an exchange with Madilyn Love, Lucien Greaves said:

"Before he came to Salem recently, I last met Silverman when he was head off (sic) American Atheists and I was speaking at their conference. I haven't kept up with him through the years, and I have not kept up with his opinions. He stopped in and said Hi. We're open to the public. Countless random people also get pictures with me and I do not vet their social media first."⁵⁰

Lucien Greaves is basically saying he can't possibly be expected to vet the opinions of random people who come to HQ and get a picture with him. Which is fair. Except that far from 'stopping in to say hi', Silverman described Greaves as giving him a tour. And far from being one of the 'countless random people' to ask for a picture with him, Silverman describes Lucien Greaves as a friend. And in his Twitter exchange in April 2023 Silverman seemed pretty confident lots of people within TST would agree with him, 'including Lucien'. These are not the words of someone who has a bare nodding acquaintance with the other person.

They also follow each other on Twitter and both are very active and prolific users. Neither of them follow such a huge amount of people that each others tweets would get lost in a sea of other tweets on their feeds. It stretches credulity to breaking point to think that Lucien Greaves had never seen even one of Silverman's vast amount of anti-trans tweets.

And then there's also the fact that Silverman has appeared on The Satanic Temple TV's Show as early as 2019⁵¹. Knowing, as we do, that literally nothing happens at TST without Lucien Greaves and/or Malcolm Jarry's say-so, Lucien Greaves claim that he didn't know what Silverman's opinions were is highly questionable given Silverman aired them on TST TV in 2019. In fact, that appearance on TST TV was protested by the co-Head of The Satanic Temple Houston, Tertia Withershins, who was listening to it at the time, in a series of now deleted tweets (no back up can be found on the Internet Archive either).

"I'm less than 10 minutes into the interview with David Silverman, and I'm so disgusted. This guy has spent the entire time so far railing about the “woke left” and feminists and his innocence. I just don't know where to start with this."

"@LEDFlashing [TST TV interviewer] Can you say something about this? What was the purpose of this interview? I've made it to 18 minutes, and the dumpster fire is just getting hotter. Now he's railing about being called a transphone [typo for transphobe]. Wtf."⁶⁰

Something else to consider: Greg Stevens (remember him?) was the person overseeing The Satanic Temple TV in 2019, when Silverman made his appearance.²⁴

Greaves angry and dismissive responses dismayed even more people. Both for his utter refusal to apologize for his actions, or even take responsibility for them, but even more so his refusal to even try and understand why trans members might be so upset by both what he'd done and his refusal to to try and understand their upset. A lot of these people had probably bought merchandise from The Satanic Temple's website that indicates they support trans rights. To see their leader parade a known transphobe around TST HQ, during Pride month, and then refuse to both apologize for it or to even listen to why they were so hurt must've been a kick in the teeth.

Dex Desjardins, who I remind you is TST's Media Relations Specialist, said in the now hidden FB Post I referred to earlier:

"Lucien isn't responsible for who takes pictures with him, BUT
• He needs to be aware of and responsive to how his public image reflects on our community AND
• His response to calls for clarification on his own beliefs have been milquetoast and defensive, BUT
• TST is not Lucien Greaves.
• We are what makes TST what it is, AND
• TST org has announced concrete actions in support of trans rights will be made public soon, AND
• I believe we stand a better chance against christofascism in all its manifestations if we're as united as possible, SO
• I strongly support calls for action and reform within TST, BUT
• I also strongly urge NOT allowing one semi-retired man's personal Twitter account to be the straw that fractures a decade of work by thousands of people, including many members of the marginalized groups we're trying to support, such as our SoCC, who are working tirelessly within TST improve our community and our strategic effectiveness"

and

"His response was abysmal. Like an angry 7 year old. I honestly wish he'd retire and start enjoying life already."

Desjardins is right on a number of points, particularly the last one, but on the key ones badly wrong. He says:

"TST is not Lucien Greaves. We are what makes TST what it is."

This is not accurate and Desjardins is fooling himself if he believes it is. Lucien Greaves is the literal co-owner of The Satanic Temple. He is also one of only two people in the Executive Ministry which is the body at the apex of TST's organizational pyramid. They call all the shots. Desjardins also says:

"I also strongly urge NOT allowing one semi-retired man's personal Twitter account to be the straw that fractures a decade of work..."

Lucien Greaves is not semi-retired or any other kind of retired. He describes himself on his Twitter account bio as 'Cofounder and spokesperson for The Satanic Temple'. If you're the spokesperson, you're not retired in any capacity, semi or otherwise.

When this affair broke, my only real surprise was that Greaves was silly enough to let a photo be taken of him with Silverman. I wasn't at all surprised that the two men are friends. It is entirely in keeping with what I believe is Lucien Greaves unrepentant and never abandoned right-wing beliefs. So many people who used to have leadership roles within TST and who have now left have described the people who run The Satanic Temple in terms that paint them as a collection of middle-aged alt-right cis white men. Lucien Greaves' ready willingness to defend fascists and other alt-right figures combined with his equally ready willingness to attack members of his own organization who oppose these figures speaks volumes. As does his refusal to let his members officially support the Black Lives Matter movement. As does his reluctance to delete his own eugenics website, dysgenics.com, until 2018, shortly after his own virulently racist and ableist personal history came to light.

In another little side-journey, also regarding TST's attitude to trans people, there's a very concerning allegation regarding a TST Minister who goes by the enigmatic name of 'Minister White'. Minister White appeared on a panel episode of TST's 'Temple Tuesday' show, which is a regular podcast held every Tuesday (as the name suggests).

Details are sketchy but during the August 29th 2023 episode of Temple Tuesday Minister White apparently compared trans people to pedophiles. Quite a few listeners complained, their complaints were dismissed with TST saying it was Minister White's free speech. No action was taken and Minister White continues to appear on TST media⁹⁷.

Did this actually happen? It seems impossible to confirm as the show audio has disappeared from the internet. However, If you look at the ministry archives website you can see that the 'Temple Tuesday' listing for August 29th is missing⁹⁴ and Temple Tuesday skips from August 22nd to September 5th, meaning if you looked at the archives you would think there hadn't been a Temple Tuesday show on August 29th at all.

However, the Aug 29th episode of Temple Tuesday is shown on TST TV's calendar for Aug 2023⁹⁵ and the page for the actual show itself can be found with a little bit of querystring manipulation⁹⁶. So, the show did happen, it's just had the actual show itself - the audio - expunged from the Internet. Whilst this is not definitive proof Minister White did say what is claimed he said, it's certainly curious that that single episode has been entirely removed.

Why Is Lucien Greaves Like This? The Mask Slips

But why? Why would he do all this? Why not just openly declare who we all know he really is and openly live that life? Why the need for The Satanic Temple at all? I believe there are two reasons for that and they are both very basic. The first: power. He likes the power and control that having ownership and total control over his own pet organization gives him.

A couple of people once associated with TST have made similar comments. Bugbee said of Lucien Greaves¹⁹;

He is sympathetic to fascist ideology and its emphasis on power....Doug also has a Process P Cross tattoo, which is a power symbol derived from the Swastika."

And Damien Ba'al, who was the Director of the St. Louis Chapter of TST in 2015, recently said⁷⁸

Doug [Lucien Greaves] always had a strange fascination with the Church of Scientology, and so did a couple other associates. More in the way they kept people in line and made money and not so much the beliefs. He was especially fascinated with the Process Church of The Final Judgement. It was an organization that broke away from Church of Scientology in the 50's. At some time in the past he had wanted to make a revived Process cult. I don't think he intended to make that cult after founding TST but he seemed to admire the tactics of the Church of Scientology. Their recent tactics do seem very similar as do the many stories of abuse.

Secondly, the money doesn't hurt. The Satanic Temple's finances are totally opaque. No one knows how much goes in or how it's used. Quite a lot clearly goes on highly unsuccessful litigation. As of the time of writing, TST are, or have been, involved in 32 lawsuits. Out of that number they have clear unambiguous wins in 3³⁶.

But the fact remains, nobody apart from Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry truly knows the state of The Satanic Temples finances.

To be clear, I don't think Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry are rolling around in a big pile of cash, Scrooge McDuck style. Neither man seems to enjoy a particularly lavish lifestyle. Or not yet, anyway. I do think however they have enough to enjoy themselves within reason. I don't see that either of them has an actual job outside of TST and I know Lucien Greaves is not independently wealthy. How are they managing to live these lives if they're not getting something back from TST?

So what makes me think money is a prime motivator? Firstly, anyone who is cynical enough to sell trans-rights TST branded merchandise whilst simultaneously giving virulent anti-trans rights figures tours of their HQ doesn't really care about those rights but clearly does care about exploiting their financial potential.

Secondly, I'll return to the 2003 Might Is Right internet radio show⁸. Toward the end of it, Bugbee and Lucien Greaves were interviewing Peter Gilmore, the current head of the Church of Satan. At one point they were discussing the book The Necromonicon and I believe Lucien Greaves learnt an important lesson;

21:56:54 Peter Gilmore:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that one, I have a whole thing about it on the website. I actually talked to Herman Slater, who was in on the creation of that, and it was basically meant to take advantage of people who thought it was real. The idea was that everybody kept coming into a occult saying, "I want the Necronomicon". So they thought, well, we can wack something together, we'll sell it and people will buy it. And they did you know, Avon published as a mass paperback after the original leather bound, hardcover that looked really wonderful. And they made a fortune.

21:57:23: Lucien Greaves (as Doug Mesner):
I can respect them doing that. I just can't respect people buying it.

21:57:26 Peter Gilmore:
Oh, well, the people buying it are idiots.

You can almost hear the wheels turning in Lucien Greaves brain at this point.

But with the Silverman affair still fresh in people's minds, maybe the wheels are starting to come off the wagon a bit. There have been signs that Lucien Greaves is losing his patience with his largely progressive base of supporters. My own opinion is that he was caught out by Silverman's inept reveal (neither man is ever going to win an IQ contest) of their friendship and he lashed out in both anger and fear. Anger that he was actually being asked to explain himself and fear that he might lose control of the power he had.

Fox News contacted Lucien Greaves for comment on the whole Silverman situation. He said:

"There is a crippling culture within progressive activism that preferences 'optics' over tangible results and insists on endlessly hunting enemies within before ever confronting the core mission of the cause that is allegedly being championed."

"My focus is, and always has been, securing our religious liberty and defending pluralism. The Satanic Temple has been leading from the front in a war against encroaching theocracy, and I expect that those who join with us will be willing to be challenged, to face uncomfortable ideas and situations, to stand strong as an outsider," he wrote. "If they have joined The Satanic Temple insisting that we provide them 'safety,' they have come to the wrong place."⁵⁶

And Helen Lewis, writing in The Atlantic, quoted Lucien Greaves as telling her:

""I didn't realize necessarily how oppressive this culture was, to me, until this explosion happened with the Silverman thing,""⁵⁷

On his own Patreon account, a clearly still angry Greaves says:

"...we are going to finally have to cohere The Satanic Temple into an organization that is generally interested in Satanism and the fight for our religious liberty. The Satanic Temple can no longer be a place that people come to to gain a title for the purpose of better legitimating their mindless social media grandstanding on issues they have no real world involvement with. We argue that we are not simply a left wing organization leveraging a religious liberty argument for convenience, and then we often have to fight against internal dissent from those who are outraged that TST is not doing exactly that. We argue for principled constitutional standards to be upheld neutrally, and then we go through the regular embarrassment of TST membership who demand that we change our position when it seems most convenient to do so."⁵⁸

This reads to me very like the words of a man ready to abandon his pretense. He's (sort of) tried wearing the mask of progressive activism because it garnered him lots of people to control and the money was nice too but he was unable to hide or explain away his own alt-right leanings for very long. And he did try. In 2014, Lucien Greaves gave an interview about his hometown of Detroit (the place that in 2004 he thinks is full of 'coloreds' that made the place 'a shithole' and which should therefore be 'burnt down'). In this interview he said:

"Tell them I'll be back. Detroit will come back. And shit's gonna happen. I know there's an idiot governor. We're going to do more in social justice."⁵⁹

Social justice was the unique selling point right from the start of The Satanic Temple. That was what made it big news, very quickly, that's the reason most of its supporters joined (certainly its queer/trans/POC/feminist/disabled members and their allies) and that's the reason it got so big, so quick. But people made the mistake of thinking that Lucien Greaves actually meant it and believed it, whereas I strongly suspect that underneath it all, he is the same right wing eugenicist he always was. Certainly his words, actions and inaction's over the years make me believe that.

In my opinion, he never meant or believed any of it. He realized there was a gap in the market and exploited that gap. The nature of that gap was a matter of very little interest to him as long as it accrued him power and a bit of ready cash to go along with it. His most recent words about the awfulness of progressive culture and refusing to be a place of safety only mean that he thinks that market has dried up for him and he's ready to move on.

Evidence of that comes from Lucien Greaves own words. Consider again the quote he made about progressive activism;

"There is a crippling culture within progressive activism that preferences 'optics' over tangible results and insists on endlessly hunting enemies within before ever confronting the core mission of the cause that is allegedly being championed."⁵⁶

These are the words of someone who has no real idea what progressive activism is, or how it operates. Progressive activism always comes from a place where it's leaders are always under just as much scrutiny as those they oppose. Progressive activists insist that those who put themselves forward as leaders are genuine and honest and woe betide those who aren't. Progressives believe that activism cannot start with people who are hypocrites because they know that holding themselves to account and to a set of standards is equally as important as holding those they oppose to those standards. These leaders do not have to be squeaky clean or perfect, but neither can they hold views that stand directly counter to the stated core mission. This standpoint is the exact opposite to Lucien Greaves claim that progressives prefer 'optics' to results. They don't want things to look good, they insist on them being good.

The reason Lucien Greaves utterly fails to comprehend this is because he is not progressive and never was - it is a mindset completely alien to him. As previously stated, it is my firm opinion that he believes in the alt-right, he believes in Libertarianism and he believes in eugenics and that he believes in them just as much now as he did in 2003.

Lucien's Future #MeToo

One of the most disturbing aspects of Lucien Greaves in particular and the upper echelons of TST leadership in general is their very ambivalent attitude to sexual transgressions alleged to have been committed by those in positions of power within TST. There have been numerous comments left in numerous online places about members being coerced into doing things that they really didn't want to do. For a good overview on this, the popular investigative YouTuber 'Dead Domain' goes through a lot of this in her video on The Satanic Temple from around the 1:29:30 mark⁷⁶.

Accusations that Lucien Greaves operates TST in part as his own private hareem abound amongst the upper echelons of TST with numerous women known to have claimed to have been gaslit into a 'relationship' with him, very often at times when they were very vulnerable. One of the most disturbing - and verifiable - stories concerns a Ukrainian woman named Karina.

In March 2022, OnlySky ran a story⁷⁷ about a young woman named Karina whom The Satanic Temple had managed to help escape from Kyiv to Poland following the Russian invasion. She later came to the US. In this story, Karina is quoted as saying:

I don't think I would have been able to get through this if it wasn't for the support of Lucien Greaves and TST all this time.

I was terribly scared, probably I had never had such strong emotions before. And Lucien talked to me all the time to distract me from everything that was happening, it was a very strong emotional support that helped me not to despair. And I don't think I would have decided to leave the country so quickly with my mother and dog if I didn't have such wonderful friends.

At the time of this story in 2022, Karina was 21.

At the end of 2020, just over a year before Russia invaded Ukraine, Karina swapped messages with a US based friend. I'm going to reproduce this conversation in text format. If you'd like to see the original messages themselves they are also included in Dead Domain's video on TST⁷⁶.

In this exchange 'K' is Karina and 'OP' is the Other Person. As is usual in a text exchange, the individual messages can be a little disjointed and they take place over several days.

Please note at the times Karina is referring to, she was 19 years old. Lucien Greaves was around 44 years old.

December 27, 2020

K: Can I tell you a secret? I didn't tell anyone about it, but Lucien was the guy I was "dating"

OP: WHAT?! Lucien was the guy you were DATING?! Is he the one that blocked you too???

K: Yes, we were something of a "quarantine couple”.

OP: What happened? Were you sending him pictures of yourself? If you dont want to get into details about this I understand

K: Yes

OP: but did he block you?
OP: Okay you dont need to get into that
OP: Oh man, I SO sorry

K: We talked like this for more than six months, every day and everything was fine. Sometimes I was jealous of him for some girls, it's rather difficult to explain

OP: I understanc [redacted] I understand.
OP: Hes a narcissist, They have that ability to 'show you want you want to see'.
OP: Can I ask how it ended? Did you break if off with him?
OP: How did it end?
OP: Do you want to talk about this?

K: Over the past few months, he has become very rarely responding to me in snapchat, I wrote on Twitter, he also did not respond. Sometimes he promised that he would spend time with me, but nothing happened.
K: Am I too annoying?
K: Until the last moment I hoped that everything would be fine...

OP: Okay, so what happened in the end?

K: Yes, I have often spoken about it. He either didn't answer, or said that we need time.
K: Perhaps I was too persistent and annoying?

OP: OK [redacted] you don't mind me asking how old are you again? early 20s?

K: I'm 20
K: It seems to me that age does not matter if you love a person

OP: [redacted] there are limits to that statement.
OP: OK [redacted] I've got to tell you I am seriously upset hearing all this. And I haven't had any sleep yet so I'm just, getting so MAD for you!
OP: I can't believe he did this to you.
OP: Actually I CAN believe he did this to you he's a jerk.

December 28, 2020

OP: I won't name any names, but what he did to you he did to her too.
OP: I think that you should write Malcolm Jerry an email
OP: You know who Malcolm Jerry is don't you?
OP: He's one of the cofounders of the Temple

K: So it wasn't just me? But he told me that he was embarrassed and for him this experience of exchanging photographs is new.

OP: I don't believe that at all.
OP: And you're not the only one.
OP: I talked to a woman recently what he did with you he did with her also.
OP: Only he asked her to come over to Snapchat and she got uncomfortable.
OP: Because she knew that he wanted to see sex stuff.

K: I felt special.

OP: I understand.
OP: So the reason why I was asking if he did stuff for you to you, You have the proof.
OP: But I believe Snapchat doesn't hold onto information it deletes automatically or something.
OP: Which is probably why he wanted to meet with you through Snapchat.

K: We chatted for quite a long time in snapchat without sexual things.

OP: What kind of things did you chat about?
OP: How did it all start?
OP: I was thinking that you could reach out to Malcolm Jerry to tell him about what Lg did to you, And you have proof of your interactions.
OP: But I thought about it last night and the other people at the temple probably know about him and his behavior.

K: I did not save these photos and videos, his face was not there, but the tattoo was visible.

OP: Which one? Can you describe the image to me? But you didn't save any of them, the images.

K: The photo showed the tattoo on his arm. He usually sent a separate photo of the face and a separate photo of the genitals.

OP: Oh wow.

Jan 2nd 2021

OP: Talk soon and by the time you get this you'll be starting your day so GOOD MORNING and have a great day! It's reaching midnight here, so I'll be up for the next few hours so feel free to message me back but if you need time? Let me know!

K: Good morning, thank you! To be honest, I really don't want to hurt Lucien, or do something that might somehow damage his reputation. After all, he really did not force me to do anything like that, everything happened by agreement. I want to figure it out myself and talk to him.

Whilst Lucien Greaves hasn't done anything illegal here, it is in my opinion extremely disturbing for a man in his mid-40's to be soliciting a 19 year old for nudes and sending them to her himself. Judging by the responses of the other person, this is pretty typical behavior for Lucien Greaves.

You may recall that earlier in this piece I mentioned TST were suing Newsweek for defamation and that of the twenty two statements made in the Newsweek article that TST claimed were defamatory, all but one were dismissed as non-actionable in a pre-trial hearing. The remaining statement was a quote from a former member that stated that "accounts of sexual abuse [were] being covered up in ways that were more than anecdotal". In May 2024, after discovery, Newsweek asked for summary judgment (i.e. they believe the evidence is so clear cut that TST cannot meet its burden of evidence and therefore there's no point in going to trial) in regards to this one remaining statement. In the motion⁹³, Newsweek state:

"[TST] cannot demonstrate it is substantially false that there were rumors of sexual abuse within The Satanic Temple being covered up because four former members confirmed that they heard about claims of sexual abuse being covered up, another former member wrote a long article about her experiences of sexual abuse that The Satanic Temple admittedly did not investigate, members of one chapter of The Satanic Temple accused Plaintiff of covering up accusations of sexual assault, and several former members also recounted on social media their experiences of sexual abuse that they claim were met with inaction or retaliation. Finally, Plaintiff has admitted that a member of another chapter of The Satanic Temple reported that someone in leadership had made unwanted advances toward her and discussed his genitals, and that she was frustrated by Plaintiff’s inaction, members of another chapter were removed from the chapter when they complained about allegations of sexual assault against another member, and one of the former members involved in litigation with The Satanic Temple testified that he was expelled from the Washington Chapter because he was a witness to a sexual harassment complaint. Plaintiff has also admitted that prior to 2020 it lacked a formal process for reporting complaints, and therefore it could not possibly determine whether and how complaints of sexual abuse were handled prior to that time."

It should be noted that the Court has not responded to this request from Newsweek yet but the above statement gives an accurate summation of the kind of allegations that circulate about those in positions of power within TST and have done for years.

As part of the Newsweek litigiation, numerous people have submitted evidence into the legal record. One of those was ex-Head Of Ministry Greg Stevens who stated that prior to 2020, TST had no formal process to deal with allegations of sexual trangressions¹⁰⁰. Note: The Suryan Council is essentially TST's HR Dept.

Q - Okay, but there was no formal kind of investigation or formal resolution that would be documented, filed, correct, or else we would have it?
A - Or you would have it. I will reiterate what I said earlier. That it was around 2020 with the formation of Suryan Council.

...

Q - There were a lot of informal complaints that were not formally dealt with during this time period. Is that correct?
A - I think that's accurate.

During that deposition, Stevens also acknowledges the reality and personal knowledge of at least three separate accusations of sexual transgression prior to the formation of the Suryan Council.

Campaigns & Conclusions

So what's the point of my collating all this and expressing my opinions here?

There's a number of reasons. Firstly, the media and general population think The Satanic Temple are some kind of collection of lovable trolls tweaking the tail of mainstream Christianity. The vast majority of people - even within the rank and file of the organization - are not aware of Lucien Greaves beliefs and statements regarding eugenics, racism, antisemitism, fascism and ableism. They write about TST or join TST or donate to TST believing they are a bunch of progressive activists who stand up for minority groups and who protect people's rights. I've just spent a lot of time and web space telling you why I don't believe that.

Secondly, of those TST members who are aware of Lucien Greaves beliefs and past, they try and explain these things away saying they're just isolated incidents, some of which are in the dim and distant past or he was an innocent victim of circumstance (like the Silverman affair) or even if they were true he's apologized time and again and it's all old news.

To that my answer is; how many isolated incidents can someone be involved in before a pattern of behavior and belief is established? One? Two? Five? Ten? How many? Lucien Greaves held and operated a live website promoting eugenics for at least 17 years, up until late 2018. He had a blog post on a second website espousing his eugenics beliefs in controlling who should and shouldn't be able to procreate that was live until November 2022. He got the help of a man with self-admitted white supremacist ties to aid him in setting up The Satanic Temple from 2011 - 2013 and together they tried to release a TST-themed sequel to the protofascist book Might is Right which would be 'A manual for coercion and manipulation. More evil than the first book by orders of magnitude'. He stood up for at least two far right extremists in 2016 and 2017 respectively in the name of free speech but attacked protesters as they tried to exercise theirs. He forbade his organization's Chapters from supporting Black Lives Matter in 2020. He gave a tour of TST HQ to a known transphobe and right-wing figure in 2023 and four years earlier in 2019 had allowed that same person to air his views on TST TV. He refused to apologize for this or even try to understand why his members were so upset.

When the radio shows he did in 2003 and 2004 came to light in 2018 he issued an apology-free statement. He didn't actually use the word 'sorry' until four years later in 2022 and even then it was in a terse Twitter thread, not any kind of official statement.

He and his organization use the US legal system as a club to beat down criticism. They have sued (that I know of) at least five ex-members for merely stating facts. This is not merely my opinion, this is also the judgment of the courts who have dismissed every claim TST has made so far against them. Behind the scenes they have quietly threatened numerous other people that I know of with the same treatment if they speak out.

Recently, TST have actually commissioned and published a short cartoon essentially telling people to not listen to ex-members⁶⁹.

The Cult Education Institute list the following among the signs of cult like activity.⁷⁰

• Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.
• No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.
• No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
• There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.
• Former followers are at best-considered negative or worse evil and under bad influences. They can not be trusted and personal contact is avoided.
• Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.

A fascinating twist on the defense of Lucien Greaves and TST has arisen in recent times and this is that the QueerSatanic group (who are, of course, former members themselves) are on some form of vendetta against TST and that anything about Greaves or TST that they uncover is therefore automatically invalid. This despite the fact that everything they claim is verifiable from other sources including court documents, legal business filings, news articles, books, TST themselves and former members. Within TST 'safe spaces' simply invoking the name QueerSatanic is enough for everyone to immediately go on the attack and dismiss all points being raised.

The reality is that QueerSatanic have been undergoing a legal battle that TST instigated for over four years at this point. It's hardly a strange thing if they choose to look deeper at the organization pursuing them and the fact that it's them that originally uncovered a lot of material doesn't make it automatically wrong or untrue, that material stands or falls on its own merits. They source everything they post as far as I can tell and the fact that Judges in these court cases have without fail supported their version of events in all matters where judgment has been reached tells its own story as to their accuracy and honesty.

The next thing people say is "well, at least they're doing something", usually in respect of their highly publicized abortion legal campaigns. The truth is that The Satanic Temple cannot get anyone an abortion. Of the (as of time of writing) three abortion related legal challenges they have brought across the US, they have lost each time with seven judgments going against them when you include appeals³⁶. The main reason for this is that their legal representation are not very good. In fact, they are so bad that in one of these cases, the presiding Judge told TST they would better off representing themselves.⁷¹

I've seen TST members complain that the legal system is inherently biased against Satanists and that's why they lose so often. Whilst I'm sure that a lot of Judges are not natural fans of TST, even a laypersons look at the legal judgments demonstrate how awful TST's legal team is. Furthermore, the excuse that Judges hate Satanists also doesn't explain how QueerSatanic keep winning against them either.

Conversely, a group of affiliated religious organizations in Indiana, led by Hoosier Jews for Choice, won an important landmark for abortion rights for religious groups when the Indiana Court of Appeal ruled in April 2024 that⁹⁸;

"Indiana can't enforce its near-total ban on abortions against people whose religions direct them to end pregnancies in certain circumstances, a state appeals court said.

The Indiana Court of Appeal on Thursday said that Hoosier Jews for Choice and several anonymous plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim that the state's abortion law violates their rights under the Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Like the federal statute bearing the same name, Indiana's law prohibits the state from substantially burdening a person's religious exercise, except when necessary to advance a compelling state interest. Even then, the provision must be written narrowly, the court said.

The decision could be persuasive in several similar cases pending elsewhere. Twenty-two other states have their own versions of RFRA."

This quite clearly demonstrates that having people who actually know what they're doing organizing the strategy and using a law firm that isn't little more than a bad joke leads Courts to actually be able to rule in your favor.

There's also the very real issue that by donating time and money to an organization that cannot help anyone, people are therefore not donating to organizations that actually can. Multiple pro-abortion support groups have made statements condemning The Satanic Temple.

Texas Equal Access Fund Abortion on X/Twitter
PS - The Satanic Temple ritual doesn't work to exempt you from abortion restrictions. Stop spreading that misinformation.⁸⁹

Yellowhammer Fund, an abortion fund serving Alabama and Mississippi on Instagram
"We don't know who needs to hear this, but The Satanic Temple is not the last hope for abortion access. Read that again. There is a better way to support abortion access and fight back- and that is by putting your dollars and trust in grassroots organizations that have been doing this work for decades."⁹⁰

Not only are The Satanic Temple not able to help people, they are encouraging activity that can be harmful to people and depriving organizations that actually can help of attention and funding.⁷²

The other big campaign TST do is their After School Satan Clubs which came about after Christians said they were going to send Ministers into schools. TST said, OK, so will we and that went down about as well as one would expect amongst Christians. Now, on a surface level that sounds like a pretty great thing. But then lets take in the reality of life in this country. TST have already been on receiving end of several bombing attempts from Christian nationalists. Is it really a wise choice to put Satanic Ministers into schools? Politically it makes sense but in reality all TST are doing is putting their Ministers (and notably not Lucien Greaves or Malcolm Jarry) in extreme danger. And even more importantly, potentially putting school children in extreme danger. This country is already drowning in school shootings and Christian nationalism - is it really a good thing to provoke violent extremists to bring these things together?

Should something like that happen, I don't feel it would be TST's fault. Nobody from TST will have pulled a trigger or tossed a home made bomb into a classroom. It would be the fault of the perpetrator. However, TST would bear some of the responsibility. They are the group who would've been responsible for school kids - without any kind of consent - being in that place at that time. I really hope TST reconsider their stance or the education authorities do or the Christians do.

What To Do About All This?

This is a question that primarily affects current and potential members of and donors to The Satanic Temple and is a matter for each persons individual conscience in my opinion. A number of members flat out refuse to look at any of this or simply dismiss it out of hand. I understand this - it can be difficult to accept that you have sunk time, money and energy into an organization led by people like Lucien Greaves. However, the truth is, no matter how much it is ignored or dismissed out of hand - all these things did happen and if you know about them and still choose to support them you are at the very least choosing to stand with them with all that then implies about you. As much as TST members represent TST, Lucien Greaves represents TST members too. It's up to each individual to decide if they're comfortable about being represented by him.

I have heard TST members saying that it doesn't matter what the owners and leaders of TST do, the real work and community takes place in individual Chapters. To a certain extent that is true. However, those community actions become very limited when only things that Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry approve of are ever acted on. These members should also note that whilst they might be doing good things, they're doing them not in their own name but in the name of TST. Just about every action I have ever seen from TST is accompanied by exhortations to donate, donate, donate - and not to the local Chapter in question but to the main company.

Members of individual Chapters should also take note of very recent developments announced by Lucien Greaves. As ever with him there is some pretty infantile backstory with this; a TST Minister who headed a Canadian Chapter who had collectively grown very frustrated with TST's utter indifference to anything outside of the US posted a meme on Facebook that basically accused Lucien Greaves of not doing much except post on Patreon. As with all meme's it wasn't meant to be taken seriously but had a small core of truth at it's center. Lucien Greaves was told about this and, his ego threatened, 'invited' the Minister to resign via email. He didn't. Greaves sacked him. Here's part of that email⁹¹:

The next head of Ministry will be part of the Executive Ministry Team. There are not going to be separate pillars anymore. We are going to be a whole organization. If you find that you can not reconcile your own values and priorities with TST, including our campaigns, congregations, and EM, you should leave and find an organization more suited to your interests. For far too long now, campaigns, responsible productive ministers, congregations, and EM have labored to advance the interests of TST while attempting to negotiate with the sudden uproar of random internal nobodies with delusions of grandeur. "Unity" here does not mean that we are going to adapt and revise the organization's mission for a loud-mouthed few. Unity means that we are going to focus on opening further communication and providing more opportunities for those who are dedicated to working with us for the causes that we are committed to. I truly believe we have far more people who are dedicated to, and focused on, our mission, than we do people who are interested in crying about the fact that I have subscribers. Unity means encouraging the people who are not interested in the mission of TST to go find somewhere else to push their bullshit.

This truly is representative of how Lucien Greaves speaks to TST's Ministers by the way. They're all 'random internal nobodies' to him.

There are three main pillars in TST (itself a fairly recent evolution) of Executive Ministry, Ministry and Campaigns. I would put money on the idea that when this evolution came about Lucien Greaves loathed it. Why? Less personal power for him. According to the quote above from Greaves, they're going back to a monolithic model - a single entity. Lucien Greaves will get back his absolute power (not that in reality he ever really lost it). And finally I can wind my way back to the main point - individual Chapters are almost certainly going to lose what little autonomy they had. All the community and teamwork for those communities will now be driven by what the monolith of TST wants which really means, what Lucien Greaves wants.

This has led to a third major schism within TST which is still unfolding as I write this piece but as of May 30th 2024, so far the Minnesota Chapter, the Colorado Chapter, the Florida Chapter, the Alabama Chapter, the North Carolina Chapter, the Nevada Chapter, the German Chapter and the Australian Chapter of TST as well as Friends of The Satanic Temple France have all broken away as a result of what is generally being seen as a massive (and apparently error-strewn) overreaction and damagingly authoritarian response by Lucien Greaves. A further two chapters are said to be either 'struggling' or already in Regency (Regency is when someone from high up in the organization has to come in control a rowdy chapter), those being TSTWV and TST-WA. Time will tell if they also leave. As well as whole Chapters, numerous individual Ministers and old stalwarts of TST since its earliest days such as Tertia Widdershins, Chalice Blythe, Richard Proctor and Karl Kasarda have either left voluntarily or been removed and as previously noted, Greg Stevens has 'retired' as has Dex Desjardins. As this is an ongoing event, it has yet to subside and all events have not yet become clear enough for meaningful discussion but it's very clearly a major event.

People in Chapters and Congregations should also note that it is possible to keep on doing good things either by oneself or as part of a community without having to be TST members. Genuine progressive activists and organizations have been doing it for years.

Can The Satanic Temple be reformed? By which I mean, can Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry be removed, the alt-right allies they have peppered throughout the organizational structure also removed and The Satanic Temple 'reborn' as a truly progressive organization? I don't believe so. The reason for this is its structure. Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry are not just heads of TST, they are it's literal owners. They can't be voted out, they can't be unelected, they can't be removed from a board, they can't be sanctioned, they can't be reprimanded, they can't be suspended and they are answerable to absolutely no one except each other. TST is an entity that belongs in every single legal way to them and them alone. The only realistic chance for something like this happening is for them to voluntarily relinquish all ownership and legal rights to all aspects of TST or be bought out in some way.

But for individual members and potential donors, there are options. It is perfectly possible to be a Satanist and follow progressive ideas without being a member of TST. You can do this either individually or via other Satanist and/or progressive groups. The website Satanic Citizen lists different communities from all over the US (and indeed the world) that are both TST affiliated and non-TST affiliated.

There's going to be people reading this of the sort I mentioned previously - they simply refuse to engage with any of this and will call it all opinion that proves nothing. To those people I would say, Lucien Greaves did say those antisemitic, racist, ablist, eugenics based things in 2003 and 2004. That is not up for debate, he's admitted it. Lucien Greaves did own and control a eugenics based website up until late 2018. That is not up for debate either. He admits ownership. He did have a blog post about his belief in eugenics on another site until November 2022. He did stand in solidarity with known alt and far right extremists such as Augustus Sol Invictus and Milo Yiannopoulos in 2016 and 2017 in protest of their voices being silenced and he did condemn progressive activists, including members of TST, who organized those protests, seemingly unconcerned about standing in solidarity with their right to free speech. This is a matter of public record. TST's current Director of Ministry did used to be a writer and provocateur in the manosphere and alt-right movements and counted Milo Yiannopoulos as a good friend. Lucien Greaves did forbid Chapters from supporting Black Lives Matters in 2020. Lucien Greaves did give a tour of Salem TST HQ to David Silverman, a virulent transphobe and alleged sexual abuser. He then claimed he didn't know him or his views, even though Silverman described Greaves as 'my friend' and Silverman had appeared on TST TV in 2019 where he had in part ranted about trans people. It is also a fact that TST's finances are totally opaque. These are all things that are a matter of record. All factual.

One could argue that the multitude of women who've come forth to tell their stories about Lucien Greaves and their time in TST are all lying -they've all made their stories up. But why would they? For what reason? They certainly don't want the attention, it's not made them any money, they have been reminded they signed an NDA and they all tell stories that have a lot of common elements.

I suppose one could also argue that by discussing these, and other, things people like QueerSatanic, The Satanic Housewife and Newsweek were quite right to be the recipient of defamation claims from TST because TST believed they defamed TST. Except that QueerSatanic have won one of the two cases, both initially and after two appeals by TST and their lawyer has pretty much admitted he's trying to simply financially ruin them. All the charges against Newsweek except one have been dismissed before even reaching trial stage and TST have taken zero docket action against The Satanic Housewife since beginning proceedings against her in November 2022. It's pretty obvious TST were not defamed by anyone and when you look at some of the ridiculous claims made by TST's lawyers it's difficult to see how these actions are anything more than thuggish attempts to intimidate people into silence either directly or by example.

One could further argue that there's nothing illegal about a 44 year old man swapping nudes with a 19 year old woman. And that's true, there's not. But the dynamic of a teenager who is clearly 'starstruck' by a powerful middle-aged Lucien Greaves screams of abusive manipulation. And the fact there are also a lot of claims floating around about sexual pressure being brought to bear on members at various times both by Lucien Greaves and others in positions of power within TST only adds to the sense of a man intent on indulging himself at the expense of others.

And maybe you could argue that an organization that meets at least six of the points necessary to be thought of as a cult simply looks that way out of pure coincidence.

References For Lucien Greaves

All reference links accessed in February, March, April and May 2024.

1. Satanic Ministry FAQ
2. Salem News
3. Village Voice
4. Salon
5. Wikipedia (Might Is Right)
6. Wikipedia (Might Is Right footnote)
7. eBay on the Internet Archive (Mesners name can be seen as the illustrator in the package on the far right of the image)
8. Might Is Right Special on the Internet Archive
9. ABC's Of The Alphabet Show on the Internet Archive
10. Merriam Webster
11. Dysgenics.com on Internet Archive
12. Dysgenics.com on Internet Archive
13. Dysgenics.com domain history
14. Wikidata (Lucien Greaves)
15. Wikipedia (Tom Metzger)
16. Wikipedia (Nazi Germany terms)
17. Reddit Unofficial TST Sub
18. The Aither
19. Court Listener (page 4, paragraph 7)
20. Wikipedia (Augustus Sol Invictus)
21. Lucien Greaves Facebook
22. Breitbart
23. Breitbart
24. Court Listener (pages 89 - 91)
25. Breitbart on Internet Archive
26. Image source on QueerSatanic website
27. Greg Stevens website
28. Satanic Wiki
29. Greg Stevens website on Internet Archive
30. Facebook
31. TST Boston Chapter on Internet Archive
32. Medium (Emma Story)
33. Medium (Gwendolyn Lesch)
34. Medium (Nikki Moungo)
35. Medium (Jex Blackmore)
36. Satanic Wiki
37. TST Online Shop
38. TST Online Shop
39. TST Online Shop
40. TST Online Shop
41. TST Online Shop
42. David Silverman on Twitter
43. Buzzfeed
44. Atheist Alliance
45. David Silverman on Twitter
46. David Silverman on Twitter
47. Richard Proctor's blog
48. Carmen Satanica on Twitter
49. Lucien Greaves on Twitter
50. Image source on Queer Satanic website
51. TST TV on Twitter
52. Lucien Greaves on Twitter
53. iilluminaughtii YouTube video
54. iilluminaughtii on Twitter
55. The Atlantic
56. Fox News
57. The Atlantic
58. Lucien Greaves on Patreon
59. Metro Times
60. Image source on Queer Satanic website
61. Reason.com
62. Satanic Europe
63. Court Listener (page 5, paragraph 18)
64. The Spectator
65. Wikipedia (Manosphere)
66. Wikipedia (Mike Cernovich)
67. Image source on Queer Satanic website
68. AltCensored
69. TST on Instagram
70. Cult Education - Warning Signs
71. Court Listener (pages 14 - 15)
72. Jezebel
73. Yellowhammer on Facebook
74. Wikipedia (The Process)
75. Wikipedia (Process Church of the Final Judgment)
76. YouTube ("Dead Domain - The Lies of The Satanic Temple")
77. OnlySky
78. Damian Ba'al on YouTube
79. FriendlyAtheist
80. Satanic Wiki on Twitter
81. Court Listener (Page 32)
82. HauteMacabre on the Internet Archive
83. Lucien Greaves on Twitter
84. Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism (Routledge Press, 2024)
85. Dr Spencer Sunshine on Researchgate
86. D'Annunzio The First Duce (Routledge Press, 2002)
87. process.org website on the Internet Archive
88. process.org website on the Internet Archive
89. Twitter (Texas Equal Action Fund Abortion)
90. Instagram (Yellowhammer Fund)
91. Reddit
92. Founding of The Satanic Temple - Their Secrets Revealed! (Lulu Self Publishing, 2023)
93. Court Listener (Pages 1 - 2)
94. Satanic Ministry Archives
95. Satanic Temple TV Calendar
96. Aug 29th Temple Tuesday Page
97. Minister White on TST Media
98. Bloomberg Law
99. Satanists Next Door Ep. 46, featuring Lucien Greaves (42:36)
100. Court Listener (p 36-37)