Scottsdale Denies Satanic Temple Invocation Again

TST

Scottsdale’s city council has canceled the previously rescheduled Satanic Temple prayer.

After being scheduled to deliver the opening invocation for the Scottsdale, Arizona city council on April 5, which was then switched to July 6 due to a logistical problem, The Satanic Temple will no longer be given that platform. And the group wants to know why, because the reason the city council has given is not sitting well with them, reports The Friendly Atheist.

Scottsdale Denies Satanic Temple Invocation Again[/tweetthis]

The Satanic Temple spokesman Stu de Haan says that the city had already approved the plan for the invocation twice, but now “what they seem to have done is come up with an arbitrary standard that was not present before.”

Kelly Corsette, a spokesman for the city, informed The Satanic Temple’s Arizona chapter that only “representatives from institutions that have a substantial connection to the Scottsdale community will be allowed to give the invocation.&rdquo

De Haan replied, “[A]s the months go by, they decided to come up with something to discriminate against us.” He also noted that there is was never anything in the application process to try to gauge the group’s connection to Scottsdale.

Further, Lucien Greaves, the Temple’s national spokesperson, would like to know exactly what metric is used to measure any group’s connection to Scottsdale or any other community, and then what level of measure would be considered substantial.

While The Satanic Temple believes they are being unfairly discriminated against, others think that the rationale by the city of Scottsdale in reasonable. For starters, the Temple is based in Tucson, not Scottsdale, and the desire to have the invocation for a city council event to be performed by a Scottsdale group makes sense.

Still, The Satanic Temple awaits further clarification from the city on this new requirement, and will decide its next move once it receives it.  

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