Republican Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver is putting together a policy that seeks to strip non-theistic faiths such as the Church of Satan of reaping the benefits of religious tax exemptions, the lawmaker shared in late December.
The state lawmaker said the bill would seek to establish a legal distinction between the “church of Jesus Christ” and the “Church of Satan,” Schriver told the “Your Defending Fathers” podcast on WCHY 97.7. Progressive activist group Right Wing Watch first clipped the video and posted it online as a warning to voters, stating Schriver is one who doesn’t “believe the First Amendment’s religious liberty protections apply equally to non-Christian religions.”
“I actually am working on a policy right now. I haven’t introduced it yet, but it’s actually to really focus on making a distinction between the church, the church of Jesus Christ and this, quote unquote, ‘Church of Satan,’” Schriver announced on the air.
For Schriver, it doesn’t seem appropriate Christian and Satanic institutions are no different from one another in the eyes of the state government.
“You really have an issue where they’re seen as equal in the eyes of the state, and that doesn’t seem right to me for many, many legitimate reasons. And so removing tax exempt status from non-theistic churches such as the Church of Satan, I think is very, very well in order.”
“There’s many examples of us looking at our First Amendment and how it doesn’t really protect against obscenity,” Schriver continued.
Schriver also told the radio station he is in the process of drafting another bill that would outlaw pornographic imagery and justified the policy idea by declaring “there’s no need for a moral and religious people to indulge in certain things.”
“We have a duty to lead people as representatives who are appointed by God to make sure that we have a state that is not just good, not just great, but godly,” Schriver doubled down.
“Honestly, I work for God and not for man. And so at the end of the day, I answer to one person, and that’s Jesus Christ,” the lawmaker concluded.
An Iowa veteran named Michael Cassidy beheaded a Satanic Temple display in December that was erected at the Iowa State Capitol to combat a nativity scene because the Temple wanted to be “represented” in a “public forum.”
After the former Navy pilot decapitated the Satanic display, he turned himself into police. (RELATED: Ron DeSantis Offers To Cover Legal Fees For Veteran Who Decapitated Satan Statue)
I don’t always behead Satan in the Capitol building of Iowa, but when I do, I do, I make it count. #DeathToSatan pic.twitter.com/iLxjDMjo8n
— Eric Cook (@Greentownmayor) December 14, 2023
“The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment,” Cassidy told The Sentinel in a statement. (RELATED: ‘Kind Of Passé’: Church Of Satan Pans Sam Smith’s Demonic Grammy’s Performance)
The Satanic Temple also set up a goat display at the Michigan State Capitol in December just days later after the Iowa statue incident.