DETROIT (Web Desk) – A crowd of several hundred gathered last week to see Detroit’s newest resident: A 9-foot, 2,000-pound statue of a goat-headed occult idol named Baphomet.
The Satanic Temple unveiled the bronze figure to an estimated 700 attendees at an undisclosed location. The group’s initial venue canceled after local religious groups protested, the Fox News reported.
The devil worshipers group that advocated for the separation of church and state, was originally going to host the statue’s revealing at a popular restaurant until the owner backed out after receiving threats.
Instead, the group held a secret, ticketed event at an undisclosed location in the city.
The group’s co-founder Lucien Greaves said that people had threatened to burn the venue down prior to the unveiling.
WJBK reported that hundreds of people showed up for the event, including protesters who are strongly against the group.
The statue was to have been unveiled July 25 at Bert’s Market Place in Detroit’s Eastern Market district, but Bert Dearing said he gave the group back it’s $3,000 rental fee when he learned who booked the place.
‘Detroit is a very religious area,’ Dearing said.
‘When I rented the place, I just thought it was a church. I didn’t know about the unveiling of a statue. We weren’t aware they were into devil worshiping.’
The Satanic Temple Detroit chapter founder Jex Blackmore has said the group doesn’t worship Satan but does promote individuality, compassion and views that differ from Christian and conservative beliefs.
The statue was designed and built at a cost of more than $100,000 and had been planned for the state Capitol in Oklahoma City until Oklahoma’s Supreme Court banned religious displays, including a monument of the Ten Commandments on Capitol grounds.
Greaves said the statue will not remain in Detroit and that The Satanic Temple wants to erect it outside Arkansas’ Statehouse in Little Rock where a Ten Commandments monument also is planned.
Detroit was selected for the unveiling because The Satanic Temple in the city has a ‘strong congregation,’ Greaves said.
‘We just have a good community over there.’
Blackmore said Detroit has more than 200 registered members.
The group erected a display in December outside Michigan’s state Capitol in Lansing.
The ‘Snaketivity Scene’ featured a snake offering a book called ‘Revolt of the Angels’ as a gift.
The snake was wrapped around the Satanic cross on the 3-feet-by-3-feet display. Like other religious displays, it was taken down each night.
The statue will now be stored out of public view until the Temple can find it a permanent home. The group hopes to display it at the Arkansas State Capitol, next to a monument of the Ten Commandments.
