Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he would support the legal fund of a man who is accused of vandalizing a display by The Satanic Temple inside the Iowa Capitol on Thursday. Michael Cassidy was ch…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ® said he would support the legal fund of a man who is accused of vandalizing a display by The Satanic Temple inside the Iowa Capitol on Thursday.

Michael Cassidy was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief for knocking over and destroying a statue erected by the temple inside the capitol, The Des Moines Register first reported.

“Satan has no place in our society and should not be recognized as a ‘religion’ by the federal government,” DeSantis said on X, formerly Twitter. “I’ll chip in to contribute to this veteran’s legal defense fund. Good prevails over evil — that’s the American spirit.”

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
      1021·
      11 months ago

      Actually, I think this likely ends with Michael Cassidy paying TST for vandalizing their statue. Which means ol’ Ronnie is effectively making a donation to TST.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
          71·
          11 months ago

          They could pull the same bullshit they did with the Pledge and the Motto, saying that they were culturally relevant and had no religious effect because nobody takes the pledge or the motto that seriously. “Nativity scenes have a long tradition in local govern buildings yadda yadda christofascism.”

          • LeadSoldier@lemmy.world
            28·
            11 months ago

            The fact that the supreme Court can use that argument is insane. Is not washing our hands before surgery American tradition? Is slavery American tradition? Just because we’ve done something before, doesn’t make it legal in any other topic area.

            Americans also just renamed some of their Christian holidays in order to pretend that there’s equality. My daughter still has to do homework during Chanukkah every night but gets the week of Christmas off but now the same exact vacation from school is called “winter break” so it’s totally “not religious now.”

            • ZzyzxRoad
              101·
              11 months ago

              My daughter still has to do homework during Chanukkah every night but gets the week of Christmas off

              Was just thinking about this with my college, as finals week is during Chanukkah. I don’t think concessions should be made for any religion, but it’s definitely a blatant sign that christians think they are more important than everyone else and that it’s essentially already the state religion in the US.

          • skydivekingair@lemmy.world
            12·
            11 months ago

            That would be an argument for not putting the statue up, not a solid case that a random citizen has the right to destroy the property. The statue was up and he has the right to petition or sue for removal, not to take it into his own hands even if the statue was up illegally. But I’m not a law person so I could be off the mark.

    • TheDannysaur@lemmy.world
      16·
      11 months ago

      Not in Iowa. I live here. They will absolutely remove the Satanic symbol and proclaim that it is because of religious freedom.

      …it will make sense to them.