While one controversy involving Satanists is going down in Pennsylvania, a different one is taking place in the Gold Coast, a popular tourist destination in Queensland, Australia.
Mayor Tom Tate recently appointed Sue Baynes, an evangelical pastor and his personal spiritual advisor, as the city council’s new “Councillor Advisor,” a title that comes with a taxpayer-funded salary. While one news outlet compared her to Paula White (the Christian preacher who worked for Donald Trump), Baynes suggested her role would be secular. She’s there as a liaison between church groups and people in the city who might need “mental, financial, and emotional” help and are willing to accept religious versions of it.
There are a lot of valid questions to be asked about whether the government should be pushing people toward religious resources at all, and whether taxpayer dollars should be used to pay someone to facilitate that. But setting all that aside, Baynes is a particularly bad choice. She supports the “Seven Mountain Mandate,” a conservative Christian movement that aims to infiltrate every part of society. And earlier this month, Baynes said there was a “demonic stronghold” at the city’s Home of the Arts (HOTA), a performing arts center.
With all that in mind, the Noosa Temple of Satan (not affiliated with The Satanic Temple) decided it would hold a special event inside the prayer room at HOTA in order to reclaim what Baynes admitted was rightfully theirs. (I mean, if it’s a “demonic stronghold,” might as well let Satanists take over the place.)