Democratic Staffer Posts Satanic Prayer and Photo Kissing ‘Sexy Satanic’ Statue at Capitol

The Satanic Temple (TST) placed a display of a “Yule Goat” — a small tree with Satanic imagery topped by a goat’s skull celebrating the Nordic pagan holiday — on the grounds of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on Monday, December 18.

“In the name of Satan, I claim the sexy satanic [sic] baphomet goat altar at OUR Michigan Capitol. Amen,” wrote a House Democratic staffer, Samantha Skorka, on Wednesday. Skorka describes herself as the Michigan House Democrats’ media production specialist, and a legislative publication lists Skorka as the House Democratic Caucus digital content producer during the 2019-2020 legislative year. Online critics, including Michigan native Parker Thayer of the conservative Capital Research Center, shared and lamented the post.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Speaker of the House Joe Tate, the leader of Michigan’s House Democrats, had no comment on the Democratic staffer’s Satanic post.

The Left’s literal embrace of demonic idols represents “a sign of the times,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told The Washington Stand. “Evil has become emboldened as Christians have retreated in the face of cultural hostility to truth.” 

“Now is not the time to step back; rather, it is time to step in,” Perkins told TWS. “Pray that the light will scatter the darkness — then be the light as Jesus said we were to be: ‘For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (II Corinthians 10:4-5).”

The Satanic Temple has erected numerous idols on public grounds while promoting abortion-on-demand. TST raised a “Sol Invictus” tree at the National Railroad Museum in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin in November. The tree is festooned with red lights, decorated with inverted crosses and pentagrams, and has a snake wrapped around the trunk. The Satanic tree also has an ornament with Gay Pride rainbow colors emblazoned with the Satanic message, “Hail All.” 

At the Iowa state Capitol in Des Moines, TST placed a statue of Baphomet — a goat-headed hermaphrodite which occultic socialist Eliphas Lévi designed to represent duality and sexual ambiguity. A 35-year-old Christian military veteran and 2022 Republican candidate for the Mississippi State House of Representatives destroyed and decapitated the Satanists’ Baphomet statue last Thursday. “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,” said Michael Cassidy in an exclusive interview with The Sentinel. “My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted.” Authorities have charged Cassidy with fourth-degree criminal mischief, but his attorney expects additional charges. As of this writing, an online fundraiser has taken up more than $80,000 for Cassidy’s legal defense.

TST previously erected a Baphomet statue — a goat’s head statue with a halo and a pentagram dubbed the “star of reconciliation” — at the Michigan State Capitol on December 22, 2018.

“There is really a joy in being able to see our symbols in the public sphere,” said Renard Seir of the West Michigan Friends of the Satanic Temple at the time.

“The values of Satanism don’t belong on the grounds of our state capitols and must not be promoted,” Arielle Del Turco, assistant director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “The Satanic imagery being erected in the public square is going to force Americans to think deeply about the character of our country and what values we should or should not allow to be featured on government property.”

Some state residents found it fitting that Satanists associated demonic imagery with the pro-abortion administration of Governor Whitmer. “This is what Governor Whitmer means with her motto, ‘Fight like Hell,’” Chris Gast, a longtime Michigan pro-life advocate, told TWS.

“On abortion and health care, I will fight like Hell,” vowed Whitmer — a Democrat once considered as Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate until a series of scandals came to light — in 2022. Whitmer stumped tirelessly for a state ballot initiative essentially repealing all state pro-life laws (Proposition 3), signed multiple packages of bills expanding abortion and repealing protections of women, and her administration used taxpayer dollars to advertise Michigan’s support for abortion and same-sex marriage in six pro-life states. Last June, Whitmer created the “Fight Like Hell PAC” to support Democratic candidates, and expand her influence, nationwide.

“Human sacrifice in the form of abortion is their highest value, so maybe they should make Satan the official state deity,” Gast told TWS. Elected Democratic officials have repeatedly called abortion “sacred,” referred to pro-life protections as “an abomination,” and sought to transform their states into an “abortion sanctuary.”

Skorka brushed off the controversy by deleting the post, which has been archived here, and saying, “clearly you can’t make a joke on the internet anymore.” Yet Thursday morning, she posted, “Don’t forget to wish a Pagan a happy Yule and a bright solstice,” accompanied by an emoji of a goat.

“The Democratic Party is full of unserious, angry people like this — and these are very serious times,” Gast told TWS. “They think your religious beliefs are a joke. They think you are a joke.”

Skorka has a history of creating video imagery praising abortion and non-Christian religious practices. A 2023 demo reel promoting Skorka’s production company, StellaNova Productions LLC, features a PSA for the Anishinaabe Prayer and COVID-19 Vaccine Healing Drum Song — a ritual “encouraging Native Americans to get their COVID-19 Vaccine,” funded by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. It also excerpts a Skorka “documentary” apparently showing a New Age healing service.

The video opens by criticizing the pro-life views of then-State Rep. Lynn Afendoulis, who had introduced a bill to ban dismemberment abortion. The reel also highlights her work for Democrats including State Rep. Erin Byrnes, State Senator Mary Cavanagh, and Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber.

Skorka previously intertwined the topics of abortion and religion by posting a video of Democratic State Rep. Stephanie Young’s attempting to reconcile abortion and Christianity. “I could’ve stayed at home and rested on my own religious morals. I could’ve did that and that would’ve been just fine,” said Young. “Liberty and justice include … allowing women to make” the decision to have an abortion.

Skorka’s 2020 demo reel highlighted her work for Lansing’s WILX-TV, while yet another 2020 video pitch for StellaNova — which means “new star” in English — talked exclusively about her own desire to work in the video industry, listing no benefit whatever to her clients.

“The only thing that seems to matter to [abortion activists], from this staffer right up to the governor, is themselves,” said Gast.

“Satanism is a self-centered religion,” explains the Church of Satan, which was founded by Anton LaVey. “[T]he highest holiday of the year would be the Satanist’s own birthday.”

The Church of Satan declares that abortion “should be within the rights” of any “pregnant person,” although the abortion denies another person the right to have a birthday.

The Satanic Temple (which is a separate entity) teaches that abortion is a sacrament. Satanists and pagans have sued pro-life states arguing that pro-life protections violate their religious convictions; in TST’s case, such laws would prevent women from carrying out a “Satanic Abortion Ritual.”

TST operates “Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic” in New Mexico, which has women order abortion pills from their “partner pharmacy.” New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, operates a taxpayer-funded abortion hotline that directs women to TST’s Satanic abortion facility and others. Cosmopolitan magazine, a staple of feminist pop culture, has promoted TST’s “Satanic Abortion Ritual,” celebrated the opening of the Satanic abortion facility, and offered instructions on how to celebrate the pagan Yule holiday. This spring, North Carolina Republicans punished State Representative Keith Kidwell (R-Beaufort), removing Kidwell from his leadership position after he associated abortion with the “Church of Satan.”

Both Christianity and Judaism have interpreted the Bible’s life-affirming message to prohibit abortion for at least 2,000 years. 

“The members of The Satanic Temple say they don’t believe in Satan as a deity, they merely utilize Satanic symbolism as an edgy representative of progressive values. The danger is that while they claim not to worship Satan, they seem to truly worship Satan with their actions, especially their celebration of abortion and sexual debauchery,” del Turco told TWS. “Satanism (even TST’s version) is an anti-religion tool used to mock and undermine the God of the Bible, Who was so integral in America's Founding — and it doesn’t deserve to be extended the religious freedom protections offered to religions.”