Christian group plans to ‘ambush’ Satanic Temple Convention: report

The Satanic Temple plans to hold its 10th anniversary celebration in Boston this weekend and several Christian groups have promised to protest the “SatanCon” gathering, one of which said it plans to “ambush” the event, Newsweek reports.

The Satanic Temple doesn’t worship Satan but rather uses its status as a religious group to “reject tyrannical authority,” according to the report.

The “largest Satanic gathering in history” began Friday at Boston Marriott Copley Place.

A group of Christian activists plans to hold a “counter-response” it’s calling “Revive Boston” on the same days as SatanCon, the group’s leader, Dr. Jaymz Sideras, said in a YouTube video.

"While they think they are coming to ambush Boston, little do they know that God has planned to ambush them," Sideras said.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston plans to respond to SatanCon with "intense prayer," the report said.

"At the direction of the cardinal [Sean O'Malley], we are approaching it through a response balanced and focused on prayer," archdiocese spokesman Terrence Donilon said.

According to its website, the Temple does not believe in “the existence of Satan or the supernatural.”

“The Satanic Temple believes that religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition. As such, we do not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions. Satanists should actively work to hone critical thinking and exercise reasonable agnosticism in all things. Our beliefs must be malleable to the best current scientific understandings of the material world — never the reverse.”

The group also said it does not promote “evil.”

“The Satanic Temple holds to the basic premise that undue suffering is bad, and that which reduces suffering is good,” the group said on its website.

“We do not believe in symbolic “evil.” We acknowledge blasphemy is a legitimate expression of personal independence from counter-productive traditional norms.”