Just last December, the Satanic Temple of Detroit hosted what members are calling the "nation's first state-sanctioned Satanic ceremony in history."
The Satanic group gathered at the footsteps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing and performed the ceremony in response to a live Nativity scene sponsored by presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign.
"It's a celebration of human spirit, of our own kind of version of the Satanic narrative in the biblical sense where humanity is offered the gift of knowledge and embraces that," said Jex Blackmore, director of the Satanic Temple of Detroit.
Here in the Valley, four members of the Phoenix City Council moved late Friday to block a Satanist group from delivering the traditional prayer before a council meeting next month.
The invocation is scheduled to be delivered Feb. 17.
If you would like to watch the video of the Satanic Temple's ceremony in Michigan, here's the YouTube clip. (Some may find the video disturbing; viewer direction is advised.)
