The Satanic Temple (TST) has announced it will be hosting its convention, SatanCon, on February 11-13, 2022. This will be TST's first religious convention. The three-day event will take place in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"The event will be dedicated to Mayor Lane and Councilwoman Klapp who took pride in depriving The Satanic Temple of their civil liberties by refusing to allow one TST member the opportunity to utter a brief, solemn message," stated The Satanic Temple's website.

"Hundreds of Satanists will now be descending on Scottsdale for an entire weekend. Lane and Klapp will look even worse when residents discover how charitable TST members are."

SatanCon will include talks and presentations on main concerns held by today's Satanists such as reproductive rights, psychiatric abuse, addiction recovery, and the rights of Satanist children. There will be vendors and entertainment as well, including a keynote presentation by Lucien Greaves.

Lucien Greaves, co-founder and spokesperson for The Satanic Temple, said, "In addition to creating a community for our members, SatanCon serves as an expression of our good will toward the city of Scottsdale, despite the perplexing and unfortunate ruling against us which defied precedent and common sense. In the course of litigation, Scottsdale officials desperately made clear that they are, in fact, accepting and inclusive regarding Satanists. We heard you, Scottsdale, and we accepted that as an invitation to turn Scottsdale into the Happy Satanic Fun Capital of the World."

The Satanic Temple recently sued Scottsdale, AZ, for refusing to allow the organization the opportunity to deliver an invocation before its city council meetings. In a press releasee issued by the Satanic Temple, it was noted the city of Scottsdale had never rejected anyone else's request to deliver an invocation.

"Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane and Councilwoman Suzanne Klapp publicly celebrated their efforts to prevent TST from delivering an invocation, [and] the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city did not engage in unlawful discrimination."

"We are dedicating SatanCon to the Scottsdale City Council. Their bitter remorse at having erroneously excluded us from giving an invocation — in what they described as a bit of administrative confusion — must have been weighing on them for some time, if their testimony is to be believed. Now hundreds of Satanists will descend upon Scottsdale to let these selfless public servants know, Hey, it's okay. We understand, and we're here to make things right. Far from being disgruntled and put off, we're going to bring Satan to Scottsdale. We're bringing the party to you, Scottsdale, and it's going to be an event to remember," Greaves said.

More information about SatanCon, as well as details on how to register, can be found here.

ABOUT THE SATANIC TEMPLE

The Satanic Temple, subject of the critically-acclaimed documentary, Hail Satan?, and the academic analysis of modern Satanism, Speak of the Devil, confronts religious discrimination to secure the separation of church and state and defend the Constitutional rights of its members. In response to Oklahoma and Arkansas placing a Ten Commandments statue on Capitol grounds, TST offered its bronze Baphomet statue to stand alongside the Christian monuments. TST hosts the "After School Satan" club to counter the Evangelical "Good News Clubs" in public schools across the country to promote a plurality of religious viewpoints. The mission of The Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice, and undertake noble pursuits for the individual will.