Lucien Greaves

Co-founder and spokesperson for The Satanic Temple

Lucien Greaves
Greaves in March 2016
Born
Detroit, Michigan
Other namesDouglas Mesner, Douglas Misicko[1]
OccupationSocial activist[2]
Websiteluciengreaves.com

Douglas Mesner, better known as Lucien Greaves,[6] is a social activist most prominent as the co-founder of, and spokesperson for, The Satanic Temple.[11]

Biography

Greaves was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States.[5] His mother was a Protestant who took him to Sunday School.[12] He studied neuroscience at Harvard with a speciality in false-memory syndrome.[13]

Greaves collaborated with Shane Bugbee in 2003 for a 24-hour internet radio broadcast. The broadcast promoted Bugbee's reprint of the 1891 book Might is Right, notorious for its ideology of White supremacy and social Darwinism, which influenced part of The Satanic Bible (1969).[14]

Greaves has spoken on the topics of Satanism, secularism, and The Satanic Temple at universities throughout the United States,[15][16][17] and he has been a featured speaker at national conferences hosted by American Atheists,[18] the American Humanist Association,[19] and the Secular Student Alliance.[20]

Greaves has been instrumental in setting up the Protect Children Project, the After School Satan project, and several political demonstrations and legal actions designed to highlight social issues involving religious liberty and the separation of church and state.[21][22]

Greaves has received many death threats, and deliberately does not use his legal name to avoid threats to his family.[5][23]

Greaves and his colleagues envisioned The Satanic Temple as a "poison pill" in the Church/State debate: Satanists asserting their rights and privileges where religious agendas have imposed themselves upon public affairs, serving as a reminder that such privileges are for everybody, and can provide a religious agenda beyond the current narrow understanding.[4] Neither Greaves nor members of The Satanic Temple worship Satan; instead contemporary rational Satanic beliefs focus on personal sovereignty, independence, and freedom of will.[4]

Greaves appears throughout the 2019 documentary film Hail Satan? regarding religious freedoms and early days of The Satanic Temple.[13] Greaves contributed the foreword to The Little Book of Satanism by La Carmina (2022)[24][25] as well as artwork for multiple endeavors by Shiva Honey.[26]

References

  1. ^ Manganis, Julie (May 30, 2018). "Satanic Temple cries foul over Twitter treatment". The Salem News. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Lewis, Helen (October 1, 2023). "The Social-Justice Rebellion at the Satanic Temple". The Atlantic. Washington, D.C.: Emerson Collective. ISSN 2151-9463. OCLC 936540106. Archived from the original on October 3, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  3. ^ Miller, Matt (November 21, 2015). "Why the Satanic Temple Is Opening Its Doors to American Muslims". Esquire. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Bugbee, Shane (July 31, 2013). "Unmasking Lucien Greaves, Leader of the Satanic Temple". Vice. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c "Lucien Greaves of the Satanic Temple". Detroit Metro Times. May 27, 2014. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  6. ^ [2][3][4][5]
  7. ^ Oppenheimer, Mark (July 11, 2015). "A Mischievous Thorn in the Side of Conservative Christianity". The New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  8. ^ Ebrahimji, Alisha (July 22, 2020). "The Satanic Temple is offering 'Devil's Advocate Scholarship'". Cnn.com. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  9. ^ "Satanic Temple cofounder accuses Boston City Council of discrimination - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  10. ^ Brady, Tara. "Hell yeah! How the satanists became the good guys". The Irish Times. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  11. ^ [7][8][9][10]
  12. ^ "After School Satan? Church-state group plays devil's advocate in public schools". October 18, 2016.
  13. ^ a b "A Satanic panic over church and state in Hail Satan?". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. May 1, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
  14. ^ {{Cite web |date=11 September 2003 |title=Might Is Right Special |url=https://archive.org/details/MightIsRightSpecial |access-date=12 May 2024 |website=[[The Internet Archive}}
  15. ^ "Lucien Greaves, "The Satanic Temple and the Law" - University of Chicago Law School". Law.uchicago.edu. November 3, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  16. ^ "'Satan at CU?' Student group brings Satanic Temple leader to Boulder campus". Dailycamera.com. November 9, 2016. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  17. ^ "Satanic Temple co-founder promotes respect, secularism - The Utah Statesman". Usustatesman.com. October 15, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  18. ^ "American Atheists Tackles Bible Belt for 2015 Convention - American Atheists". Atheists.org. September 16, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  19. ^ "Lucien Graeves". Americanhumanist.org. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  20. ^ "Lucien Greaves - Secular Student Alliance". Secularstudents.org. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  21. ^ Oppenheimer, Mark (July 10, 2015). "A Mischievous Thorn in the Side of Conservative Christianity". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  22. ^ Marcotte, Amanda (May 6, 2015). "Satanists Support Abortion Rights, Conservatives Freak Out". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  23. ^ Laycock, Joseph P. (2020). Speak of the Devil: How the Satanic Temple Is Changing the Way We Talk about Religion. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 37, 72. ISBN 978-0-19-094849-8.
  24. ^ Carmina, La (October 25, 2022). The Little Book of Satanism. Ulysses Press. ISBN 978-1646044221.
  25. ^ "Religion Book Deals: February 9, 2022". Publishers Weekly. February 9, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  26. ^ TST. "The Devil's Tome: A Book of Modern Satanic Ritual". TST. Retrieved March 16, 2024.

External links

  • Lucien Greaves on Twitter
  • Lucien Greaves Archive
  • The Process Is... Archived November 12, 2020, at the Wayback Machine group blog, primarily 2008-2013
Authority control databases: Artists Edit this at Wikidata
  • MusicBrainz