A Satanist at Rededicate 250
If Rededicate 250 was conceived out of public relations desperation, the outcome of the event suggests that the desperation is warranted.
By guest contributor Lucien Greaves
“Rededicate 250,” a free public event that took place at the National Mall in Washington, DC on Sunday, was billed as a day of “jubilee, prayer, and thanksgiving.” It was organized, according to its promotional literature, to serve as a “prayer & rededication of the United States as One Nation Under God.”
From its very announcement, the event seemed an indication of desperation. With the presidential administration’s polling numbers plummeting to record lows, the White House appears to be making a frantic appeal to retain the dogmatic loyalty of its evangelical base that has more-or-less blindly supported the administration in the past, though even this base seems to have been shaken by recent public presidential and cabinet level faux pas. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, recently witlessly quoted “scripture” as it was misstated in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction; Trump following a public tirade against the Pope posted a deranged AI-generated image of a robed version of himself healing a man in what appeared to be a self-idolizing imitation of Christ (he later claimed he was merely portraying himself as a doctor); Vice President Vance, apparently attempting to support Trump in his dispute with Pope Leo had the bizarre audacity to admonish the Pontiff to “be careful” when he “talks about matters of theology”; and Trump unveiled a 22-foot gold statue of himself at the Trump National Doral Miami golf course that some appalled Christians saw as nothing short of blatant idolatry. And these all happened within the past couple of months.
If Rededicate 250 was conceived out of public relations desperation, the outcome of the event suggests that the desperation is warranted. The turn-out was indisputably low. Looking over the crowd at the peak of the event, I feel confident in calling bullshit on any claim that the gathering ever reached a full 20 thousand attendees. While there were MAGA hats and pro-Trump tshirts to be seen, there were, I think, a lot less than one might have expected, and nobody I spoke to offered any defense when I spoke of presidential actions that I found difficult to reconcile with my understanding of Christian practice and virtue.
The relatively low attendance for a national public event did not prevent there from being a long wait to enter the National Mall grounds, however. Now, in retrospect, the event was little different inside than it was immediately outside, with the exception that none of those there to actively protest the event went in. Whether one was waiting to get in, or already there, there was little else to do other than try to find shade from the 90 degree direct sun and chat with random superstition-mongers handing out their literature. There were, of course, speakers on the main stage, and musical acts between them, but the audio was terrible, and in most locations, the speeches were indecipherable.
As of now, I have still not yet even heard the speeches that were delivered, nor have I read their transcripts. Of 9 speakers on the itinerary, I did notice, however, that at least 3 of them were Catholic. While this may be the administration’s attempt at soothing Catholic anxiety after the administration’s papal feud, I wondered how this strong showing of Catholic representation might sit with the more apocalyptic protestants for whom the Vatican is believed to be the prophesied home of the coming Antichrist, and Catholicism itself the true Satanism. I asked this of a few people, some of whom merely shrugged it off and evaded a clear answer. However, one 7th Day Adventist from Tennessee was clear that he believed it scripturally indisputable that Catholicism was, or is, the Antichrist’s home.
Like most people I spoke to at the event, the 7th Day Adventist was not there to support the president, nor did he seem to feel that the event was “for him” so much as it was an opportunity to represent his view in a venue where it might be well received.
While in line, there were a lot of people handing out little Christian propaganda pamphlets, cards, books, etc. I thought to ask them what “religious freedom” means to them. They all claimed to believe in the virtue of religious freedom as a right to never be abridged by the government, allowing for the freedom to worship (and, when prodded by further questioning, freedom to not worship) as one sees fit. When I asked if they felt that this endorsement of pluralism was what the rededication event itself was about, they more or less seemed to indicate that they were not sure, or that they did not care.
In fact, maybe due to the heat, or maybe due to a growing sense of alienation from the presidential administration, a general feeling of not-giving-a-shitness seemed to permeate the entire event. Cheers rose up very infrequently, and even then only polite and half-hearted, mostly in response to the musical interludes ending. Even the construction of the event appeared to have been abandoned, uncompleted. Needless wooden facades with entryways that led to nothing but the scaffolding supporting them lined the enclosed space of the event. One segment of the facade indicated what the finished construct was supposed to look like, covered in a print that gave it the appearance of a pillared, white stone hall.
The man in front of me in line to enter the “rededication,” a traveller from one of the Carolinas who was with his wife and 2 small children, was somewhat chatty. Like most others I encountered, he had come for God and country, but he expressed disappointment in Trump. He felt betrayed by what he saw as the United States’ superfluous entry into war with Iran, which he saw as a betrayal of Trump’s promise of peace. He ruefully recounted Trump’s efforts to obtain a Nobel Peace Prize, and his prior pride in keeping the U.S. out of foreign wars, “and, then, suddenly…” He looked off, distracted. Turning back to me again, he asked, “do you know what they’re yelling about?” He was squinting to see the signs of protesters ahead. Somebody was standing across the street from the line yelling into a bullhorn. I stepped to the side to look. There were many signs clustered together. It was a buffet of leftist Culture War slogans and symbols trotted out with no apparent regard for a focused message. As we got closer, we could hear that the woman screaming into the bullhorn was saying something about the separation of Church and State before she suddenly veered into a tirade about Israel being an illegitimate state and, if I understood her correctly, a continuation of the Nazi agenda.
“She’s just throwing in everything,” the man ahead of me observed, apparently perplexed as to why the protester thought this was the appropriate venue for these grievances. Like many leftist “activist” protesters, this one gave no hint that she understood any specific reason for being where she was. There was, I think, a real potential for effective messaging that would have actually had an impact on the attendees. The question of whether or not the Trump administration is truly acting according Christian principles seems to currently weigh heavy on the minds of the audience that this event was meant to attract. Signs with images of Trump’s golden statue that said something like, “This Is Idolatry” would have probably stung for those looking to ignore the issue. Maybe “Do You Believe The Bible is True, Or Is It Pulp Fiction?” “JD Vance Is Not My Pope.” Messages that would force the crowd to think about whether or not they support the messaging being presented to them at the rededication, forcing them to see the dissonance between the values they claim to believe, and how those values are being represented by government officials using religion to secure political capital.
Unfortunately, nobody was doing that.
Inside the event, I hoped to encounter Sean Feucht. Feucht is a Christian Nationalist musician who first made headlines in 2020 by doing concerts in defiance of Covid lockdown mandates. Later, he went on to do his “Let Us Worship” tour where he toured the country playing at state capitol buildings, where he would hold religious revival-style concerts. In 2023, when The Satanic Temple held a conference in Boston, Feucht bullshitted his followers, publicly claiming that he had converted nearly 100 of our attendees to Christ. This is really when I looked into Feucht, and I found his Let Us Worship tour to be inspiring. At least, I was inspired to do something similar.
Seeing as to how Feucht had played in public spaces, it seemed those public spaces were available to religious concerts. It turns out, of course, that I am a religious leader with a band of my own. Youtube showed video footage of Feucht’s performance at the Indianapolis state capitol where they let him play indoors, in the capitol rotunda, plugged in. We reached out to the Indianapolis Capitol and told them we wanted to perform there. They replied that they do not host such things. We responded with a link to the Feucht Youtube video and let them know that we wanted whatever he got. They put us on the schedule. This was the first, and so far only, show of our “Let Us Burn” tour. We thanked Sean for opening that door.
This really seemed to bother Feucht. He had a lawyer pen a letter threatening a lawsuit over infringement related to the similarity of Let Us Burn to Let Us Worship. I publicly posted the letter, tagging Sean with a message that said “Hey Sean, go Feucht yourself.”
For a period of time, Sean Feucht seemed to obsess over me and The Satanic Temple. When he eventually publicly accused us of sending him death threats and casting curses on him, as he felt was evidenced by the fact that he was nearly hit with a golf ball traveling at a presumably deadly velocity as he jogged next to a golf course, I began to genuinely question his mental well-being.
It turned out I was not supposed to have been able to wander up in front of the stage at the rededication event like I did, but security was, surprisingly, no less half-assed than any of the rest of the event. That said, however, the security was definitely present, even if not terribly attentive. I caught up with Sean as he was walking from the backstage area back into the audience to get back to his front row seat. “Sean!” I said, walking over and giving him a big hug. “Good to see you, brother!” he said. I told him I regretted not bringing a golf ball for him to sign. I think he almost chuckled. I told him we needed to get our bands together to play. I punched his arm, playful and buddy-like.
This is when I think he started realizing what was happening.
“Bands?” he said.
I made sure to tell him who I am, so that there could be no mistake.
He began oscillating between automatic fan-meeting friendliness and intermittently looking increasingly nauseated. These turns were marked by friendly statements in which he would call me “brother,” followed by him occasionally just repeating what I had said in the form of a question. He politely apologized and said he needed to return to his seat. I wondered if he would later melt down publicly about it, but so far he has not.
I was accompanied by Rachel from our Executive Ministry team, and Eliphaz, the director of our Protect Children Project campaign. I was wearing a microphone, and Rachel was filming, but it remains to be seen how much of the audio is coherent. Either way, we will edit together a narrated video of the event for thesatanictemple.tv.
We spoke at length to a woman from Lifewise Academy, a Christian public school third party Christian program that we have countered by offering After School Satan Club programs in school districts where Lifewise operates. I was “interviewed” by some peckerhead who claimed to be with the Daily Caller, and who was attempting comedy, but the joke was on him when I did not take the bait, and he ended up sulking off. We did not conceal who we are from people. When they asked, we told them. They were probably shocked, but we approached politely, asked honest questions, and allowed them to answer. This, I think, was so far outside of what they expected that we never really got past the deer-in-the-headlights phase with any of them to see if they would progress into outrage once the confusion subsided. As it was, our encounters were mostly respectful.
Of course, I do not delude myself into thinking that the reactions I was receiving were not at least partially manufactured by how I was self-presenting. My questions about religious liberty were leading, but it was still somewhat encouraging to hear recognition of the value in pluralism, and acknowledgement that true religious conversion can not be imposed through the coercion of government.
I do not believe that the Christian Nationalist movement is populated by misunderstood pluralists who actually support true religious liberty. Rather, it appears to me that at the level of the general audience in the crowd, they are merely looking for a sense of identity with a Christian tribe, Christianity being a framework for their lives introduced from the beginning. They are willing to follow whoever it is who is acting as leader at that moment. As I stand before them, even as a Satanist, speaking coherently and rationally about the vital need for a separation of Church and State in which the government is not empowered to impose one religion upon other religions, or religion upon the non-religious, they find they have no sensible opposition, and they agree wholeheartedly. I am not asking them to abdicate their beliefs or practices, just that they not impose them on others.
10 minutes later, however, some Christian Nationalist clown may take the stage and gravely insist that “we” must enforce recognition of the notion that we are a Christian Nation lest we infuriate an angry god, and those same Christians who, moments earlier, accepted my arguments for pluralism, will likely agree wholeheartedly agree with theocracy.
If this sounds unrealistically simple-minded, one should be able to easily imagine “progressive” events where one speaker could receive unanimous applause for endorsing the epistemic primacy of science, only to be followed up by a speaker who claims that science is a colonialist “western construct” that is but one “way of knowing” among many other equally valid ways of knowing, while receiving equal unanimous applause from the same crowd. Most people do not want to argue. They are perhaps disturbingly flexible in their allegedly unshakable beliefs. They are listening to speeches from their thought leaders in the first place because they want to know where their “side” currently stands, just so they can be assured of their place in a community.
Currently, both sides stand hijacked by their most militant and shit-headed Culture Warriors. The sooner we all learn to ignore them, the sooner we allow for adults to begin directing the discussions again. At the rededication, I saw hopeful signs that American Christians are losing faith in the politicians who claim to represent them.
Originally published on May 19, 2026 at: patreon.com/c/LucienGreaves
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All courtesy: The Satanic Temple