A based Christian made headlines last month when he destroyed and beheaded a gross statue of Satan that was set up in the Iowa Capitol for Christmas. That man was Michael Cassidy, a former congressional candidate from Lauderdale, MS. The day after he destroyed the Satan statue, Mr. Cassidy was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, which is a misdemeanor. However, prosecutors have now come back with enhanced charges against Michael Cassidy. He’s been charged with a felony hate crime for chopping off the statue’s head.
The “holiday display” from the Satanic Temple of Iowa was obviously designed to insult and inflame the majority Christian population in Iowa. It wasn’t technically a “Satan statue.” It was the pagan idol Baphomet, a weird goat-headed thing dressed in a bunch of cheap plastic flowers. It obviously has nothing to do with Christmas.
The thing looked like a haphazard stage play prop that was put together by the smart-alecks in the back of a junior high art class. When Cassidy demolished the stupid thing, everyone could see that it was constructed with pool noodles and tape to hold it together. It wasn’t exactly an artistic masterpiece.
The fact that someone at the Iowa Capitol allowed the Satanic Temple to put the ugly thing up in the first place—at Christmastime, no less—drew national outrage. State and national leaders spoke out against it, including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
After he did the right thing by destroying the statue, Michael Cassidy stated in an interview, “My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted.”
Polk County prosecutors are now taking a second run at Cassidy. A misdemeanor charge just wasn’t enough, apparently. This week, Cassidy was charged with felony third-degree criminal mischief. The charging document states that the destruction of the statue was “in violation of individual rights” under Iowa’s hate crime laws.
The Polk County attorney’s office issued a statement saying, “Evidence shows the defendant made statements to law enforcement and the public indicating he destroyed the property because of the victim’s religion.”
The alleged “victim” in the so-called “crime” is the Satanic Temple. They’re not victims. This is the exact outcome that they wanted. They wouldn’t have made their silly goat-head statue so lame if they hadn’t wanted all this publicity from it.
Cassidy’s attorney, Sara Pasquale, agrees with that assessment. She has accused the Satanic Temple of milking the situation for attention. Pasquale says the devil-worshiping dorks have made premature filings that “like the timing and substance of the Satanic Temple of Iowa’s installation of a demonic statue in the capitol building… are only meant to evoke strong emotions and incite others.”
The Satanic Temple is claiming that it will cost $3,000 to replace their dumb statue. That’s absurd.
A big question that people want to know is why the Iowa Capitol allowed this gross and childish thing to be installed there in the first place. Communists will always try to use your own values against you. They misuse the concept of “freedom of religion” under the First Amendment to try to undermine our stable and functional society.
The Founding Fathers never intended “freedom of religion” to cover pagan religions. That would have been revolting to them. The First Amendment was intended to keep Presbyterians and Catholics and Baptists from throwing rocks at each other, not for the Satanic Temple to put up a goat statue in the Iowa Capitol.
The incident has turned Michael Cassidy into a modern-day folk hero. Christians and patriots have sent more than $84,000 to him to support his legal defense through GiveSendGo.
