In an apparent act of vandalism, a statue of the pagan god Baphomet, erected at the New Hampshire State House by the Satanic Temple (TST), was destroyed.
Boston.com reported that State Rep. Ellen Read from Newmarket is a Democrat. She said the statue was knocked over soon after its unveiling on Saturday. The statue’s head and torso are toppled in the pictures, while only the legs remain standing. A tablet listing the seven tenets of TST is cracked and the text has been removed.
The police said that they were still investigating the matter and believed someone vandalized a statue between Sunday and Monday.
Read, a state legislator from Massachusetts, encouraged the Satanic Temple in Salem to participate to show our “pluralistic” society. She is not official with TST, and she did not design the display. However, she did register as a member on the website.
Read stated, “I have been a supporter of TST for a very long time in terms of the beliefs they hold and the work they do.” “I am local, so I assisted with the permit process and was present at the unveiling.”
Read stated that the display was cleaned and removed Tuesday following the incident. She said that the display was not “inherently offensive”.
Read stated that “there were accusations that the display was meant to denigrate Christians, but it was not doing so.” If you don’t want it to be allowed for all religions then you can choose not to allow religious displays.
The city, for its part, said that it approved the permit to “avoid litigation.”
Concord Mayor Byron Champlin criticized the display at a meeting of the city, saying that he didn’t believe it to be in good faith.
Champlin stated, “I oppose this permit because I do not respond well to threats of legal action or legal extortion.”
According to the report, Champlin stated that he would appoint an evaluation committee to determine how the city would handle displays without attendants in the future.
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