A few days before Christmas, we noted on “The Wall of Separation” blog that a statue erected by the Satanic Temple near the state capitol building in Concord, N.H., had been vandalized.
A group of local artists rebuilt the statue, which depicted Baphomet, a figure often employed by the Temple as a representation of its beliefs, but that one was vandalized, too. Now a local man has emerged to admit that he did it because he considers the statue to be blasphemous.
Blogger Hemant Mehta at “Friendly Atheist” reported that Joshua Cummings posted on social media that he had “at least five times bashed [the statue] on the head with my medieval mace in the middle of the night…”
Cummings, a member of an offshoot of the Orthodox Russian Church, wrote that he believes he had the right to attack the symbol of another faith simply because he doesn’t like it. “I maintain my stance that we ought to have anti-blasphemy laws, and that it is unChristian to not destroy idolatrous statues…”
Elsewhere he wrote, “What does it say about us as a people if we allow such a filthy and hideous image to appear before God in our most basic societal representation?”
Police in Concord have questioned Cummings, but there’s been no indication that he’s been charged yet. I’m not sure what else the police need. Cummings isn’t just admitting what he did, he’s boasting about it. He goes so far as to crow about how if he is arrested, he’ll use crowdfunding to pay his legal fees. I can pretty much guarantee that if a vandal had attacked a nativity scene erected by a Christian group, he would have been arrested, booked and charged by now. What’s the holdup here?
Remember, the Satanic Temple was able to erect the statue because other religious groups were using the same space for their symbols. It was an open forum for the free exchange of images and ideas.
Cummings could not handle that because he is a religious extremist. He’s a walking example of the threat of Christian Nationalism. He and those like him may be feeling empowered by the current political tide, but, as of today at least, the United States remains a nation that respects the rule of law.
Concord police need to show that they do too by taking Cummings to the local precinct and charging him to the fullest extent of the law.
Photo: Screenshot from WCAX-TV
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