By Recker McDowell —
The city of Scottsdale has continued its battle with the Devil this week. Scottsdale has been in federal court responding to the Satanic Temple’s legal challenge after its effort to give to say a Satanic prayer at a City Council meeting was rebuffed.
The Satanists are upset with Scottsdale for not allowing their ‘prayer’ and for comments opposing their efforts from Mayor Jim Lane and City Council members Suzanne Klapp and Kathy Littlefield.
Legal arguments aside, there is a question of right and wrong, of good and evil and of what a community stands for at the end of the day.
The city, City Council members and Mayor stood up against darkness. No one is telling the Satanic Temple or Satanists they don’t have the right to practice their faith. They still enjoy their First Amendment rights.
But Scottsdale and its residents have rights too. Those include determining which groups and faiths give the invocation before City Council meetings. The city argues those invocations should go to faiths and groups with a community footprint in Scottsdale.
What if a religious group built on anti-Semitism or white supremacy or violence wanted to give the Council invocation? Shouldn’t Scottsdale (and other communities) also have some rights on that front?
But just from a common sense and ‘good versus evil’ perspective we are glad Littlefield, Klapp and Lane keep saying no to the Devil.