Lucien Greaves Explained
Lucien Greaves |
Birth Place: | Detroit, Michigan |
Alias: | Douglas Mesner, Douglas Misicko[1] |
Occupation: | Social activist |
Douglas Mesner, better known as Lucien Greaves, is a social activist and the co-founder of, and spokesperson for, The Satanic Temple.
Greaves was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States. His mother was a Protestant who took him to Sunday School.[2] He studied neuroscience at Harvard with a speciality in false-memory syndrome.[3]
Greaves collaborated with Shane Bugbee in 2003 for a 24-hour internet radio broadcast. The broadcast promoted Bugbee's reprint of the 1891 book Might is Right, notorious for its ideology of White supremacy and social Darwinism, which influenced part of The Satanic Bible (1969).[4]
Greaves has spoken on the topics of Satanism, secularism, and The Satanic Temple at universities throughout the United States,[5] [6] [7] and he has been a featured speaker at national conferences hosted by American Atheists,[8] the American Humanist Association,[9] and the Secular Student Alliance.[10]
Greaves has been instrumental in setting up the Protect Children Project, the After School Satan project, and several political demonstrations and legal actions designed to highlight social issues involving religious liberty and the separation of church and state.[11] [12]
Greaves has received many death threats, and deliberately does not use his legal name to avoid threats to his family.[13]
Greaves and his colleagues envisioned The Satanic Temple as a "poison pill" in the Church/State debate: Satanists asserting their rights and privileges where religious agendas have imposed themselves upon public affairs, serving as a reminder that such privileges are for everybody, and can provide a religious agenda beyond the current narrow understanding. Neither Greaves nor members of The Satanic Temple worship Satan; instead contemporary rational Satanic beliefs focus on personal sovereignty, independence, and freedom of will.
Greaves appears throughout the 2019 documentary film Hail Satan? regarding religious freedoms and early days of The Satanic Temple. Greaves contributed the foreword to The Little Book of Satanism by La Carmina (2022)[14] [15] as well as artwork for multiple endeavors by Shiva Honey.[16]
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Satanic Temple cries foul over Twitter treatment . Manganis. Julie. 2018-05-30. The Salem News . December 16, 2019 .
- Web site: After School Satan? Church-state group plays devil's advocate in public schools . October 18, 2016 .
- Web site: A Satanic panic over church and state in Hail Satan?. 2019-05-01. Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. en. 2019-05-06.
- Web site: 11 September 2003 . Might Is Right Special . 12 May 2024 . The Internet Archive.
- Web site: Lucien Greaves, "The Satanic Temple and the Law" - University of Chicago Law School. Law.uchicago.edu. November 3, 2017 . November 8, 2017.
- Web site: 'Satan at CU?' Student group brings Satanic Temple leader to Boulder campus. Dailycamera.com. November 9, 2016 . November 8, 2017.
- Web site: Satanic Temple co-founder promotes respect, secularism - The Utah Statesman. Usustatesman.com. October 15, 2017 . November 8, 2017.
- Web site: American Atheists Tackles Bible Belt for 2015 Convention - American Atheists. September 16, 2014. Atheists.org. November 8, 2017.
- Web site: Lucien Graeves. Americanhumanist.org. November 8, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171108205444/http://conference.americanhumanist.org/schedule2017/graeves/. November 8, 2017. dead.
- Web site: Lucien Greaves - Secular Student Alliance. Secularstudents.org. November 8, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171108205700/https://secularstudents.org/speakers/LucienGreaves. November 8, 2017. dead.
- News: A Mischievous Thorn in the Side of Conservative Christianity. The New York Times. 2015-07-10. 2015-12-02. 0362-4331. Mark. Oppenheimer.
- Satanists Support Abortion Rights, Conservatives Freak Out . Marcotte . Amanda . 2015-05-06 . Rolling Stone . November 8, 2017 .
- Book: Laycock, Joseph P. . 2020 . Speak of the Devil: How the Satanic Temple Is Changing the Way We Talk about Religion . New York, NY . Oxford University Press . 37, 72 . 978-0-19-094849-8.
- Book: Carmina, La . October 25, 2022 . The Little Book of Satanism . Ulysses Press . 978-1646044221.
- Web site: Religion Book Deals: February 9, 2022 . Publishers Weekly . February 9, 2022 . July 27, 2022.
- Web site: TST . The Devil's Tome: A Book of Modern Satanic Ritual . 2024-03-16 . TST . en.