Monica Lujan was recently released from the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants where she served three years for forgery and drug related crimes.
Under the auspices of the ACLU’s Elisabeth Bechtold and Kennedy Kennedy Laura Schauer Ives, she is filing a lawsuit claiming that her religious freedoms were violated.
She claims that the facility admins confiscated her “T-shirts, boxers, socks, shoes, underwear, a thermal shirt, coffee, laundry soap, an unopened bottle of shampoo, an unopened bottle of conditioner, make-up, a new toothbrush, an unused bar of soap, tampons, sanitary napkins, sheets, towels, one of two blankets, and her pillow,” as well as “legal paperwork, including correspondence between Ms. Lujan and her attorney” and in doing so left her with only one pair of underwear which she wore for the last four months before her release.
The issue is a few other items that were denied and also one that was never supplied to her.
Reportedly, Monica Lujan has been a “Satanist” since the age of 13, is a current adherent of the late Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan and claims she was refused a Satanic Bible.
In typical and erroneous Satanist PR talking points, she stated, “Contrary to popular belief, the Church of Satan does not promote a belief in Satan.” Rather, “the religion is predicated on pragmatism, materialism and skepticism, generally promoting a libertarian social view and emphasizing law and order.” LaVey’s brand of Satanism “regards Satan as the symbol of pride, liberty and individualism.”
Now, if, as per Monica Lujan, her preferred version of Satanism (as she can neither speak for all versions nor all adherents to her version actually) does not promote a belief in Satan, sees Satan as a symbol, is essentially Atheistic, libertarian and emphasizing law and order—apparently with the exception of forgery and illegal drugs—then what, pray tell, was violated. These are all mental constructs and unless they somehow kept her from thinking then she could do Satanism all day long.
Well, there must be some sort of LaVeyan Satanic commandment to the effect of “Thou shall readeth the Satanic Bibleth regularly.”
Well, on legal grounds the claim is that the chaplain, James Compton, claimed that the prison system disallowed Satanic paraphernalia, and “berated her about her religion, shouting: ‘I’m going to confront the devil herself!’”
Reportedly, among her personal belonging were also confiscated photocopies of a segment of the Satanic Bible, a prayer book, unspecified religious items and a drawing of a pentagram.
Some actual facts about LaVeyan Satanism is that according to LaVey’s Satanic Bible human sacrifice murder to Satan is a-okay. LaVey even predicted that Satanists would claim to murder/sacrifice to Satan and indeed, many have: see “On the Choice of a Human Sacrifice” – Anton LaVey’s Satanic Bible and the Jeffrey Franklin case, the Miranda Barbour case here and here, et al.
The fact is that the PR talking point for LaVeyan “Church of Satan” Satanists is just that: that they are Atheists, do not believe in nor worship Satan, etc.
However, when a lion mauled Anton LaVey’s girlfriend Jane Mansfield’s son LaVey gathered his co-religionists and petitioned their “brother Satan” as a personal volitional being for healing and with that, the cat was out of the bag.
Sources:
Victoria Prieskop, “I’m Going to Confront the Devil Herself!”, Courthouse News
Matt Howerton, Satanist inmate: Prison officials prohibited me from practicing my religion – Lawsuit seeks damages for violating religious freedoms, KOAT News, November 11, 2016 AD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A plea: I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help. Here is my donate/paypal page.
Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Facebook page and/or on my Google+ page. You can also use the “Share / Save” button below this post.