Authorities in Salem, Massachusetts, are combing through the possible deliberate bombing of a Satanic temple.
On Monday at about 4:15 in the morning, an unidentified individual reportedly threw an explosive device at the building’s doorstep. Because the building was unoccupied, the damage took almost twelve hours to be noticed.
The temple’s co-founder and official spokesman, Lucien Greaves, has characterized the bombing as an act of terrorism.
Over the last two years, the temple has been the target of several threats, such as the 2022 arson incident and the January arrest of a man from Michigan on charges of plotting an assault.
In 2016, the reputedly haunted town welcomed the Satanic Temple, which vowed to fight a perceived intrusion of Christian values in American politics with much fervor.
Greaves said the gravity of this attempted terrorist attack and the potential harm it caused cannot be emphasized enough. He said in an interview with the Boston Globe that he had just shown the building to a couple before the discovery of the bomb.
On the same front porch where the bomb was hurled, there is a vast LGBTQ+ pride flag.
Less than a mile from Gallows Hill, where locals beheaded more than a dozen individuals accused of witchcraft, is the new headquarters, a Victorian-style mansion.
State bomb experts and K9s inspected the building to ensure that the device was rendered inoperable and that no further bombs were there.
At around 7:15 p.m., the police said the danger had been controlled and considered the investigation closed.
With its 2019 section 501(c) tax-exempt status, the Satanic Temple joined other significant faiths and organizations in the same category as the Salvation Army and the Catholic Church.
Because it has 16 U.S. chapters and thousands of adherents worldwide, the temple can now seek specific government funding.
Donations to the organization are tax deductible for everyone who makes them.
