The Satanic Temple is now a tax-exempt organization.
The Internal Revenue Service has listed the Salem, Mass.-based group in its database for tax-exempt organizations. The religious but nontheistic group advocates for a greater separation of church and state.
It’s unclear when exactly the group received the designation, but it announced this week the IRS recognized it as a church.
“Satanism is here to stay,” Lucien Graeves, the spokesman for the Satanic Temple, said.
“Accepting religious tax-exemption — rather than renouncing it in protest — can help us to better assert our claims to equal access and exemption while laying to rest any suspicion that we don’t meet the qualifications of a true religious organization,” Graeves said.
The group displayed a “snaketivity” in the Illinois Capitol rotunda in December alongside a nativity scene and menorah.
A spokesman for the Illinois’ secretary of state said the organization was allowed under the First Amendment to display the statue of an arm holding an apple in its hand and a snake wrapped around the arm.
