The Satanists came to Tama County on Monday and Tuesday to host their first public reading event. The text they chose was “Paradise Lost,” an epic poem by John Milton published in 1667.

Originally, the group, which includes members from all over the state, planned on holding the event at the Iowa State Capitol Building rotunda, but on the day the event was added to the calendar, the Capitol event policy was changed. Organizations can no longer be allowed to hold multi-day events and are only allowed one event per calendar year on Capitol grounds.

As a result, the Temple’s leaders decided to go looking for another venue to host their event, and they decided on the Tama County Courthouse lawn. Not only is Tama County centrally located, but multiple members of the organization have deep roots and strong familial ties within the community.

“Tama County has also historically had events similar in nature to ours at their county courthouse lawn, such as the Iowa 99 County Bible Reading Marathon. The county courthouse building and lawn is beautiful, and perfectly suited to the needs of an event of this type,” Mortimer Adramelech, the Satanic Temple’s Media Liaison, said.

Members of The Satanic Temple of Iowa take a break from reading Monday afternoon to enjoy some pizza.

As the visiting Satanists set up for their day of reading on Monday, across the street the weekly Tama County Supervisors meeting was starting, and on the agenda was a change to the courthouse lawn policy — an almost deja vu event for the Satanists coming after the policy change at the State Capitol. This change to the County Courthouse Lawn policy stems from the supervisor’s and auditors’ offices’ equal ignorance and confusion of the fact that it was the Satanic Temple that requested and was approved to use the lawn.

The new policy, drafted by Tama County Human Resources Manager Tammy Wise based on suggestions from an attorney, has more requirements for those who want to gain permission to use the lawn in the future. Insurance will have to be proven, and a $100 deposit will have to be submitted.

As the citizens and the supervisors discussed the new policy, all types of possible situations came up, including animal sacrifice.

“We’ve gotten calls, we’ve got emails, ‘We’re worried you approved it.’ We didn’t approve it, none of us, we’re all God fearin’ people. Nobody knew what was going on, but unfortunately, the First Amendment dictates what we can do and can’t do,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Curt Hilmer said. “Are they gonna recruit anybody from Tama County? God, I hope not. They’re just here to get attention. I hope there’s no newspapers, I hope there’s no TV cameras. I hope there’s nothing.”

The discussion progressed into how the new policy, along with the Satanists’ visit, would affect the Christian bible groups that regularly use the courthouse lawn.

While Satanic Temple of Iowa members were reading from “Paradise Lost” on the courthouse lawn, Pastor Adam Todd from the Solid Rock Bible Church led a reading of the Holy Bible on the City of Toledo’s bandstand at the Tama County Courthouse.

“If it keeps happening (the Satanists using the courthouse lawn), I would probably vote for not letting anything happen over there,” Hilmer said. “It’s sad because it affects the good people.”

The discussion of the new courthouse lawn policy also revealed another previously unknown fact on behalf of the county. The bandstand, which sits in the middle of the courthouse lawn, is in fact owned by the City of Toledo, not by Tama County, which was surprising to all in attendance at the supervisors meeting.

A glance out of the supervisors meeting room window Monday morning showed that another group was gathered on the aforementioned bandstand. Christians, led by local pastor Adam Todd from the Solid Rock Bible Church in Toledo, hosted a reading of the Bible on the bandstand and courthouse lawn without permission from the City of Toledo or Tama County. As the Satanists read in the shade of a tree, only a few feet away, the local Christians stood under the sun reading in protest before leaving around 4 p.m. Monday, several hours before the Satanists.

Although the visiting Satanists were made to feel uncomfortable by some, including one woman who slowly drove by with her windows down blasting gospel music, some locals embraced their presence. Ex-Toledo City Councilman Travis Mullen stopped by the courthouse lawn late Monday, dropping off snacks and water to the Satanists on the more than 80 degree day.

“I said to them, I know you’ll probably have some Christians here today that don’t make you feel too welcome and misrepresent Jesus. So, I wanted to do something that would hopefully represent Jesus well,” Mullen said. “We are in America, so they have the same right as anybody else to do this here.”

Adramelech offered his own assessment of the event.

“I think It’s been great. There are people who decided to read the Bible next to us, but they haven’t been bothering us at all. We’ve offered them some bottled water, (but) they said ‘Oh, we brought our own,'” he said. “I think that people have been polite.”

He also responded to Hilmer’s claim that they were only in Tama County to get attention.

“Our main goal was our community and making sure that there is equal representation of pluralistic viewpoints in the public forum,” Adramelech said. “It does sound like the rights of the First Amendment are equally tied together — the rights of freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of religion, and they all sound like they are tying in together right now.”

As a minister of Satan at the Satanic Temple, he also talked about his group and their religion. “We’re a local congregation here in Iowa, comprised of Satanic Temple members who follow the seven tenets of the Satanic Temple mostly focusing on science, reason, empathy, compassion, justice, and bodily autonomy,” Adramelech said. “Literature actually is very important to our religious belief. A lot of our beliefs come more from literary depictions of Satan rather than the Bible. People think we believe in the Bible, and that’s not true at all. ‘Paradise Lost’ is sort of a foundational text in the history of Satanism. Many other authors such as Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Anatole France all reinterpreted Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost,’ and we follow that vision of Satan that has enlightenment values. Satan is more of a symbol rather than an actual entity that we use because it has symbolic meaning to us in our religious beliefs.”

The Satanists surprised themselves by finishing their intended read, “Paradise Lost,” early on Tuesday morning. With more time scheduled on the lawn, the group decided to move on to another related text, “The Revolt of The Angels” by Anatole France. As the group lounged on the courthouse lawn Monday and Tuesday, taking turns reading and listening, friends, family, supporters, and other members of the Temple stopped by.

This was the first event of its kind for the organization, but it appears to have been a success for all of those involved. Even though local opinions of the event differed throughout the county, the Satanists seemed to have enjoyed themselves during their reading on the courthouse lawn.