Satanists Are Suing ‘The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina’ For Appropriation
The Satanic Temple is suing Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina for appropriating its monument design. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the dark series may have made fans with its evil revival of the Archie comic strip, but Satanists are not amused. According to Lucien Greaves, social activist and co-founder of the Temple, a statue of Baphomet that appears in the series is far too similar to the copyrighted one used by the religion.
Greaves tweeted on Sunday that the Satanic Temple is taking legal action against the show for using their design to “promote their asinine Satanic Panic fiction.” In the series, a Baphomet statue appears in the magical school known as the Academy Of Unseen Arts. The Temple is moving forward with the action, according to Greaves, because they want to send a message to others who might appropriate the imagery used by the Satanic Temple, and because “that’s how copyright works.”
The Temple believes that the image portrayed by the Satan worshipers in the show is harmful to the true purpose of the political group and nontheistic religion.
In the Netflix show, Sabrina Spellman, played by Kiernan Shipka, battles with “The Dark Lord,” a Satan character that appears similar to the Satanic Temple’s representation.
“One of the central missions of The Satanic Temple has been to fight back against witch-hunts and irrational mob panics,” he said, adding that “as Satanists, we need to do all we can to fight back against negligent and harmful representations.”
Greaves worries that people will see the statue in the series and assume that the Temple based their own image on the show’s, something that he believes “rather cheapens our central icon.”
Responding to the attention that the legal action has received in the media and on social media, Greaves said that he is surprised that people find the Temple’s claim to be frivolous or attention-seeking.
“I’m amazed that anybody is confused as to why we would seek legal remedy over Sabrina using our monument. Would they be as understanding of a fictional show that used a real mosque as the HQ of a terrorist cell? A fictional Blood Libel tale implicating real world Jews?”
Yes, we are taking legal action regarding #TheChillingAdventuresofSabrina appropriating our copyrighted monument design to promote their asinine Satanic Panic fiction.
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 29, 2018
The Satanic Temple is a religious organization and political group formed in 2012. The organization is based in Salem, Massachusetts, but has chapters across the U.S. The Temple participates in political lobbying and in bringing attention to what it calls Christian privilege and the lack of separation between church and state.
