Meet New Hampshire’s Satanist lawmaker
The man who may be the legislature’s first card-carrying member of the Church of Satan says he doesn’t talk about it with a lot of people “because they just don’t get it.”
“I’m not really a joiner and I’m not a person who likes to put a label on things,” says Rep. Brandon Phinney, “but I’m a Satanist because these words [in The Satanic Bible] are who I am. He’s speaking about me as a person, so that book was very important to me.”
Phinney, who recently changed his party affiliation from Republican to Libertarian, shared his story on The Devil You Know, a “Satanically-inspired podcast” where he discussed he work as a corrections officer, his experience in the legislature and what Satan means to him.
“Satan is the ultimate symbol of rebellion…” the Rochester lawmaker said. “He represents the burning desire of people to accept their carnal nature and reject suppression by holier-than-thou uptights. Satan is a symbol, an image, a reflection of man’s true freedom and liberty…”
From Christian metalhead to Godcrusher
Phinney’s outspoken religion beliefs have caused controversy before. He made national headlines in February with a letter to the editor in which he publicly identified himself as an atheist and described belief in religion as “foolish” and “archaic.”
“In an age of information, scientific progress and exploration and the understanding of the workings of our world,” he wrote, “it is difficult and to be frank, rather foolish, to hold onto archaic beliefs that deny reality.”
Phinney says he was an active Christian when he was growing up "even so far as to be involved in church ministries and music teams.” As a musician in a metal band, Phinney referred to himself as a “Christian metalhead” – but by 2013 he had rejected the religion of his youth with a vengeance.
That was when he joined a band called Godcrusher (!) and embraced The Satanic Bible, which he said he first read in high school. “I was reading it again being in the mindset of ‘I hate religion and I hate Christianity because I’m so angry at myself for being duped for as long as I was,’” he said. “It made sense to me again. It placated a lot of that anger for me.”
Two years ago, Phinney made it official. He became a Registered Member of the Church of Satan and received the vaunted “red card” that members use to identify themselves to other members. Phinney says he also plans to apply for Active Membership, the next level in the church hierarchy for members who seek more involvement with the organization and with other members.
Metalheads react
When Phinney announced he was running for public office, the regulars who had interacted with him on a message board for fans of local metal bands were scornful – and not just because of his “endlessly changing radical religious beliefs.”
“This thread is to express your appreciation for Brandon Phinney,” began one message, “prolific sometimes-Christian, sometimes-white supremacist as he runs unopposed in the New Hampshire House of Representatives District Strafford 24 Republican primary.”
“Let’s celebrate Brandon Phinney’s long history as an RTTP poster (both as MillenialKingdom and ConquerTheBaphomet) with no real internal compass, wildly vacillating between religious and irreligious, secretly racist and openly racist - I’m sure he’ll bring this rock-solid sense of self to state government!” the message concluded sarcastically.
“Brandon Phinney aka ‘ConquertheBaphomet’ as he was known here is a bipolar assclown,” another member wrote. “His endlessly changing radical religious beliefs, misogyny, dumbass racist Facebook rants, and real life connections to individuals associated with the white power movement are legitimate concerns for someone running for public office.”
“I met Brandon once years ago,” a third member added. “Seemed like a nice dude. His one man argument he seemed to be having with himself about religion was kind of strange, but when you’re young you think you know everything and it comes out in weird ways sometimes.”
“Where I get off the bus though is Godcrusher and the quasi white power Cherry St circle jerk scene,” he continued. “The few times I looked into them they seemed to have this obsession with amending ‘minorities and their rampant welfare abuse are destroying our country’ to the whole god crushing platform.”
Allegations of fat-shaming, misogyny and racism
Phinney appears to have deleted most of the social media posts mentioned by his critics – the earliest public post on his personal Facebook page is from January of this year – but a few remnants remain.
In 2013, Boston comedian Justin P. Drew documented a misogynist, fat-shaming rant from Phinney’s Facebook page. Phinney had posted a link to a Daily Mail article about plus-size women and wrote, “This isn’t what ‘real women’ look like. Men are attracted to fit, healthy women with actual good looks.”
“It’s just science, it doesn’t mean we’re all shallow and pathetic,” Phinney continued. “Women don’t like fat guys, it’s the same concept. You don’t see men traversing all over the internet demanding change on the social standard of what’s deemed attractive or not. Obesity is fucking disgusting and we need to stop celebrating this fucking epidemic. Shut the fuck up with your bullshit feminist agenda.”
And then there was this Facebook thread that journalist Dan Arel, who grew up in Rochester, labeled “super racist.” In the thread, Phinney took issue with a message from Arel’s brother supporting Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid that read, “Also, white men are the absolute worst human beings. It’s time for our first female president.”
“Is this satire?” asked Phinney. “White men are the worst human beings?” With that, Phinney proceeded to ridicule the notion of white privilege and claimed whites are the real victims of racism.
“I can promise you that nothing in my life has ever been fucking handed to me because I’m white,” wrote Phinney. “Racism is defined as discrimination against someone based on their skin color or race. To say it can’t be used against white people is the stupidest thing I’ve ever read.”
“I’m proud to be white and male. Oh no, alert the liberal thought police!” he added. “There is no such thing as white privilege.” Interspersed with his comments, Phinney posted a series of memes:
“Yea we can all make blanket statements about any group of people like Muslims, gays, women, etc and you’d be up in arms like just another social justice warrior harpy but doing it to white guys is A-OK,” Phinney concluded. “You sound stupid. So, in response, I post witty memes.”