A Satanist couple in Mountain View, Calf., says they're the victims of religious discrimination after someone stole their "VOTE SATAN" poster from their front porch.
Luigi and Angie Bellaviste belong to the Church of Satan, reports CBS News, and have their home decorated with satanic paraphernalia, including a black Christmas tree, skulls and the numbers 666.
Luigi and Angie Bellaviste belong to the Church of Satan, reports CBS News, and have their home decorated with satanic paraphernalia, including a black Christmas tree, skulls and the numbers 666.
But someone recently made off with their most prominent display, the election-style sign hanging from the front of their house. And they want it officially dubbed a hate crime.
"I feel like we're being treated unfairly because it's not a so-called mainstream religion," Luigi said.
"I know of many people who have the Virgin Mary and tons of Jesus memorabilia ‘I Love Jesus' and what is the difference?" Angie said.
Neighbours interviewed by CBS said they didn't much like the sign, but mostly agreed the Bellavistes have every right to decorate their property however they want.
"It's still their property. It's still their house. They have a right to say whatever they have to say," one neighbour said.
Cops will file the crime as just a regular theft because they say there's no evidence the couple's religious beliefs were attacked.
American musician and writer Anton Szandor LaVey founded the Church of Satan in 1966. He also penned the Satanic Bible.
Members don't actually worship, or even believe in, the devil. Rather, they believe that people are just animals and should pursue carnal desires to achieve "physical, mental and emotional gratification."
"We are the first above-ground organization in history openly dedicated to the acceptance of Man's true nature - that of a carnal beast, living in a cosmos that is indifferent to our existence," the church's official website reads.
"To us, Satan is the symbol that best suits the nature of we who are carnal by birth - people who feel no battles raging between our thoughts and feelings, we who do not embrace the concept of a soul imprisoned in a body."
They have rules against stealing, harming children, doling out unsolicited opinions and advice and making unwanted sexual advances. But they encourage vengeance, being unkind to people who don't deserve kindness, and treating annoying guests "cruelly and without mercy."
