A man wearing a “GOD” shirt apparently tried to put The Satanic Temple in Salem through hell, as the Chelsea man made the trip up the North Shore to set the organization’s porch ablaze, authorities say.
Witch City cops have arrested 42-year-old Daniel Damien Lucey, who remains in custody on arson charges as he’s accused of lighting the Satanists’ porch on fire.
The Salem Police said 911 operators received multiple calls shortly after 10 p.m. Friday for a fire at 64 Bridge St., the temple headquarters.
Firefighters battled the flames and successfully kept it from becoming an inferno, limiting the damage to the front porch, though it’s unclear quite how much damage the blaze did.
They first tried to beat back the flames with fire extinguishers, but eventually had to evacuate the building — which the cops said was occupied — and use water to douse the flames.
No one was hurt in the fire, police said.
Cops soon arrested Lucey, who, according to them, “admitted to traveling to Salem for the express purpose of setting fire to the Temple.”
Further, the cops said Lucey “made statements that he considered his actions a ‘hate crime.'”
Satanic Temple head Lucien Greaves, speaking with the Herald, dryly noted that if that was the man’s intention, he was “inadvertently helpful.”
“This whole incident has had the paradoxical effect of making us feel more welcome than we ever have,” Greaves said, saying it’s kicked off the opposite of a holy war — he’s been getting messages all day Saturday from fans, Salem community members and religious people alike.
“I do not feel that this man is representative of Christians or anything,” Greaves, who was in the temple when the blaze broke out, continued. “It would be nice if people took this as a reminder to take a moment to lay off the outrage a bit and take a moment to speak to people they might disagree with.”
Greaves tweeted out some of the security photos, which show a man in a “GOD” shirt on the porch when the fire breaks out. Greaves told the Herald they found singed Bible pages around the area after the fire was knocked down.
He said this isn’t the first time they’ve had problems at the temple, but it’s easily the most significant. Previous run-ins include a church group who chucked holy oil at the house, and a man who showed up banging on the building and wielding a sharpened screwdriver.
The Satanic Temple, or TST, as it often calls itself, is based in Salem — the Witch City, a town that embraces its association with the supernatural so much that even the police department logo has the silhouette of a witch astride a broom — but has a national profile.
Greaves, the media-friendly head of TST, characterizes the temple less as a group of people trying to literally worship Satan and more of an organization that advocates for separation of church and state.
For instance, TST spent some time bedeviling the city of Boston and, more specifically, then-candidate and now-Mayor Michelle Wu after the City Council wouldn’t let TST give an opening prayer. TST has filed similar suits in different states around the country, too.
Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll put out a statement about the blaze, thanking police and fire responders, and adding, “On behalf of the City of Salem, we condemn this hateful attack. Salem is a welcoming place, and the actions of this individual are not reflective of who we are or our values as a community.”
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