@tracingowls There are a lot of really good people in The Satanic Temple, and some of them even do some good work. Your desire to want to speak to just a regular member makes sense.

However, the organization is not grassroots; just the opposite, it is incredibly hierarchical, authoritarian, and abusive.

More than one person has compared it to Scientology ("scientology for mall goths") or a business cult. It is, among other things, a for-profit corporation owned by two men.

TST has threatened to sue former leaders who criticized it under the pretext of "violating NDAs". TST claimed to be a "private figure" when suing Newsweek and its reporter for defamation. TST claimed a TikToker defamed it and forced her to record a retraction under the threat of a lawsuit. Then sued her anyway after the retraction.

Hells Bels couldn't talk about any legal successes because they don't exist.

https://the.satanic.wiki/index.php/The_Satanic_Temple#Lawsuits

But unlike actually effective organizations such as the #ACLU or #TexasEqualAccessFund, #TheSatanicTemple doesn't have transparent finances. For-profit corporations can have private finances but they're supposed to pay taxes. Nonprofits are not taxed that way but have to have public, transparent finances.

TST is not a federally recognized religion; so what they mean is one of their corporations is a tax-exempt church, which both doesn't have to pay taxes and is not required to publicly disclose where money is coming or going.