And just like that, it’s a hate crime to tear down a statue.

Michael Cassidy, a 35-year-old Christian Navy veteran and former congressional candidate from Mississippi, has been charged with a hate crime for beheading a Satanic statue in the Iowa Capitol building in December. The statue of Baphomet was erected by the Satanic Temple of Iowa, which gained permission from the state for its religious display. It must have been for the sake of equity that it was placed near a Nativity display.

Cassidy was unabashed in his admission and reasoning after turning himself in:

I saw this blasphemous statue and was outraged. My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted. The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the Founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment. Anti-Christian values have steadily been mainstreamed more and more in recent decades, and Christians have largely acted like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water.

The Satanic Temple laughably asserted it would cost $3,000 to replace the statue. Iowa estimates $750 to $1,500, which is still probably too high.

Cassidy is charged with “violation of individual rights” under Iowa’s hate crime statute. According to Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the Polk County Attorney’s Office, “Evidence shows the defendant made statements to law enforcement and the public indicating he destroyed the property because of the victim’s religion.”

That seems to us unequivocally true, and Cassidy understands there may be consequences for his actions in a nation that ostensibly recognizes religious liberty.

However, there’s some context that might be useful to understand.

Our Thomas Gallatin wrote today about how the Biden “Justice” Department is targeting pro-lifers for the “crime” of protesting the slaughter of innocent babies. (Child sacrifice, by the way, was a key part of worshiping Moloch, another pagan/Satanic god.)

There have been almost no consequences for the thugs who’ve vandalized pro-life centers and churches around the country, though those abortion zealots clearly acted in “violation of individual rights” and “destroyed the property because of the victim’s religion.”

There’s also the issue of iconoclastic destruction of historical statues that has taken the nation by storm in recent years. Statues of Christopher Columbus, Robert E. Lee, and an extensive list of other Confederate figures have been vandalized, toppled, or officially removed. But the hate for history extends even to figures like Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and Ulysses S. Grant, Union general and later president, as well as Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers.

We don’t recall hate crime charges for those vandals of historically significant artwork. In fact, the Black Lives Matter riots have yielded nearly $100 million in payouts … to the rioters. Meanwhile, Cassidy faces the full force of the law for destroying the product of Satanic arts and crafts time. Seems about par for the course in America, circa 2024.

A final observation: Obviously, Cassidy isn’t God, the Iowa Nativity display isn’t the Ark of the Covenant, and America isn’t ancient Israel, but this whole story reminds us of a particular account in 1 Samuel 5. To briefly summarize, the Philistines captured the Ark and took it to their temple to Dagon, where they placed it next to a statue of their pagan deity. God responded by toppling the statue of Dagon. When the Philistines set it back up, God toppled it again, this time cutting off its hands and beheading it. He also afflicted the city’s residents with tumors until they eventually shipped the Ark somewhere else out of fear.

The one and only God, the Creator of all things, “is a jealous God.” He told humanity, “You shall have no other gods before me.” He takes that commandment seriously, and so should we.