Dave Leshtz is the editor of The Prairie Progressive.
I’ve written about and gotten to know several members of Iowa’s Satanic Temple.
They are young and intelligent. They come mostly from small towns in Iowa, where their families still live. They have a sense of humor and like to dress in black. They consider the poet John Milton’s Paradise Lost their foundational text – their Bible, so to speak.
Most of all, they are sincere in their belief that government shouldn’t favor one religion over another, that public services or benefits to religious groups should not be denied because officials disagree with their beliefs.
I don’t personally know any members of the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination for which Iowa gubernatorial candidate Adam Steen is a credentialed minister. It is an Evangelical church which reported in 2022 a worldwide membership of 69 million. The Satanic Temple claims approximately 700,000 members, according to Wikipedia. Its numbers in the state of Iowa are, well, considerably less.
I’ve been to two public readings of Paradise Lost hosted by the Satanic Temple, boosting their combined attendance to approximately nineteen loyal adherents.
Satanic Temple table outside the Tama County courthouse in Toledo, Iowa in September 2024 (photo by Dave Leshtz)
Small group attends the Satanic Temple reading outside the Tama County courthouse in September 2025 (photo by Dave Leshtz)
Steen, the self-proclaimed “Jesus guy” and “faith guy,” did the Satanic Temple a tremendous favor in 2024. As director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, he banned the Satanic Temple’s holiday display in the rotunda of the Iowa state capitol beside a state-allowed display by a Christian group. In so doing, Steen drew tremendous attention to a religion that few had heard of.
Now, campaigning to be the Republican nominee for governor, Steen seems intent on building the Satanic Temple into an evil monster threatening the good townsfolk of a Christian state.
Steen just put up a TV ad titled “Good vs. Evil.” In it he says “I’m a Christian conservative.[…] I’ll protect your kids against radical, woke ideology. I’ll keep the Satanists out of the Capitol. Because our Iowa values are under attack, and we don’t keep them without a fight. This campaign is a battle of good versus evil.”
He continues to depict the Satanic Temple as a powerful army taking no prisoners as they march into our public schools and buildings. If Steen continues to provide free publicity, attendance at the temple’s next event could swell into the twenties.
Should “the faith guy” succeed in convincing Iowans that legions of Satanists are attacking our values, we might hear more about Steen’s way of looking at the world.
As director of the Department of Administrative Services, he decreed the abrupt closing of the State Historical Society in Iowa City, declining to tell its stakeholders because “nothing technically requires” public input. More recently, he created another monster in the fight between good and evil, declaring at an April 20 news conference,
If I have to, I will sign an executive order ensuring Iowa law, not foreign law. […]
Simply put, I am denouncing Sharia law, and my commitment to Iowans is to ensure Sharia law is outright banned from our state, and in no way will gain even a small foothold in any governing body across the state of Iowa.
I’ll contribute $100 to Dr. Franken-Steen’s campaign if he can document a single instance of Sharia law in any city council, school board, board of supervisors, or legislature in the United States of America. But what’s a little fearmongering when you’re in a battle of Good vs. Evil?
Top photo of Adam Steen was first published on his campaign’s Facebook page on April 22.