Tire tracks lead to a pentagram vandalized in Sanborn Square. The pentagram was repaired
and reinstalled Dec. 28. It was vandalized again early Jan. 2.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Sallie James
A satanic pentagram with a banner disavowing the existence of heaven and hell was repeatedly vandalized after it was put up in Sanborn Square Park last month.
The pentagram display was erected under the protection of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of religion and speech. The city has allowed religious groups to set up seasonal displays in the park at 72 N. Federal Highway for years.
Boca Raton Community Middle School teacher Preston Smith, a self-described atheistic satanist, created the pentagram sculpture and expected it to create the stir that it did. Police were called to the park eight times for vandalism-related incidents in December and January.
“It’s very polarizing,” conceded Smith, who lives in Lantana. He created the display to let others know that atheists in the community have the same right to make a statement as Christians, Jews and any other religious groups.
“If you open up public forums and invite one religious group, you better be ready for anything,” Smith said. “The real intention is to rebuild the wall of separation between church and state. The Christians and Jews do not have a monopoly on wedging their views into our public sphere.”
Smith said vandals tore his display from its base on Dec. 20 and shredded the accompanying banner, from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The banner, which was spray-painted on another occasion and stolen once, proclaimed there are “no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.”
The display went back up on Dec. 28 after being repaired, Smith said.
The city acknowledged the controversial nature of the pentagram display in a Dec. 6 statement, noting that previous religious displays in Sanborn Square have “contained messages projecting the themes of peace, forgiveness and harmony.”
“This display appears to be more about shock value, attention and challenging our commitment to constitutionally protected free speech rather than promoting goodwill, respect and tolerance during the holiday season,” the city statement said.
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