With the help of a group of local artists, a holiday display by The Satanic Temple once again stands outside the New Hampshire State House.

“Violence and vandalism are not valid responses to something you don’t fully understand,” read a statement by the Concord Area Artist Coalition for Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion. “This is the Live Free or Die State, if you recall.”

The statue features a robed Baphomet, a goat-headed figure that The Satanic Temple’s website cites as “a pagan idol associated with the Knights Templar.” The statue holds a bouquet of lilacs, the state flower, in one hand and an apple, a reference to Isaac Newton, in the other. It is joined by a flag and tablet with The Temple’s Seven Fundamental Tenets.

Unveiled a week ago Saturday evening, the display was damaged and vandalized last Monday night and then removed. This Monday morning, it was quietly resurrected.

The artists, who declined an interview because they wish to remain anonymous out of fear for their safety, are local residents who represent a range of religious backgrounds, including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, pagans, atheists and others, according to the statement. They were “disturbed” that the display had been destroyed and that the city’s mayor, Byron Champlin, had criticized the city’s decision to grant the permit allowing it.

“No religion is better or worse than any other. No religion should be given preference over another,” the artists’ statement continued. “If one religion is allowed a holiday display, all religions and/or non-believers should be allowed holiday displays.”

Debate about the display has become heated, making national news. Newmarket state Rep. Ellen Read, who contacted The Temple about putting up a display, said Monday that she had received death threats in her voicemail and email because of her involvement. In addition to the threats, she said she had been called a “Satan worshipper” and told she would “burn for an eternity in hell.”

Read said she is frustrated at how the ideals behind the display — namely, diversity and religious pluralism— as well as many values of The Satanic Temple that she framed as aligned with a range of religions, including Christianity — particularly helping those less fortunate — had been lost in the controversy.

She wishes efforts to reduce homelessness and ameliorate the housing crisis, for example, got this much attention, she said.

The Satanic Temple, a religious organization based in Salem, Massachusetts, a branch of which has non-profit status in New Hampshire, received a permit from the City of Concord to put up a holiday display on the sidewalk in front of the State House, opposite other religious displays including a Christan nativity scene. In a statement last week, the city noted that it granted the permit under the legal determination that it had to “ban all holiday displays installed by other groups, or otherwise, to allow it.”

The Satanic Temple’s stated mission is “to encourage benevolence and empathy, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice, and undertake noble pursuits.” A nativity scene appears on the sidewalk in front of the State House annually and, at the encouragement of Read, the group sought to add to holiday displays in front of the State House as a measure of religious pluralism. It has made similar endeavors opposite Christian displays in other states and pursued litigation in cases where it has been denied permission.At a City Council meeting last week, Champlin criticized the city’s decision to issue the permit and those behind the display.

Champlin argued that The Satanic Temple is not a religious organization but a political one because of its advocacy for secularism and against organized religion. He pledged to convene an ad-hoc committee to review the city’s policies on public displays. Though, not all councilors agree with his critiques.

“It is not the place of Concord City Council to play theologists and decide the definition of religion or if we agree with a particular religion or not,” Ward 2 Councilor Michele Horne said in a statement. “It has to be either all or nothing in this case.”

Champlin also expressed resentment at what he sees as a dispute disconnected from the local community falling on the shoulders of the city.

“This is about an out-of-state group cynically promoting its national agenda at the expense of the Concord community,” he said at the meeting. In an interview with the Monitor, he reiterated that he was “upset” that the dispute was “prompted by somebody who’s not even from Concord.”

In working with The Temple to repair the statue, though, the artists’ coalition embodied a constituent backing for the city’s decision to grant the permit.

“We seek to foster understanding, inclusion, and welcoming to all in our community, regardless of belief systems, faith traditions, or lack thereof,” the artists wrote in their statement. “Thus, as good neighbors, we have offered to rebuild the holiday display that was destroyed.”

Read praised the effort.

“The artists felt strongly that we shouldn’t let the vandalism be the last word,” she said. Will it be vandalized again? Almost certainly, she said. “But I have a sense we’ll keep coming back.”

A spokesperson for The Satanic Temple did not respond to an interview request Monday.

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can follow her on X @cat_mclaugh and subscribe to her newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.