[Dismas]

I believe it's often misunderstood, and for obvious reasons.

Satan is hebrew for adversary. You probably know that in Abrahamic religions, it's an alias of the devil, or Lucifer. This confuses a lot of Christians, without a doubt. And that's an issue, because Christianity is one of the largest religions. The religion shares the name of Christianity's biggest enemy. Few Christians will know about Satanism, as they've never needed to read into it, and they shouldn't. It doesn't help that a lot of people representing Satanism look like your stereotypical serial killer, dressed in complete black, with makeup. To an old traditional Christian, those people don't look very approachable, so they aren't given a chance to explain their religion. I've read a fair amount on LaVeyan Satanism, and I'd say that there isn't anything inherently awful about it. But, most people don't know that, and they don't care.