Group Wants 'After School Satan' Club in Public Schools
Because "rationality."
8.1.2016
38
In an effort to "counter evangelism in schools," The Satanic Temple has begun a new initiative to bring an after-school program all about Satan to public schools across the country.
Well, not so much about Satan as secularism and "rationality." Contrary to its name, The Satanic Temple is not a church that worships Satan, but a front for atheism. Its members are political activists bent on leveraging the Constitution's religious freedom clause to include their "religion" alongside others practiced in the public arena. The temple is the group behind the Baphomet statue for children and similar activism, usually forcing Satanic displays to sit next to Christmas displays at various city halls.
Here is the temple's explanation for the "need" for an after-school Satan program and an offer to donate:
Fundamentalist Christian organizations are trying to turn public schools into indoctrination camps for children. With millions in funding and a team of aggressive lawyers, they have been successfully eroding the separation of Church and State. Your donation will allow us to expand our campaign to undermine their efforts and enable us to continue to advance campaigns that protect religious pluralism and defend personal sovereignty.
“It’s important that children be given an opportunity to realize that the evangelical materials now creeping into their schools are representative of but one religious opinion amongst many," its website continues:
While the Good News Clubs focus on indoctrination, instilling them with a fear of Hell and God’s wrath, After School Satan Clubs will focus on free inquiry and rationalism, the scientific basis for which we know what we know about the world around us. We prefer to give children an appreciation of the natural wonders surrounding them, not a fear of everlasting other-worldly horrors.
In other words, they want a club about a fallen angel they don't even believe in. Doesn't that negate the logic they're after?
According to The Washington Post, plans are already underway to bring this program to the people:
On Monday, the group plans to introduce its After School Satan Club to public elementary schools, including one in Prince George’s County, petitioning school officials to allow them to open immediately as the academic year starts. Chapter heads from New York, Boston, Utah and Arizona were in Salem on July 10 talking strategy, with others from Minneapolis, Detroit, San Jose, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Florida participating online. The promotional video, which feels like a mash-up of a horror movie trailer and a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, will serve to promote the new club along with its website — Afterschoolsatan.com.
Here's the promotional video, complete with sepia tones, children walking backwards, spiders, clowns, and general satanic glossolalia:
The co-founder of The Satanic Temple, Doug Mesner a.k.a. Lucien Greaves, told WaPo,
We are only doing this because Good News Clubs have created a need for this. If Good News Clubs would operate in churches rather than public schools, that need would disappear. But our point is that if you let one religion into the public schools you have to let others, otherwise it’s an establishment of religion.
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