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Satan in Our Public Schools
According to this report in the Washington Post, the Satanic Temple is launching a drive to start after-school Satan clubs in elementary schools across the nation. It seems obvious from their point of view:
They’re here plotting to bring their wisdom to the nation’s public elementary school children. They point out that Christian evangelical groups already have infiltrated the lives of America’s children through after-school religious programming in public schools, and they appear determined to give young students a choice: Jesus or Satan.
The Supreme Court opened the doors of schools to religious clubs in 2001 in its Good News Club v. Milford Central School decision. The majority held that banning a religious club from meeting after hours on school grounds was impermissible viewpoint discrimination in violation of the 1st Amendment’s free speech clause. Taking the goose/gander approach, the Satanic Temple has set out to balance the views of what the article characterizes as “a fundamentalist form of evangelical Christianity.”
According to the article:
The Satanic Temple makes no secret of its desire to use that same approach. “We would like to thank the Liberty Counsel specifically for opening the doors to the After School Satan Clubs through their dedication to religious liberty,” Greaves explained to the gathering of chapter heads in Salem. “So, ‘the Satanic Temple leverages religious freedom laws that put after-school clubs in elementary schools nationwide.’ That’s going to be the message.”
However, I wonder if this is using a tool in a manner counter to its purpose and design. These Satanists do not present themselves as a religion and seem to only desire to counter religion in the public square.
But the group’s plan for public schoolchildren isn’t actually about promoting worship of the devil. The Satanic Temple doesn’t espouse a belief in the existence of a supernatural being that other religions identify solemnly as Satan, or Lucifer, or Beelzebub. The Temple rejects all forms of supernaturalism and is committed to the view that scientific rationality provides the best measure of reality.
According to Mesner, who goes by the professional name of Lucien Greaves, “Satan” is just a “metaphorical construct” intended to represent the rejection of all forms of tyranny over the human mind.
…
The blend of political activism, religious critique and performance art that characterizes the After School Satan Club proposal is not a new approach for the Satanic Temple. It is just the most recent in a series of efforts that have made the Temple famous and notorious.
In the end, the purpose becomes clear. The Satanic Temple is not a separate religion competing for public space in which to proclaim its beliefs. Were it that I would climb atop the soap box with them and lend my support for their cause even though I disagree absolutely with the substance of their beliefs. Rather, it is an anti-religious organization seeking not the promotion of free speech but the silencing of speech with which its members disagree. They do not wish to win the battle of ideas through fair play but seek merely to force a forfeit by destroying the field.
Published in General
I agree, well said. If you are willing to give the government the power to determine if religions are fit, don’t bitch and moan when you find yours on the politically unpopular side….
A two edged sword implies it would actually be used against Islam. All of the above could be used against every Mosque in the nation right now.
I do not think there should be income taxes, and I do not think there should therefore be tax exempt Churches. It would solve a lot of problems.
What you speak of is a the Evil of the Left. They hate all religions, but are in alliance with Islamism because it suits their ends to destroy America as it is, to rebuild it as something else.
Finally, “equal rights under the law” in no way means who gets to preach. It is the right to be treated equally under the law. Islam, I hasten to add, does not believe in this at all. In fact, the whole concept of equality in the eyes of God comes from, wait for it,
Christianity.
Anyone who refuses to go to war to defend their freedom is a free-rider on those who will. But at least they don’t try to get their children shot.
But those are general applicability laws that all citizens have to follow. Christians can’t stone to death their unruly children. Satanist can’t engage in human sacrifice.
???
Guy in Palestine who was sending his son out against IDF in the hopes they would shoot him. Sick.
They are laws that are against core teaching of other faiths. Those faiths have to bend to our laws. Those laws have a moral base in Christian values.
Western Civilization is not neutral, it is based on Christian values, and individualism is based on Protestant values. The idea that God is worried about each and every person, that every single person has the same value, not due to acts, but because they are children of God is a Christian notion. Western non-believers can cry all they want too about oppression, but the only people in the world willing to tolerate them are Christians.
All faiths have to bend to our laws or face the legal consequences…
Hey now, I wasn’t the one that brought up government outlawing certain religions. I disagree on principle and we both seem to agree it would not go well in our current political climate. Let’s not then raise it as a viable option.
We will likely never eliminate this system. I’d prefer to get the laws to the place where the tax exempt status can’t be used as a cudgel.
I can’t overstate the positive contributions of Christianity on what we know as Western Civilization. I agree Islam is objectively harmful in so many ways. I believe Jesus is the only Savior. I just don’t want to see religious liberty crushed because of this decade’s threat.
Islam is not this decade’s threat. It has always been a threat to Christianity.
You want public schools? Then this is what you get.
They aren’t a religious institution recognized by this country, but a cult. They don’t have any holidays on the calendar, and they are just a pile of disorganized trouble makers. They need to be thrown out on their ear – they can spend their money that is put in the baskets that are passed around (or not) on their worship days by their congregations, to pay their attorneys for their case to go to the Supreme Court.
They tried to hold a satanic mass at Harvard and that backfired, then tried to erect a satanic statue at the state house Tallahassee. Governor Scott tossed them out.
I wrote a letter back in 2014 to the Michigan State Legislature when they attempted to erect a satanic statue alongside a Christmas display on state grounds and said:
“I don’t know what the language is in your state constitution, but the official Wikipedia definition of a holiday is a day that has been sanctioned by the country, or in our case the federal government, to be an official recognized holiday usually with time off and government buildings closed, such as Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc. or with a history associated with that particular date like St. Patrick’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, etc. Each state also sanctions what constitutes an official holiday.”
They are out to mock the Christian church.
Hell, let ’em do it. Just make sure to publish Their names and publish Them often.
The first thing someone does when They meet someone else is google Their name.
Anytime during Their Lifetime:
College Administrator: “So, what’s this about a satan club?”
Student: “Oh… that? It’s… just… well… I mean….”
Potential Employer: “So, what’s this about a satan club?”
Employee: “Oh… that? It’s… just… well… I mean…”
Potential Girlfriend: “So, what’s this about a satan club?”
Junior: “Oh… that? It’s… just… well… I mean…”
From the Post’s article:
Directly preceding that sentence:
I’m sure by “healthful snack” they mean baby meat. Later on:
Yawn. Sounds like every other boring after-school activity, only run by people fishing for controversy, and the fish bite yet again. Hell, they make Satan look like a lame-wad. That’s the real tragedy.
Atheists are hypocrites who are as religious as anybody else, unless, of course, giving them religious status would be inconvenient for me, then they are nothing of the sort. Doesn’t even matter if we’re talking about a group of atheists who explicitly claim to be a religion. Got it.
Suppose they get their way and religiously-affiliated organizations are no longer allowed to run these sorts of programs in public schools. Evangelicals would still be able to run things like the Good News Club on private property. The After School Satan’s Club has more to gain from being school-sanctioned than the Good News Club. To reiterate a point made multiple times in this thread, the problem is the public school system, specifically the “public” part.
You’re both sort of right, but not for the reasons you think. The Satanic Temple featured in the article is not only separate from The Church of Satan, but explicitly rejects certain aspects of it. The CoS is the original, so other groups taking the Satanist label are arguably not true Satanists (which is the official stance of the Church).
Satanism as Anton LaVey first conceived it, was always atheistic. Funny thing is, his philosophy is basically Randian Objectivism with some occult symbolism and rituals thrown in (and bits plagiarized from Ragnar Redbeard, for good measure). Sacrifice of animals or people is not part of it. Illegal drug use is forbidden and self-destructive behavior is anathema as individualism and personal responsibility are considered virtues. It’s elitist and does not proselytize (a major difference compared to the TST). In short, pretty damned right wing.
This is a really interesting point. US culture really does change what counts as a religion here.
Yeah, teaching kids about science in a room with a cartoon devil on the wall is way worse than picketing the funerals of murdered children.
There are parents watching their children starve to death, villages are being ravaged by war, natural disasters kill thousands of people and the Almighty’s priority is to show up some schmuck whose idea of tormenting someone is to buy them groceries. The old lady’s logic isn’t so airtight.
Faith not logic.
How fitting that self-described satanists are basically libertine materialists – similar to a lot of the anti-religious of our time.
Reminds me of the time I watched the head of some Satanic group being interviewed on some cable news show. With a wolf’s grin she boiled down her beliefs to “there is no sin.”
Yes. The worst punishment for this group would be to actually force them to establish and run these after school clubs.
In this way, they really are of the Devil’s party. In a more literal way than they can possibly know.
Disbelief in the supernatural is philosophical materialism, which is different than the common usage of the term. Nothing in what you quoted suggests the Temple of Satan supports being libertine. The Church of Satan is adamantly opposed to drug abuse, and while more permissive of sexual activity among adults, does not promote reckless promiscuity.
Should your recollection of a news clip have any worth? Do you remember who the woman was and what group she was the head of? The media has a terrible track record reporting on this issue (like so many others).
And I thought my sense of humor was out of shape. The point was that, contra KP, this kind of activist will probably help religious clubs, not kill them.
If they really were Satanists, perhaps forming a club could help achieve some moral clarity.
However, they are clearly Atheist anti-Christians who are simply using the name of Satan as a false flag to attack Christian expression of religion in the schools and other public venues. They candidly admit to deceptive practices, which should automatically throw up a flag as to why any school should allow them in.
Now, if they were to change their name to the “Anti-Christian Atheist Club,” I don’t think I would object so much.
The problem is, there are lots of schools where it is really hard to find solid truthful information about Christianity. Who would monitor this club for accuracy of teachings on matters of history, or teachings about Christians and the Bible?
What an absurd statement.
Courts cannot define religions. As mentioned above, they can disallow certain behaviors that are against government policy, such as theocracy or dismembering required by Islam, but the beliefs cannot be dictated or defined. Nor should the government try.
I posit that a club meeting after school is not harming anyone no matter if they are mocking christians with a “satanic” club or if they are mocking Jews with their Baptist club. At some point you’ve got to just let people be free.
Christians would be well advised to defend this club, even if it is a farce, because if we allow the government to tell us what satanism is, then we imply the right to tell Catholics what their version of the Trinity should be.
That’s how freedom works. Are we so far gone as not to see that?
I’m beginning to think we might have a disciple of Anton Levey’s in our midst.
My rub is that these people don’t even claim to be Satanists. They make known that they are not a religious based organization yet they are using freedom of religion to prevent free expression of religious ideas. If the real Satanists showed up and wanted to make a club then I would support that because it would be a matter of freedom of religion.
And thus you are defining the sincerity of their beliefs? What is the level of sincerity that you’d like them to adhere to? Should the government require Catholics to not eat meat on Fridays during Lent or else they are not truly Catholic?