An after school Satan club could be coming to your child’s elementary school very soon.
The Satanic Temple is plotting to bring their religion to the nation’s public
elementary school children. They point out that Christian evangelical groups already have after-school religious programming in public schools, and they appear determined to give young students a choice: Jesus or Satan.
Doug Mesner, the Satanic Temple’s co-founder says “It’s critical that children understand that there are multiple perspectives on all issues, and that they have a choice in how they think.”
Chapter heads from New York, Boston, Utah and Arizona were in Salem, Massachusetts earlier this summer talking strategy, with others from Minneapolis, Detroit, San Jose, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Florida participating online.
A 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.
Good News Clubs, which are sponsored by an organization founded in 1937 called the Child Evangelism Fellowship, was banned from schools until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that to exclude an after-school program on account of the religious views of its sponsors amounted to a violation of free-speech rights.
Matt Staver – the founder of liberty counsel, which helped Good News Clubs win that supreme court case, says the Satanic Temple has a right to organize its clubs in public schools, but he opposes them. He also predicts they will attract a lot of students and then die out from lack of interest.