The following comes from a July 30 Washington Post article by Katherine Stewart, author of The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children.
SALEM, Mass. —It’s a hot summer night, and leaders of the Satanic Temple have gathered in the crimson-walled living room of a Victorian manse in this city renowned for its witch trials in the 17th century. They’re watching a sepia-toned video, in which children dance around a maypole, a spider crawls across a clown’s face and eerie, ambient chanting gives way to a backward, demonic voice-over. The group chuckles with approval.
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.
“It’s critical that children understand that there are multiple perspectives on all issues, and that they have a choice in how they think,” said Doug Mesner, the Satanic Temple’s co-founder.
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 Satanic Temple — which has been offering tongue-in-cheek support for the fallen angel in public arenas that have embraced prayer and parochial ceremonies — is bringing its fight over constitutional separation of church and state to the nation’s schools.
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 curriculum for the proposed after-school clubs emphasizes the development of reasoning and social skills. The group says meetings will include a healthful snack, literature lesson, creative learning activities, a science lesson, puzzle solving and an art project. Every child will receive a membership card and must have a signed parental permission slip to attend.
“While the Good News Clubs focus on indoctrination, instilling children with a fear of hell and God’s wrath, After School Satan Clubs will focus on free inquiry and rationalism,” Greaves said. “We prefer to give children an appreciation of the natural wonders surrounding them, not a fear of an everlasting other-worldly horror.”
Good News Club leaders have defended their organization’s presence in public schools. According to the Good News Club’s website, “each club includes a clear presentation of the Gospel and an opportunity for children to trust the Lord Jesus as Savior. Every club also includes strong discipleship training to build character and strengthen moral and spiritual growth.”
Amy Jensen, a professional educator in Tucson who has a master’s degree in curriculum, instruction and teaching from the University of Denver, says she has decided to lead an After School Satan Club after comparing its curriculum materials with those of the Good News Club. Jensen noted that the Satanic Temple’s materials say the group encourages benevolence and empathy among all people, and advocates practical common sense.
“As a teacher, if I were deciding whether to teach that or the fear and hatred of other people’s beliefs, which is what Good News Clubs teach, I would choose what the Satanic Temple has available,” she said.
Please tell me someone is pulling a leg. Wonder what the background checks on this lot would reveal?
“In the End My Immaculate Heart Will Triumph!” –
The Fatima Prayer: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Your Mercy”.
(Our Lady at Fatima, 13th July 1917)
From the the very bowels of the fiery pit of hell, ….A smiley face, showing great jubilation over the great loss of faith, decadence and moral decline in the world.
Mysterious Smiley Face Appears in Hawaiian Volcano
https://abcnews.go.com/US/mysterious-smiley-face-appears-hawaiian-volcano-eruption/story?id=41039508
this is a real problem. in current American public schools, when the satan club convenes in the afternoon – how will be able to distinguish it from the normal curriculum of the school day??
Cannot have Christian clubs or information on campus, but can have satanic is beyond belief. God will punish those responsible I am certain.
That’s not true, John Patrick. If a school has clubs, it must allow Christian clubs to form with the same rules and guidelines as the rocket club or the chess club. Usually it involves having a faculty sponsor who signs off on every meeting or event and ensures there is adult supervision, maybe the payment of a nominal room fee. If you come across a school that does not permit religious clubs, you should report them.
Well, just look at Nostra Aetate of Vatican II which says, in its introduction: ” In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together,.. the Church examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions.”
Then, it asserts the following philosophical error: “One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the whole human race to live over the face of the earth. One also is their final goal, God. ”
Is God the final goal of the Satanist? The Wiccan? The Wahabi Muslim? or even the Sharia Muslim?
Sorry, John Patrick, you have to accept Satanism if you accept Nostra Aetate.
In fact, the ending of Nostra Aetate is even more amazing in its practical extension of the philosophical error with which it begins; it says:
‘No foundation therefore remains for any theory or practice that leads to discrimination between man and man or people and people, so far as their human dignity and the rights flowing from it are concerned. ”
“The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion.” (#5)
You cant discriminate or harass because of difference of belief system. There you have the reason for the collapse of the Catholic world into indifferentism.
What about starting an after school GOD IS LOVE CLUB.