‘After School Satan Club’ for Elementary Students Draws Criticism From Parents in Tennessee
“At a time when our kids should be growing and learning to be better people, this comes along. The name itself is just out of touch with what most of us want our kids exposed to.”
Make no mistake. This is meant to be insulting and demeaning. The people behind this do not have good intentions and the parents of this community have every right to be insulted by it.
FOX News reports:
‘After School Satan Club’ draws concern from Tennessee parents: ‘Find somewhere else’
A Tennessee elementary school’s plan to allow the Satanic Temple to host an after-school program in its library is facing backlash from the students’ parents and family members, one of whom insists the program is equipped to “negatively impact” children.
The Satanic Temple plans to host its first After School Satan Club (ASSC) in Cordova, Tennessee, on Jan. 10, 2024, at Chimneyrock Elementary School.
A flyer for the event describes the Satanic Temple as a non-theistic religion recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a church. The church views Satan as a literary figure who represents a “metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit.”
They added that the “Satan Club” will not attempt to convert students to any religious ideology. Instead, the Satanic Temple encourages “children to think for themselves.”
One parent who asked that their identity remain anonymous due to the circumstances told Fox News Digital that she is “concerned and anxious” over the school’s decision to play host to the group next year.
“This program has great potential to negatively impact children at school there,” the parent said. “At a time when our kids should be growing and learning to be better people, this comes along. The name itself is just out of touch with what most of us want our kids exposed to.”
“My kid won’t be attending, and I hope other mothers and fathers out there will be mindful before allowing their children to participate,” the parent added. “We’re better than this – as a group, as a community, and hopefully as a school.”
The parent, who said her child expressed no interest in attending the program ever since they were made aware of it, said she hopes to see the school reverse its decision on allowing the program to take place in the school library.
“My child’s school library isn’t for this kind of program,” the parent said. “My suggestion to the Satanic Temple would be to find somewhere else, maybe more accepting, to take this.”
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Comments
In other words these parents want to see Christianity given a privileged position at a state school. They are fine with the school giving space to Christian after-school programs run by outside groups, but want it to exclude programs run by rivals to Christianity. That is precisely what the first amendment forbids. The view promoted by the “Church of Satan”, that people ought not to submit to any god but their own reasoning and judgment, is equal to any other religious view, and the state must treat them as equally acceptable. People who don’t like it should tell their children not to attend, exactly as non-Christian parents must tell their children not to attend Christian programs, and can’t get them banned.
(What these “Satanists” want is for the school to ban all religious programs. That’s the reason they do this. But then it has to ban all secular programs too, because it can’t discriminate against religion. So they have to make do with just rubbing Christians’ noses in the fact that theirs is not the only religion in town, and it doesn’t get a privileged position.)
Actually the parents make no mention of Christianity at all, nor am I aware of after school clubs being limited to Christian.
There is debate as to what the so called Church of Satan really is. Does it worship Satan and evil? Does it see “Satan as a literary figure who represents a ‘metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit'”? Is it about promoting humans as gods? Is it simply a Christophobic organisation? Whereas a Muslim club at least has a clear basis, the CoS is highly controversial and it is far from clear they act in good faith.
You claim these Satanists want to ban all religious programs, but have you ever heard of them operating in Muslim areas or Atheist areas, or anything else comparable? You say Satanists have to make do with rubbing Christians’ noses in the fact that Christianity is not the only religion in town, but Christians are all highly aware of that. As for not getting a privileged position, since when was Christianity privileged? The old interpretation of the 1st Amendment not giving preference to specific Christian denominations has long been supplanted by the view that preference to Christianity over Atheism, Islam, Shintoism etc is not legal. The reverse is less clear however.
They don’t have to explicitly mention Christianity. Their complaint makes it blindingly obvious that that is what they want. Only Christians (and Moslems) would object to these programs, and for a state school to adopt the view that there’s something wrong with Satanism, or that Satan is evil, is precisely what the first amendment forbids.
No, there’s no debate what this “church” is. It explicitly says what it is, and it’s a program that makes sense, given the atheist premise. It’s rooted in Milton, fercryinoutloud. Or see the extremely popular Philip Pullman novels.
And yes, their agenda is to drive religion out of the public sphere, the way the ACLU tried to do in the last century. They can’t do it legally, as the ACLU learned, so their alternative is to make the public sphere so uncomfortable for Christians to occupy that they will withdraw voluntarily.
Hmmm, rejecting tyranny. That’s what he said to Eve and look where it got us
Yeah. Karen!
When lefties tell you who they really are, believe them.