Portland OKs 'After School Satan Club' For Elementary Kids
The Satanic Temple is hosting an After School Satan club for elementary kids in Portland
Elementary school kids in Portland will be able to participate in an “After School Satan” club, thanks mostly to evangelical christians. Yup. You read that right.
You really have to appreciate the irony.
In 2001, a case was brought to the U.S. Supreme Court, propelled by legal advocacy groups funded by the religious right. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled excluding an after-school program because of its religious views was a violation of free-speech rights.
According to The Washington Post, because of this ruling, by 2011 there were 3,560 Good News Clubs in school. Good News Clubs are sponsored by the Child Evangelism Fellowship, and “aim to reach children as young as 5 with a fundamentalist form of evangelical Christianity.” Essentially, the religious right is responsible for opening the doors for an After School Satan Club.
And why shouldn’t there be one?
Many parents, myself included, want people pushing fundamentalist Christian views on their children about as much as they want any other religion pushed on their kids: not at all. And by that argument, a After School Satan Club for kids isn’t any worse than a Good News club. I know — shocking. Not all of us want religious views we don’t subscribe to anywhere near an elementary school campus.
You may even find satanists — who are actually atheists — to have beliefs that are not too far from your own. And no, they don’t worship Satan. They actually sound like a pretty reasonable lot. It’s their approach that’s freaking everyone the hell out.
Oh, yeah. That looks super fun. No thanks.
“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,” says the After School Satan Club site. “We prefer to give children an appreciation of the natural wonders surrounding them, not a fear of everlasting other-worldly horrors.”
The message is great. The imagery in that video, not so much. Regardless, nearly 23% of the U.S. population is religiously unaffiliated. Isn’t that enough to keep religion away from schools, which are publicly funded entities?
The group is being organized by Finn Rezz with Satanic Portland, a group he says is not about devil worship but separation of church and state. “We believe that after school religious programs don’t belong in the school system,” Rezz told KPTV.
Amen.
