Thanks to the evangelical push for public schools to open up their doors to religious groups during after school hours, The Satanic Temple’s After School Satan clubs are getting ready to establish chapters in schools across the country.
Although it’s an unconfirmed yet highly plausible theory of mine, The ST most likely consists of secular/atheist folks who are devoted to holding religious groups’ feet to the fire (pun intended) in regards to their push to have their interpretation of “religious freedom” adopted in public institutions.
Regardless of their ‘spiritual’ background or lack thereof, the intention of the clubs is to put Christian groups in the position of being consistent with their religious freedom rhetoric. If a Christian group demands that the Satanists be removed, then they risk having schools reject after school clubs in general as the law would require.
As Hermant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist points out, Reverend Franklin Graham doesn’t understand this simple concept.
In the tweet below, Graham essentially demands that schools show favoritism to Christian groups. In the tweet, he provides a link to his full statement in the matter:
Pray for parents and school leadership to have wisdom to refuse these After School Satan Clubs! https://t.co/HTWcLEVfYx
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) August 1, 2016
“We are already seeing the devastating effects of secularism everywhere,” Graham writes. “These self-proclaimed political activists are open about the fact that they’re really just trying to counter the success of Christian clubs such as the “Good News Clubs” that have spread across America. They think there’s not enough separation of church and state.”
“Let’s also pray for school leadership to have wisdom to decline the letter of request for these After School Satan Clubs which the article says will be going out today–they even include a link to the letter,” Graham concludes, before asking his followers for their thoughts.
From The Friendly Atheist:
Graham, of course, thinks Christians deserve special privilege. He believes public schools should be able to allow Christian clubs while rejecting non-Christian clubs, even though the Satanic group in this case is preaching Humanistic values like “free inquiry and rationalism.”
Announcing the launch of the Satanic Temple's "After School Satan" kids' club, coming to schools nationwide! https://t.co/LI4F1FSJ0U
— The Satanic Temple – Washington State (@TST_Washington) July 30, 2016
"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not" https://t.co/YQte3livCD
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) July 30, 2016
As we’ve seen time and time again, The Satanic Temple has brilliantly figured out a way to beat dominionist religious groups at their own game in a way most secular activists usually can’t.
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