How ‘After School Satan Club’ is shaking things up

Earlier this week, a flier began circulating online about a new organization coming to Chimneyrock Elementary School in Cordova, Tennessee, about 17 miles east of Memphis.

“Hey kids!” it reads against a background of colored pencils. “Let’s have fun in the After School Satan Club.”

The club was organized by The Satanic Temple, a group that has received a lot of media attention in recent years and has infuriated conservative Christians by sponsoring similar student clubs in other school districts, objecting to abortion restrictions in Indiana and Texas, and using pentagrams and other symbols next to Christmas displays in state houses.

Okay, so what’s really going on here?

The Satanic Temple does not actually worship Satan, its leaders say.

The Satanic Temple was founded in 2013 by two men calling themselves Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry, both pseudonyms.

Based in Salem, Massachusetts, known as the home of the 17th century witch trials, the organization calls itself a non-theistic religion and engages in activism to defend pluralism, secularism and religious rights. website.

Mr Greaves, whose name is Doug Mesner, said the temple does not believe in Satan as described in the Bible, but views the concept as a “mythological framework” that encourages people to question authority and use “the best available evidence” to follow.

“Satan,” said Mr. Greaves, “is the embodiment of the ultimate rebel against tyranny.”

A demonstration sparks anger and vandalism at the Iowa State Capitol.

The temple is open about challenging what Mr. Greaves calls “our theocratic overlords.”

To that end, a statue with a mirrored ram’s head symbolizing the occult figure Baphomet was put on display at the Iowa State Capitol this month. Next to it was a sign that read: “This exhibit is not owned, maintained, promoted, endorsed, or associated with the State of Iowa.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, called the display “absolutely reprehensible,” encouraged Iowans to pray and assured them that a nativity scene — “the true reason for the season” — would also be on display.

During an appearance on the campaign trail in Iowa on Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blamed his Republican rival, Donald J. Trump, for giving the temple a “legal leg to stand on” because the Internal Revenue Service granted it a tax exemption as a religious organization in 2019, when Mr. Trump was president.

“My opinion would be that this is not the religion that the founding fathers were trying to create,” Mr. DeSantis said on CNN.

In fact, the First Amendment to the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and goes on to guarantee freedom of speech and the press. Courts have ruled that religious groups can pay to use government buildings, and Christmas decorations are allowed in public places.

That doesn’t mean everyone likes The Satanic Temple’s idea of ​​a Christmas decoration. On Thursday, someone knocked the ram’s head off the statue in the Iowa Capitol. The Iowa State Patrol said Michael Cassidy, 35, of Lauderdale, Miss., was charged with criminal mischief in the case.

A conservative website called The Republic Sentinel began raising money for his defense and citing a statement from Mr. Cassidy that he decapitated the statue to “make Christians aware of the anti-Christian acts promoted by our government.”

The temple justifies its actions under the First Amendment. Speaking to The New York Times before the statue was destroyed, Mr. Greaves said the temple was not exploiting an “unfortunate loophole in the Constitution” by placing a statue of Baphomet in the Capitol.

“This is what religious freedom is,” he said. “This is what free speech looks like. It doesn’t have to be painful if we understand its value. We should look at this with some pride.”

What is the After School Satan Club?

The temple says the clubs were founded in 2016 to provide an alternative to other religious after-school clubs, especially the Good News Club, a Christian missions program. Students play puzzles and games and do science projects, nature activities and community service.

The temple says there are four active After School Satan Clubs in the country — in California, Ohio, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, where the temple recently a $200,000 settlement with the Saucon Valley School District. The temple had accused the district of blocking the use of a high school where the Good News Club also met.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 2001 case pitting the Good News Club against a school district in New York State that public schools must open their doors to after-school religious activities on the same basis as any other after-school activity determined by school policy . permits.

This statement also metaphorically opened the door for Satan.

The Satanic Temple says it only sets up clubs in places where parents have requested them. It is alleged that the parents of 13 children at Chimneyrock Elementary signed permission forms for the first After School Satan Club meeting there on January 10.

The Times could not find a parent who signed a slip and was willing to be identified on the record. A woman widely quoted by news organizations and identified by the American Civil Liberties Union as the clubs’ national director also declined to give her real name. She said she used the name June Everett because she feared threats.

She arranged a call from someone who described herself as a parent, who said she was frustrated with Christian prayers at school and had signed her children up for the club. The woman called from a blocked number and did not want to give her name.

“Satan has no place in this neighborhood.”

The club was allowed to rent space from the school, which has students from kindergarten through fifth grade. In an email to parents, school officials said the club “has the same legal rights to use our facilities after school as any other nonprofit organization.”

Memphis-Shelby County Schools interim superintendent Toni Williams said Wednesday at a news conference with Christian pastors that she had “an obligation to uphold the policies of the board, state law and the Constitution.”

“But let’s not be fooled,” she said. “Let us not be fooled by what we have seen in the last 24 hours, which is an agenda set up to ensure that we cancel all faith-based organizations that partner with our school district.”

Althea E. Greene, the chairwoman of the Shelby County Board of Education, encouraged people to pray and “be vocal.” She describes herself as a bishop and pastor of Real Life Ministries.

“Satan has no place in this district,” she said.

A local pastor, William A. Adkins Jr., said it was critical to “not allow any entity called ‘Satanic Temple’ to have time – private time – with our children.” But he acknowledged he was unsure how to ban the group without violating the constitution.

“This is essentially what I call Satan personified,” he said. “They put us in a trick bag, and we can hardly get out of it, using the Constitution against us.”

Susan C. Beachy research contributed.