[Grem] Satanic after-school clubs across the US

[Emoke Greschik]

Satanic temple seeks to open after-school clubs across the US
by *Associated Press
<http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/author/associated-press/>*
posted Friday, 5 Aug 2016
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/08/05/satanic-
temple-seeks-to-open-after-school-clubs-across-the-us/
[image: A Satanic Temple of Seattle member (AP)]
A Satanic Temple of Seattle member (AP)

*A Satanic group is attempting to start after-school programmes in at least
nine school districts*

After-school religious clubs appear to be the next venture of a national
group that sought to install a statue of Satan outside two state capitols
to protest Christian monuments on public grounds.

The Satanic Temple contacted nine public school districts across the
country this week seeking to start after-school Satan programs. In all but
one district, religious clubs are operated by the Child Evangelism
Fellowship’s Good News Clubs, in which students can study the Bible and
pray, according to temple co-founder Lucien Greaves.

Several districts contacted by The Associated Press said they were
reviewing the group’s request and noted their facilities were available to
community groups.

Mat Staver, founder of a Christian legal aid group that has represented the
Child Evangelism Fellowship, said Greaves’ organization was illegitimate
and an “atheist group masquerading” as religious. Greaves described*
Satanism as an atheist philosophy whose believers “feel it provides
everything a religion provides to be legitimized as such.”*

*The Satanic Temple, which is based in Salem, Massachusetts, and has
chapters in several states, said it wants to counte*r *well-funded
fundamentalist Christian organizations** that* *it believes are eroding the
separation of church and state in public schools*. Greaves said the
after-school program would show “that people can be of different religious
opinions and still be moral, upright people.”

“We think that when kids are being exposed to the idea that they will burn
in hell and other supernatural ideas, that there is a positive upshot to
being exposed to the presence of a satanic afterschool program,” he said.

Greaves said his group could pose tough legal fights if its requests are
denied.

*In Utah, the Granite School District said that if the group meets set
requirements, including paying rent, there’s nothing the district can do to
stop it*. District spokesman Ben Horsley said the group won’t be able to
put up fliers in schools or talk to students during school hours, the same
arrangement given to the Good News Club.

Springfield Public Schools in Missouri also said it was reviewing the
group’s request. It noted that granting requests to use the district’s
taxpayer-funded facilities “does not constitute the district’s
endorsement.” The school district in Prince George’s County, Maryland,
described a similar policy and noted parental permission was required for
after-school activities.

The other districts are in Georgia, California, Florida, Oregon, Washington
state and Arizona.
*The Satanic Temple has taken up similar causes outside schools, including
seeking to install an 8½-foot-tall bronze statue of Satan at the Oklahoma
Capitol to stand in contrast to* *a Ten Commandments monument.* Oklahoma’s
Supreme Court later banned all religious displays on Capitol grounds.* The
group is seeking to do the same outside Arkansas’ statehouse,* *where a Ten
Commandments monument has been proposed.*
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