<div dir="ltr"><h1>Satanic temple seeks to open after-school clubs across the US</h1>
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<div>by <b><a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/author/associated-press/" title="Posts by Associated Press" rel="author" target="_blank">Associated Press</a></b></div>
<div>posted <time datetime="2016-08-05 09:50:42">Friday, 5 Aug 2016<br><a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/08/05/satanic-temple-seeks-to-open-after-school-clubs-across-the-us/" target="_blank">http://www.catholicherald.co.<wbr>uk/news/2016/08/05/satanic-<wbr>temple-seeks-to-open-after-<wbr>school-clubs-across-the-us/</a><br></time></div>
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<div><img style="margin-right: 0px;" src="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/content/uploads/2016/08/PA-25424181-2-800x500.jpg" alt="A Satanic Temple of Seattle member (AP)" height="210" width="336"> <div>
A Satanic Temple of Seattle member (AP) </div>
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<p><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>A Satanic group is attempting to start after-school programmes in at least nine school districts</b></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Several districts contacted by The Associated Press said they were
reviewing the group’s request and noted their facilities were available
to community groups.</p>
<p>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<b> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">Satanism as an atheist philosophy whose believers
“feel it provides everything a religion provides to be legitimized as
such.”</span></b></p>
<p style="margin-left:40px"><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>The Satanic Temple, which is based in Salem, Massachusetts, and has
chapters in several states, said it wants to counte</b></span>r <span style="background-color:rgb(255,229,153)"><b>well-funded
fundamentalist Christian organization<span style="background-color:rgb(255,229,153)">s</span></b><b> that</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>it believes are eroding the
separation of church and state in public schools</b></span>. Greaves said the
after-school program would show “that people can be of different
religious opinions and still be moral, upright people.”</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>Greaves said his group could pose tough legal fights if its requests are denied.</p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>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</b></span>. 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The other districts are in Georgia, California, Florida, Oregon, Washington state and Arizona.</p>
<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>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</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,229,153)"><b>a Ten Commandments
monument.</b></span> Oklahoma’s Supreme Court later banned all religious displays
on Capitol grounds.<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> The group is seeking to do the same outside
Arkansas’ statehouse,</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,229,153)"><b>where a Ten Commandments monument has been proposed.</b></span><br></div>