Satanic Group Wants to Set up Clubs in Schools

For any Cobb County, Georgia, parents who are looking for a (rather unique) after school program for their kids who headed back to school on Monday, here's one that's way out of the Bible Belt mainstream.

A list of after-school clubs forming across the nation at the website for After School Satan includes Still Elementary School in Powder Springs.

The organization's website says it plans to "leverage religious freedom laws to put after school clubs in elementary schools nationwide," laws that it says are established by decades of evangelical litigation."

The organization said it is also setting up clubs in Florida, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, Missouri and Maryland.

The Cobb County school system issued a statement late Monday afternoon, saying "Still Elementary School does not have an after school Satan club. The staff and leaders of Still Elementary School are focused on welcoming their students and families back to school this week.

"Learning and student safety have been and will continue to be our top priorities.”

The system also said it was sending the statement to all of the school's parents as well.

The After School Satan clubs are being organized by the Satanic Temple. According to temple co-founder Doug Mesner, who USA Today reports also goes by the name of Lucien Greaves, “School districts across the nation have received letters from The Satanic Temple explaining that we will be offering our clubs in their schools this coming school year, and parents in those schools can expect to be presented with a permission slip from their children in the first weeks of the Fall semester.

"All of the districts we’ve approached are nearby to local chapters of The Satanic Temple, and each school district has hosted, or is now hosting, Good News Clubs in their schools. We are sure the school districts we’ve approached are well aware that they are not at liberty to deny us use of their facilities, nor are they at liberty to deny us any level of representation in the schools that they afford to other school clubs — such as fliers, tables, brochures, and school-wide announcements."

Mesner told The Washington Post that, “It’s critical that children understand that there are multiple perspectives on all issues, and that they have a choice in how they think.

“It’s important that children be given an opportunity to realize that the evangelical materials now creeping into their schools are representative of but one religious opinion amongst many," he said. "We prefer to give children an appreciation of the natural wonders surrounding them, not a fear of everlasting other-worldly horrors.”

In case you want to learn more, here's a warm and fuzzy video:

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