Satanic Temple Requesting After School Satan Club at Mount Vernon School

Mount Vernon, Washington- The Satanic Temple of Seattle has requested the Mount Vernon School District  allow an After School Satan Club (ASSC) at Centennial Elementary. This request is  in direct response to the current After School club allowed to meet at the school, which is a bible based club called the Good News Club.

According to afterschoolsatan.com, Centennial Elementary in Mount Vernon is one of several school districts in multiple states  that  The Satanic Temple (TST) has requested to have their After School  Satan Club allowed to meet at.  In addition to Washington State, the After School Satan club has also requested permission to be included at schools in Washington D.C., Georgia, California, Oregon, Utah, Missouri and Arizona.

Currently, the number of After School Satan Clubs (ASSC) is limited, as the program is very new. However, The Satanic Temple website says “After School Satan Club has generated a massive wave of interest immediately upon being announced. Across the nation, parents are concerned about encroachments by proselytizing evangelicals in their public schools, and are eager to establish the presence of a contrasting voice that helps children to understand that one doesn’t need to submit to superstition in order to be a good person. Our goal, ultimately, is to place an ASSC in every school where the Good News Clubs, or other proselytizing religious groups, have established a presence.”

According to the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) website, “[…] the United States Supreme Court  ruled on June 11th, 2001 in (Good News Club v. Milford Central School District  that a public school which allows use of its facilities to secular groups may not discriminate against religious groups.” And now that the CEF has established its Bible-based Good News Clubs across the nation, TST are eager to offer their own after school satan clubs, which will focus upon “critical reasoning, independent-thinking, fun, and free-thought.”

The website also states, while the presence of a religious organization in public schools will no doubt be shocking to some, evangelical litigants — primarily the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) represented by lawyers from the Liberty Counsel — have solidly established the legal rights of religious organizations to operate clubs in public schools.

According to TST spokesperson, 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. This being the case, we are sure that 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. We would like to thank the Liberty Counsel, specifically, for opening the doors of public schools to the After School Satan Club through their dedication to religious liberty.”

Elaborating the mission of the After School Satan Clubs, Greaves states, “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. While the Good News Clubs focus on indoctrination, instilling them with a fear of Hell and God’s wrath, After School Satan Clubs will focus on free inquiry and rationalism, the scientific basis for which we know what we know about the world around us. We prefer to give children an appreciation of the natural wonders surrounding them, not a fear of everlasting other-worldly horrors.”

The Satanic Temple issues preemptive corrections to inevitable false claims about their after school program.  “We are not interested in converting children to Satanism. Unlike the Child Evangelism Fellowship, which openly seeks to convert children to their religious view through fear of eternal suffering, The Satanic Temple does not believe in imposing a one-size-fits-all approach to religious opinion. As Satanists, we believe that science is the best arbiter of truth. We see the quest for knowledge as a noble pursuit, and we believe in personal autonomy. However, nobody needs to be a Satanist to benefit from any of these things, and children should be given access to a variety of comparative opinions with which they can ultimately decide what is best for them. After School Satan Clubs are conducted by Satanists in accordance with our values, but participating children are neither required to identify as Satanists, nor will we ask that they, at any point, do so.

Wouldn’t this program be better if you merely called yourself Humanists? No, we are Satanists. That is how we identify, and it is how we’ll continue to identify. It makes no difference who does or does not choose to recognize an atheistic Satanic philosophy as a legitimate religion. Satanism is the foundation of our sense of cultural identity and we’re not willing to change how we contextualize our own lives to make ourselves more palatable to others. Just the same, there are those who will lament that our program, introduced into public schools, would be better for children if done under the label of Humanism, Skepticism, or anything less controversial than Satanism. We wholeheartedly disagree. As we are intentionally and pointedly placing After School Satan Clubs in schools where proselytizing evangelicals have established clubs, we think that the counter-balance of a Satanic club isn’t simply acceptable, but necessary. While the Good News Clubs try to invade children’s minds with traumatic and unhealthy guilt-ridden admonishments — such as that they “deserve God’s punishment for sin, which is death” — the very presence of Satanic after school clubs demonstrate that there are opposing religious beliefs held by responsible, respectable, moral people who live productive lives without the burden of superstitious fear. For children to see and understand that “blasphemous” names and iconography can be utilized by good people without repercussions, sends a positive message encouraging critical examination and free thought.

After School Satan Clubs are operated by local chapters of The Satanic Temple by volunteer members who have been vetted by the Executive Ministry for professionalism, social responsibility, superior communication skills, and lack of criminal history.

The website stresses, The Satanic Temple is not interested in operating After School Satan Clubs in school districts that are not already hosting the Good News Club. However, The Satanic Temple ultimately intends to have After School Satan Clubs operating in every school district where the Good News Club is represented.

The Satanic Temple website states that they do not advocate for religion in schools. However, once religion invades schools, as The Good News Clubs have, The Satanic Temple will fight to ensure that plurality and true religious liberties are respected.

Several Parents have expressed concerns over the possibility of an After School Satan Club in Mount Vernon and The Mount Vernon School District is meeting with their  Lawyers and the School Board to decide on  how to move forward with the application request.

If approved, A Copy of the Permission Slip parents would receive is Located Below:

For More Information, please visit their full website at AfterSchoolSatan.com