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‘After School Satan Club’ Comes To Portland Elementary School, Christian Groups Come To Protest [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 10:40 PST, Nov 16, 2016

Earlier this month, it was reported that The Satanic Temple’s “After School Satan Club,” geared toward elementary-aged students, would have its first Portland, Oregon meeting on November 16. The After School Satan Club has been the focus of widespread criticism and controversy since it was first announced earlier this year that The Satanic Temple would be bringing their teachings to elementary schools across America. The club, which was created to provide a secular option in schools that host the Bible-based Christian “Good News Club.” Contrary to its name and the name of its founding organization, the After School Satan Club is not religious at all, but rather has been advertised as an introduction to free thinking by The Satanic Temple.

“Unlike the Good News Club, the After School Satan Club does not try to convert children to one religious ideology. Instead, it exposes children to different belief systems and encourages them to think for themselves.”

As Oregon Live reports, the After School Satan Club was deliberately targeted at public schools that allow the Good News Club to target students with their programs, and the November 16 inaugural meeting was scheduled to coincide exactly with a meeting of the Christian program.

“[The Christian Good News Club’s] purpose is to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to establish (disciple) them in the Word of God and in a local church for Christian living.”

Originally, the After School Satan Club was slated to begin in October, but the launch was pushed back to November.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YddmOikwkJs

As KOIN 6 reports, The Satanic Temple has hit some evangelical roadblocks in the organization’s attempts to bring their version of Satanism (to be clear, the organization is completely secular, but rather sees both God and Satan as myths, and promotes individual free will and free thinking rather than dogma) to school children. Religious organizations and some parents across America have opposed the After School Satan Club being brought to their public elementary schools, but ultimately The Satanic Temple has been successful in their efforts to bring the program to a handful of schools across the nation.

Largely, the success of the implementation of the After School Satan Club has been due to the shrewdness of The Satanic Temple in choosing its venues. In most cases, the secular children’s program has been proposed and introduced in schools that already offer The Good News Club. Many districts were faced with the dilemma of either allowing the After School Satan Club to proceed, shutting down their chapters of The Good News Club or facing First Amendment religious freedom/and or religious discrimination lawsuits.

Portland’s first After School Satan Club event took place at Sacramento Elementary School. Billed as an open house, which was open to parents and community members interested in the After School Satan Club and/or curious about the club’s curriculum, the After School Satan Club event took place on the same date as The Good News Club conducted its open house.

https://twitter.com/sherricastor/status/799026848462057472

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https://twitter.com/Chaz_Van_Eyck/status/796790805826412544

According to Lucien Greaves, one of the founders of The Satanic Temple, if The Good News Club and others like it didn’t exist and weren’t actively using public school facilities to target American children, the After School Satan Club wouldn’t have come to Portland (or anywhere else).

“We feel that evangelical clubs coming in and prosletyzing children trying to get other children to convert to their fundamentalist way of thinking creates a need for us here. Something that presents scientific rationalism being put forward by a different religious group.”

https://twitter.com/TSTofSanJose/status/799005763293196288

Not surprisingly, the After School Satan Club open house brought more than just interested parents to Sacramento Elementary School. In addition to folks ready to sign their kids up for the secular youth club (and those just scoping out the program), religious protesters also descended on the school, insistent upon making their voices and views heard.

One group that was represented at the anti-After School Satan Club protest was America Needs Fatima, which is an evangelical organization based in Pennsylvania. That group’s spokesman, Jack Burnham, doesn’t see The Satanic Temple as a secular organization, nor does he believe that they are bringing equality and balance to America with their after school program.

According to Burnham, he thinks people are “afraid” of Satanism.

“They want to balance with Satan? We think people are very much afraid of Satan and Satanism and what it represents. We’re here to support them in that and keep Satan out of our schools.”

Despite the evangelical protest, Portland’s foray into the After School Satan Club appears to be successful, and it’s being reported that parents are allowing their children to participate in the free-thinking, non-religious after-school curriculum.

Members of The Satanic Temple have long pointed out that the After School Satan Club doesn’t include any religious or spiritual instruction, and that all students who participate in must have permission slips signed by their parents first.

[Featured Image by Elise Amendola/AP Images]

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