Community members in a Tennessee school district want to banish Satan from their children’s halls after the formation of a new club was announced.
The After School Satan Club (ASSC) wants to establish a branch in Chimneyrock elementary school in the Memphis-Shelby county schools (MSCS) district.
The ASSC is a federally recognized nonprofit organization and national after-school program with local chapters across the US. The club is associated with the Satanic Temple, though it claims it is secular and “promotes self-directed education by supporting the intellectual and creative interests of students”.
The Satanic Temple makes it clear its members do not actually worship the devil or believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural. Instead Satan is used as a symbol of free will, humanism and anti-authoritarianism.
The outrage these assholes are feeling is what the rest of us feel every time we see them trying to force their dogma into every facet of society.
Except ours is actually justified.
Way to miss the point and misunderstand it in terms of polarized politics. There is no “ours” and “theirs”.
Not everything is a debate with multiple valid points of view. The notion that your right to a belief somehow encompasses a right to inflict that belief on everybody else isn’t an ideological position; it’s a declaration of violence.
Fuck dishonest moral relativism. 2+2=4 and one person’s religious freedom ends where another person’s begins. Those are facts, not opinions, and if you disagree you’re just wrong.
The uproar is the point.
The Satanic Temple makes it clear its members do not actually worship the devil or believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural.
But somehow conservative Christians believe that there are huge swaths of people who agree that their religion is 100% correct but worship the weak bad guy character.
(Which is not to mention that there are actually multiple bad guys who got combined, Satan and Lucifer and The Snake were originally different people)
This is a long standing joke - what do you call someone who believes in Satan?
A Christian.
God is omniscient and thus knew exactly what Lucifer would do. Angels don’t have free will. Lucifer did exactly what God intended. God wanted Man to have free will. Free will requires the choice between good and evil. Man is the “bad guy” as well as the “good guy”.
If god is omniscient they would know exactly what everyone is going to choose, nullifying free will entirely
If there exists a being that experiences time the same way we experience space, do we have any less free will just because the being can continue knowing about it before it happened? The person is making the choice, not the being that knows about the choice.
Reading the outrage comments always tickles me lol. Welcome to the point, bitches!
It would be sad how badly these idiots fail to see the irony when it’s spelled out for them if it wasn’t so funny.
good, the more noise they make the more this will spread
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Everyone gets to be part of whatever religion they want, Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
What do you call someone who believes in satan?
Christian.
Yes, yes, there are other Abrahamic religions… The point is that the only group who actually believe in Satan and therefore are the ones who afford Satan a place in their society are the ones complaining.
They can’t without getting rid of all other extra curricular activities & I love that for them.
All hail Satania!
Yep, that’s the good stuff. I can hear that laugh in my head lol
Me and my wife are both members of TST and we LOVE the work they do. The Tenets they promote are loving, self-respecting, and do justice towards an ideal world of Individualism, anti-authoritarianism, and critical thinking - i.e. everything that Christianity and modern conservatism in general are eager to suppress. We regularly donate to them, and we constantly purchase stuff through their store to help support them.
Same, also a member of TST and a practicing romantic Satanist. It’s brought a lot of strength, clarity, and confidence to my life.
Satanists: No no no we don’t actually worship Satan. We just picked that name to be antagonistic towards christians.
Christians: That’s creepy either way.
Satanists: SEE? SEE? I told you they would complain.
Satanists: We picked the name to bring attention to all the things you can get away with if you call yourself a religion
Conservative: I’m not listening! THEY WORSHIP THE DEVIL!
Satanists: See? It’s working.
The “After-school Humanist Club” would not be having articles written about it.
Things you can get away with such as starting a club? That’s never been against the rules.
So why are people concerned that The Satanic Temple is starting a club? Are they concerned that they are indoctrinating children and teaching them about Satan? Because that’s the After School Christian Club doing that.
Why are christians concerned about a group who’s stated purpose is to be hostile to them? One reason jumps out at me.
That definitely shouldn’t be allowed no more than Christian clubs. (This seems much worse than a Christian club)
If a Christian club is allowed then a Satan club should be allowed. It shouldn’t be up to school administrators and politicians to deem which religions are moral enough to benefit from tax dollars. None of them should.
Honestly the school should be semi against both. Religion shouldn’t be a part of a public school.
They should be against both, that’s likely why the satanic temple is trying to get a club established. There’s probably already a Christian club and if the school allows one it should allow the other. They are unlikely to be doing it to be getting a new club, they are doing it to try and show people how hypocritical it is and how it shouldn’t be allowed.
Why is a Satan club worse than a Christian club when we know both belief systems are bullshit?
Well for one I pray for you if you think so poorly on Christianity or other religions for that matter.
Anyway worshiping the devil is just silly at best and has no place in society. We have religious freedom but that shouldn’t apply at a school. Especially since these people sound completely nuts.
What if God’s real test is being able to think critically for yourself, not giving into idolatry (ie the church), and actually appreciating the message that Satan was trying to provide us? It’d be real awkward if the true entrants into heaven end up being not devout Christians, but free-thinking Satanists. 😁
You can be a free thinking Christian as well. It really depends on your denomination. We are not all devoted Catholics you know.
That’s the point. Are you aware of The Satanic Temple and their work on the separation of church and state?
Then why are they creating a club at a school? Anyway religion forces us to care about our neighbors over ourselves. You can blow off religion all you want but at the end of the day we need more love in the world.
Because the christians have an after school club. The point is to see if they are actually going to follow the law.
If you have to be forced to care about other people, you don’t really care about them.
Religion teaches you to hate and distrust people who don’t believe the same thing as you.
The fastest growing sect of Christianity in the world are the Evangelicals. The biblical literalists that hate everyone.
Well I don’t hate other religions. Actually part if my conformation was attending a Jewish service at a synagogue. I think today’s world lacks love and compassion which religion used to provide. You don’t even need to be Christian you just need a reason to love the world.
Christian’s don’t love the world, if that were true climate change wouldn’t be an issue.
Christian’s treat the world like a motel they’ll only be staying at for a couple of days.
Christians have nothing to do with the world. Its a fairly broad religion with many different secs and organizations.
If the founders didn’t just want to stir the pot, they would call the club “free-will humanitarian anti-authority club”.
After a bit of prodding ChatGPT suggests: “Free Spirits for Global Empowerment and Liberty” (FSGEL), which is a million time better then invoking satan, just to get on people’s nervs.
I don’t quite understand, Satan is a contentious figure in Christianity (and maybe other Abrahamic religions? idk, not knowledgeable about it) and it’s reasonable to be worried or concerned as an adult about what interests the youth might have. And it really seems the opposition is simply speaking platitudes. They haven’t demonstrated 1. it is not a faith, and 2. it causes harm. The folks who are opposed surely can’t have their preferred beliefs determine the beliefs of others in areas where it’s clear there is not immediate harm.
Sorry, I don’t understand your post. Who are you arguing for? Who are “the folks who are opposed”? Those opposed to the ASS-Club?
Isn’t pot-stirring the whole point?
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Highlights religious indoctrination doesn’t really belong in schools. I can’t really speak to the organization ASSC and what they do, but that’s the point of including Satan in school. Trying to make a club for (just an example here) your Jedi church doesn’t have the same punch because Jedi haven’t been a part of culture for hundreds/thousands of years. Maybe I’m off base here, but it’s easier to make a legal argument in court that your religion is real if it’s been a part of culture for a while.
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Gives kids who are athiest/nonreligious an outlet away from all the christian stuff. Christianity can feel very oppressive in school, depending on the location. Calling it the “free spirit” club or atheist club isn’t enough. Christians tend to go out and find non-believers to bother, so designing your club as a big metaphorical middle finger can help with that. It’ll keep the young evangelists out, and it’s a reasonable outlet for feeling rebellious.
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Missing from the article is this group’s primary, unstated motive: they only attempt to create such clubs in schools that actively promote similar, religious clubs. This tactic only works in schools that have previously demonstrated their intent to promote religion.
Any school can insulate themselves from this tactic by not becoming a church.
If the founders didn’t just want to stir the pot, they would call the club “free-will humanitarian anti-authority club”.
Yes, and?
