(RepublicanReport.org) – Memphis parents are outraged over the news that one of its elementary schools is the newest host site for an After School Satan Club, a program available through the Satanic Temple. The mock religious organization reportedly plans to start the program in January.
The Satanic Temple shared the news on December 12 in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The club will meet at Chimneyrock Elementary School, located in Cordova. It reportedly worked to start the secular after-school program as a targeted response against the presence of an actual religious group that already meets at the school, the Good News Club. Members of the Satanic Temple reportedly believe the Christian club is “insidious” because it teaches about the threat of eternal damnation and according to its website, it feels the need to offer competing groups where religious organizations have a prominent hold.
Once the Satanic Temple has targeted a school, districts face serious lawsuits if they attempt to bar the group from setting up shop. The anti-religious group is a bona fide nonprofit charity, and it uses the same legal avenues as churches to assert its members’ rights to free expression. Memphis-Shelby County Schools issued a statement via X on December 12. It states that the district is aware of parents’ concerns, but in its commitment to the First Amendment, it must ensure equal access to all federally recognized nonprofit groups, as it does for the Good News Club and the Boy Scouts of America. The notice clarified that the group, like other nonprofits, would be renting the space after school hours.
The Satanic Temple’s website describes its After School Satan Club, complete with a child-appealing cartoon Satan graphic, as an alternative to religious-indoctrinating programs, such as those presented by Christian groups. School boards in other areas have opted to drop extracurricular groups altogether to spare their districts from the threat of the controversy.
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