With conservative states increasingly moving to insert Christianity into public education, the Satanic Temple sees an opportunity to inject its counter-programming of religion into the schools, and it is taking it.For years, the Satanic Temple, founded in 2013, has sought to push back on religious messages or icons around government buildings by installing statues of its half-goat, half-human statue, Baphomet. On Saturday, the temple unveiled a Baphomet statue near a nativity scene outside New Hampshire’s capitol building, which was promptly destroyed.However, as conservative lawmakers around the country pass laws that in some way inject Christian themes into schools, the temple is offering after-school and educational programs aimed at countering religion. In 2020, the organization started offering after-school programs in primary schools with religious clubs.Leaders of the temple say the group is not seeking to lead children into devil worship but instead say its goal is to increase pluralism and religious freedom while promoting critical thinking and rationalism. A co-founder of the group, Lucien Greaves, says it does not believe in the Satan of the Bible and instead views Satan as a symbol of a fight against “tyranny.” The after-school clubs, which started in 2020, focus on “free inquiry and rationalism, the scientific basis for which we know what we know about the world around us,” according to the temple’s website. The Satanic Temple is also starting new “religious education” programs in schools across the country. In a press release, the organization announced the creation of its Hellions Academy of Independent Learning, which it launched on November 15 in the Northern York County School District in Pennsylvania. Additionally, last week, the group announced the launch of a program at Edgewood Elementary School at Marysville, Ohio. The programs are being offered as Release Time Religious Instruction programs, which first became available in public schools following the Supreme Court’s 1952 ruling in the Zorach v. Clauson case. Under these programs, students can leave their school, with their parents’ approval, during times when there is no classroom instruction for about one hour a week to receive religious instruction. The Satanic Temple said in a press release that schools with religious release instruction programs open the door for its program because the Supreme Court said schools cannot “discriminate among religious groups.”At Edgewood Elementary School, where students can leave for the Christian Lifewise Academy program, students who choose to participate in the Satanic Temple’s offering will go to local libraries where they will be “presented with various educational arts and crafts, games, and community service projects through which they can learn about Satanic values, such as empathy, compassion, and justice.”The temple criticized Christian release instruction programs and claimed they are “being used to exclude non-Christian students and promote Christianity.” It noted such opportunities have “expanded rapidly across the country,” and groups that organize them “aim to have active programs in every school district that allows them.”Amid the spread of Christian programs, the campaign director for the temple’s school programs, June Everett, told the Hill it has “about three more [school districts] that are in the queue, where we are talking to the parents, getting the school district policy, finding locations. We’re looking for a library that’s within a really short distance for a drive.”Ms. Everett added the temple’s “goal is never to aggressively grow our programs. Our goal is to just be there as an alternative for the people that want us there.” She also said the group does not plan to expand to schools where there are no Christian clubs or Christian release instruction times. In schools that have religious materials in the classroom, Ms. Everett said the Satanic Temple might seek to fight for the inclusion of its materials. For example, Louisiana passed a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, which is currently on hold pending a legal challenge. She said the Satanic Temple would be willing to fight to require its seven tenets to be displayed as well if someone expressed a desire for the tenets to be hung up. Other states in America recently have passed laws that would inject religious material into public schools. The Texas State Board of Education approved a new curriculum that features lessons from the Bible in reading and language arts classes in kindergarten through fifth grade.Last month, the Oklahoma State Department of Education ordered more than 500 Bibles for use in public high schools. Specifically, the department ordered the God Bless the USA Bible, which was promoted by President-elect Trump earlier this year. That version includes the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. The Bibles will reportedly be used in Advance Placement Government classes throughout Oklahoma. The state superintendent, Ryan Walters, said in a statement about the purchase, “We are focused on ensuring we get Bibles available in every classroom in our state as quickly as we can.”The Satanic Temple has brought legal challenges against school districts to ensure students could attend its after-school club, citing First Amendment free speech protections and the prohibition against the establishment of any one religion. In November 2023, the Saucon Valley School District in Pennsylvania agreed to pay the temple $200,000 in attorney fees to settle a lawsuit. The district also said students would be allowed to attend the After School Satan Club.At least one state is pushing back against the temple’s attempt to expand its influence in schools. In April, Governor DeSantis signed a law that lets volunteer school chaplains “provide support, services, and programs to students as assigned by the district school board or charter school governing board.”The Satanic Temple suggested its members could serve as chaplains in Florida schools. However, Mr. DeSantis said the law does not apply to the temple because it is “not a religion.”The IRS recognizes the Satanic Temple as a tax-exempt religious organization. The temple told USA Today in July that its “ministers look forward to participating in opportunities to do good in the community, including the opportunities created by this bill, right alongside the clergy of other religions.”A bill in Georgia that would have allowed chaplains in school, as long as they were not a “satanist,” failed earlier this year.
