Satanic Temple objects to governor’s push for more religion in schools and says members could act as student chaplains
Dark messengers of satanism could soon be walking the hallways of Florida’s public schools, and it’s a consequence of hard-right governor Ron DeSantis’s push for more religion in education.
Members of the Satanic Temple say they are poised to act as volunteer chaplains under a state law that took effect this week opening campuses to “additional counseling and support to students” from outside organizations.
Although HB 931 leaves the implementation of chaplain programs to individual school districts, and only requires schools to list a volunteer’s religion “if any”, DeSantis has made clear its intent is to restore the tenets of Christianity to public education.
Without the bill, DeSantis said at its signing in April: “You’re basically saying that God has no place [on campus]. That’s wrong.”
The satanists see the law, which comes amid a vigorous theocratic drive into education by the religious right nationally, as an equal opportunity: if Christian chaplains are permitted access to students, often at the most vulnerable and impressionable stages of their lives, then so are they.
To be fair, they call themselves The Satanic Temple. If they didn’t want to court the “dark messenger” notoriety in the first place, they would just call themselves something serious like The Humanist Society.
Q: What do you call people who believe in the existence of Satan?
A: Christians.
You bring up a good a point, and it is meant to be provocative on purpose. It really helps remind Christian people of the importance of separation of religion and state when they see Satanic statues next to the ten commandments after they pass legislature requiring display of religious symbols and what not.
It’s one of the only effective ways to get these people to stop trying to push their religion on everyone else. Those types don’t typically listen to reason or compromise with others, for that matter.
I’ve seen religious people treat the word Humanist as if it was a dirty word right alongside atheist and then conflating atheism and humanism with Satanism. “The best trick Satan ever pulled was making you believe he isn’t real.”
I suspect The Satanic Temple figured that no matter what they called themselves it’d be demonized so they beat the Christians to it.