After-school Satan clubs are apparently seeing more interest, with The Hill reporting that it will likely not die down as their backers capture attention from the news media and are emerging victorious in various legal cases.
These clubs are linked with the Satanic Temple and specifically target K-5 elementary schools, according to the report. June Everett, who works as campaign director of the After School Satan Club, has touted the group as an option for those who want to join a club that is non-religious and said that the operation began in 2020.
“That’s kind of when things started blowing up. And I anticipate that every year moving forward is going to get busier and busier,” she told The Hill.
The Satanic Temple secured a legal victory last Monday after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) assisted it in filing a lawsuit against the Northampton County school district over its refusal to allow its club meetings on campus.
“In a victory for free speech and religious freedom, a federal court has ruled that the Saucon Valley School District must allow the After School Satan Club to meet in district facilities,” the ACLU proclaimed.
A website run by The Satanic Temple notably boasts it has “organized clubs alongside other religious after-school clubs in schools besieged by proselytizing organizations.”
Last year, American journalist Tayler Hansen shared a video that allegedly showed members of the anti-Christian organization delivering “unbaptisims,” which featured the drawing of an upside-down cross on the receivers’ foreheads followed by a chant of “Hail Satan.”
The Satanic Temple is performing “unbaptisims”.
After an upside down cross is drawn on their forehead they chant “Hail Satan”. pic.twitter.com/22ejzesxLb
— Tayler Hansen (@TaylerUSA) October 29, 2022
Breitbart News reported that in the past, the Satanic Temple launched a “pro-abortion crusade” and has “come to the aid of America’s largest abortion provider” on numerous occasions. The group reportedly initiated numerous lawsuits in various states aiming to get rid of pro-life laws and has argued that such legislation violates the rights of an “‘involuntarily pregnant woman’” to engage in the “‘Satanic Abortion Ritual.’”
As Newsweek noted, Tenet III of The Satanic Temple states that a person’s “body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” and Tenet V writes, “Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.”
Considering the process of abortion technically harms the body of a baby inside a mother’s womb, one could argue the organization is going against its own stated beliefs by endorsing the right to terminate a fetus.
