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.
You do know that people are allowed to use names from things they don’t actually believe, right? If someone called their club The Zeus Club, would you think they believed in Zeus or just that they thought it was a cool name?
If they were called “The Zeus Worshippers” I would indeed believe they worship Zeus.
It’s called “Satanic Temple”. This isn’t a vague reference to atheism.
Oh, so with that logic you believe the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea is a democratic republic.
I guess you’ve also never heard of the English idiom “don’t judge a book by its cover”.
Did you know that Cub Scouts isn’t compromised of bear cubs?
Did you know that the only baseball teams that take part in The World Series are North American?
Did you know that Dr Pepper is neither a doctor nor a pepper?
So what’s really up your craw?
In both your examples at least half the name is relevant to what it is about.
This club is not about Satan nor about a Temple.
I understand that atheists have to be really edgy but there are actual Satanic temples and people who worship Satan so using that name is plain misleading as it’s stealing a different religion.
