A group that reveres the devil will be allowed to conduct meetings for the so-called "After School Satan Club" at an elementary school after a school district in Washington state approved the controversial programme starting this December.
According to a report by The Christian Post, this club promoting the works of the devil and spearheaded by The Satanic Temple will convene for the first time at the Point Defiance Elementary School in Tacoma, in time for the students' Christmas break.
Lucien Greaves, spokesman and co-founder of The Satanic Temple, explained that this is his group's response to the interdenominational Christian programme called "The Good News Club," which provides weekly Bible studies in public schools.
"The Good News Clubs create a real necessity for the After School Satan Clubs and, in the future, we hope school districts will devise new standards of conduct for after school clubs — such as no proselytizing, no coerced conversion-based curriculums — that put an end to the Good News Clubs and render the After School Satan Club unnecessary," Greaves told The Christian Post.
He said they are targeting not only students, but also parents and teachers, to share their teachings. He also claimed that parents are "upset" that the Holy Bible is being taught in the Good News Clubs, and that the Satanic group has "a lot of support from the population now."
The group further said that they will teach kids "logic, self-empowerment, and reasoning" in the After School Satan Club.
A similar Satanic club was earlier launched at the Sacramento Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, where it was met with opposition by members of the Catholic group called "America Needs Fatima," a branch of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property.
Jack Burnham, who protested with the Christian group, maintained that Satanism is not a religion.
"People are demurring that they're some kind of religion. They're not," Burnham said, as quoted by Christian Daily.
