The Internal Revenue Service has granted an "After School Satan Club" tax-exempt status.
The club was founded at Point Defiance Elementary in Tacoma, Washington. Reason Alliance, a nonprofit that operates the Satanic Temple of Seattle, started the club, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The club is run by adults and focuses on building a child’s problem-solving skills and critical thinking, according to club officials.
Lilith X. Starr, the director of Reason Alliance, told Tacoma school district superintendent Carla Santorno that the club was formed as a response to Good News Clubs, Christian-based groups that operate around Tacoma, the Beacon report said.
Judicial Watch reported that gaining the tax-exempt status took ten days.
Tacoma School District communications director Dan Voelpel expressed concern that people will see the tolerance for the Satan club and believe that the school district also tolerates "hate-related activities around the country in the wake of the presidential election," Judicial Watch reported.
"If you are going to invite religion into schools, you have to invite everybody," Chalice Blythe, Utah Satanic Temple chapter head, said in a Salt Lake Tribune interview.
"Caring Satanists" run the after-school club, according to Starr.
The clubs do not worship Satan or promote Satanism, according to Blythe.
"We are nontheistic. We don’t actually worship a literal Satan. We’re very aware that not everyone is going to understand what it’s about. They’ll see the word ‘Satan’ and just make assumptions," Blythe said.
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