After School Satan Clubs (ASSC) have been gaining in popularity and are likely to continue to do so after a U.S. district court in Pennsylvania ruled last month in favor of the Satanic Temple and the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued when a school district would not permit the club to meet on its grounds, The Hill reported on Tuesday.
June Everett, campaign director of the ASSC, told The Hill, "I anticipate that every year moving forward is going to get busier and busier."
Everett said the clubs are excellent alternatives to Christian after-school groups for agnostics, atheists, and religious minorities, such as pagans.
The ASSC "does not believe in introducing religion into public schools and will only open a club if other religious groups are operating on campus," according to the group's website.
The club "exists to provide a safe and inclusive alternative to the religious clubs that use threats of eternal damnation to convert school children to their belief system. Unlike our counterparts, who publicly measure their success in young children's 'professions of faith,' the ASSC program focuses on science, critical thinking, creative arts, and good works for the community."
The Satanic Temple was founded in 2014 and states that its mission is to "encourage benevolence and empathy, reject tyrannical authority."
Rose Bastet, who has been involved with the Satanic Temple for four years in Chesapeake, Virginia, said, "The local Christian mom groups ... really stirred up a ruckus, making it seem like we were doing something nefarious."
But Bastet said her club focuses on learning about different animals.
"One of our meetings a couple of months ago, we learned about Virginia native bats," she said. "This last meeting, we had one of the parents in the club volunteer to bring in a bunch of bones and fossils that she and her husband have found in Virginia."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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