A political group called The Satanic Temple is looking to add what it calls an “After School Satan Club” at Still Elementary in Powder Springs
The Cobb County public school does not currently have an “After School Satan Club” but it has found itself in the middle of a discussion about the separation of church and state.
Musician and barista Jed Drummond said he co-founded the Atlanta chapter of the Satanic Temple two months ago.
He said he wants people to know they’re not magicians or crazy people. It’s what he calls a “social justice” group that wants to teach students science.
The effort to start After School Satan Clubs is in response to another club already in public schools: the Christian faith-based Good News Clubs. The group teaches Bible stories and character development to elementary school students.
“Taxpayer-funded public facilities are being used to push religious agendas and that is a clear violation of the separation of church and state,” Drummond said.
But in 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that faith based groups are allowed on school property after school hours.
So that debate is settled, according to Moises Esteves, vice president of USA Ministries of the Child Evangelism Fellowship, which leads more than 4,500 afterschool Good News Clubs nationwide. He said he gets the joke.
“This isn’t a devil-worshipping club, these are atheists trying to scare parents with pitchforks and devil horns,” Esteves said.
He said he’s confident any after school Satan club will disband in a few months and called the group’s efforts a publicity stunt.
But Robert Boston, director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State said, he’s not so sure.
“Now you’re finding people stepping up and saying, ‘Well I don’t think any religious organizations ought to be operating in the public schools and if the Satanic Temple is going to help bring that about, then I want to be involved in this crusade,” Boston said.
He said there’s not so much of a concern of an overlap of church and state in urban school districts that are religiously diverse.
“Some of the smaller districts where there’s pretty much everybody in town is Christian of one kind of another, schools need to be extra careful that they are not wading into any kind of activity that smacks of coercion, pressure or proselytism,” Boston said.
Drummond said his group has not yet asked the Cobb County School District for permission to form the club at Still Elementary School.
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