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The Satanic Temple has vowed to “raise hell” over Florida’s new school chaplains program, right after Florida issued guidelines they say were designed to keep them out.
“Throughout Florida, The Satanic Temple’s members, supporters, and allies are standing up for true religious freedom and confronting encroaching theocracy. Are you ready to stand with us and raise hell in the Sunshine State?” read a signup sheet on the Temple’s website.
The program, passed this year, is intended to provide moral support, services, and programs to students. Last week Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz released a model policy to limit school district options for “credible chaplains.”
“Florida welcomes legitimate and officially authorized chaplains to become volunteers at their local schools and to provide students with morally sound guidance,” Diaz said in a post to X, formerly Twitter.
The Satanic Temple, a nontheistic organization created to oppose efforts to inject religion into public schools and government policies, claims the policy was designed to block Satanists but would also block other faiths with millions of followers around the world.
Florida’s policy “defines religion too narrowly in a way that not only excludes Satanists, but Buddhists, Humanists, Jains, Confucianists, and many others,” said Lucien Greaves, a spokesperson for the temple, in an email to the Florida Phoenix. “It’s divisive, it is legally unsound (and will not survive its forthcoming lawsuits that the Florida taxpayer will finance), and it is born of cheap political grandstanding without any real concern for the children in Florida public schools.”
The Satanic Church also now has Florida School Chaplain merch.
After the new law allowing volunteer chaplains in Florida public schools took effect in April, The Satanic Temple was quick to offer their chaplains as part of their ongoing campaign to keep church and state separate by using the same laws and policies to insert a religion offensive to many Christians. Gov. Ron DeSantis said that would not be happening.
“We’re not playing those games in Florida,” DeSantis said when he signed the bill. “That is not a religion.”
The Satanic Temple received its tax-exempt status in 2019.
What is Florida’s school chaplains law?
Under HB 931, volunteer school chaplains may “provide support, services, and programs to students as assigned by the district school board or charter school governing board.” Parents must consent and may choose from a publicly available list of chaplains and their religious affiliations, if any.
However, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits the establishment or promotion of any specific religion. That’s where The Satanic Temple comes in.
“Any opportunity that exists for ministers or chaplains in the public sector must not discriminate based on religious affiliation,” The Satanic Temple’s director of ministry, who goes by Penemue Grigori, said in an email to the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida while the bill was being deliberated. “Our ministers look forward to participating in opportunities to do good in the community, including the opportunities created by this bill, right alongside the clergy of other religions.”
What are the requirements for a school chaplain in Florida?
According to the model policy released by Diaz:
“Chaplain” means an individual who is officially authorized by the leadership of a religion under the religion’s governing principles to conduct religious exercises.“Local religious affiliation” means current, official membership in a group that is itself officially part of a religion and meets in-person at least monthly at a location within the geographical boundaries of the school district.“Religion” means an organized group led, supervised, or counseled by a hierarchy of teachers, clergy, sages, or priests that (1) acknowledges the existence of and worships a supernatural entity or entities that possesses power over the natural world, (2) regularly engages in some form of ceremony, ritual, or protocol, and (3) whose religious beliefs impose moral duties independent of the believer’s self-interest.What is the Satanic Temple?
Founded in 2013 in Salem, Massachusetts by Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jerry, The Satanic Temple gained national attention after holding a rally in Tallahassee praising then-Gov. Rick Scott for signing a bill the previous year allowing public school students to initiate prayer and read inspirational messages at assemblies and sporting events.
The Satanic Temple counters faith-based school programs in public schools nationwide with its After School Satan Clubs, which offer science projects, community service projects, arts and crafts, puzzles and games with what the organization calls a focus on rationalism. And they sue to stay there.
The Satanic Temple also has taken stands against hate groups, corporal punishment in schools, abortion limits and other issues it feels are based on evangelical Christianity, often using images and references that seem to mock religious beliefs. The church uses a cartoonish version of the Christian devil in its logo as a symbol of rebellion and intellectual questioning, although it specifically rejects the concept of Satan as a supernatural being.
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The Satanic Temple in Florida
After the Tallahassee rally, the Satanic Temple has kept a presence in Florida.
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Publish date : 2024-08-28 03:01:00
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