Florida Satanists are volunteering to fill school counselor roles after Gov. Ron DeSantis ® signed a law allowing religious chaplains into public schools amid staffing shortages.
“Nothing in the text of the bill serves to exclude us, and no credible interpretation of the First Amendment could. Should a school district now choose to have chaplains, they should expect Satanists to participate as well,” Lucien Greaves, cofounder and spokesperson for The Satanic Temple, said in a statement to The Hill on Monday.
Back when DeSantis signed the bill in April, he described Satanism as “not a religion” and said its members would not be allowed to participate in the program.
…
The Florida move allowing chaplains to serve as public school counselors comes as more states are aiming to inject Christianity into public school environments, including by mandating that the Bible or Ten Commandments be taught in classrooms.
The Satanic Temple has increasingly leaned into the fight over freedom of religion in public schools, including through the establishment of After School Satan clubs.
The temple, founded in 2014, says its mission is to “encourage benevolence and empathy, [and] reject tyrannical authority.”
They are not Satanists. Chaplains of the Satanic Temple are atheists. Members of the Church of Satan are Satanists.
THE SEVEN FUNDAMENTAL TENETS OF THE SATANIC TEMPLE
I
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
II
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
III
One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
IV
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own.
V
Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.
VI
People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
VII
Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
Yeah those tenets are evil writings from satan, you must ask god for forgiveness!
/S, of course
They’re doing the Lord’s work.
As an atheist. Honestly any rational view of the role satan played in the story.
Actually questioning an authoritarian leader. And punished for doing so. Blamed by that leader and all future followers as the director of evil. Because he is put in charge of all people who question the word of that autocratic leader.
Yeah doing the Lords work because the Lord is to narcissistic to do the job. Hmm makes the Christian right voting trump a little more understandable.
Mfw “do not kill people” and “do not rape children” is “authoritarian”. If God was really a tyrant, He’d just vanquish all of us immediately instead of giving us free will, then dying for us to pay the price for our sins.
Do not invent my arguments to satisfy your own stupidity. The story in no way indicates Satan objected to the rules. If fact, he objected to the very thing you are giving god credit for.
God punished Satan for questioning him. Not for killing or rape. Just for asking why humans were given free will, but angels were not. As much as you like to read the story in a way that makes you feel better. You are talking from the wrong orifice. The story of Satan is in no way accused of breaking the commandments. Only asking why humans are given so much freedom and his own kind not.
You’re saying that Satan was actually punished for questioning God, but this is the same argument as “The American civil war was about State’s rights” a State’s right to what? Questioning God on what? People nowadays for some reason have this cute or cool fluffy idea of Satan - you’re forgetting though that Satan is very much the personification and embodiment of all evil and suffering. Every atrocity and every suffering is the fault of Satan.
Every atrocity and every suffering is the fault of Satan.
If Satan is the cause of all suffering and atrocities, then God either cannot stop them and/or refuses to stop them, but if we assume the former, Satan is more powerful than an omnipotent and omniscient being, and if we assume the latter, God is also responsible in part for some of that suffering by refusing to stop them. I don’t think either of those are correct.
That would result in taking free will away from us. And suffering does end in heaven, where this life is merely just a blip
That is God refusing, by choosing to let free will dictate actions. God acting as a bystander while those that didn’t take any actions towards Evil suffer punishes those who chose to be Good because of God’s actions (or lack thereof.) Pretending that this aligns with free will is inconsequential.
Does God have the ability and power to make it so people have free will AND there is no Evil: Yes or no?
It’s not the same argument at all.
Mainly because we are talking about old white men in 400 ad gathering fables from local tribes. IE a library of stories and fiction.
Nothing in those fables talks about any action committed by Satan matching such crimes.
People claiming the cause of the civil war are ignoring events. Actual slavery rape murder and abuse, (although not crimes at the time in the states involved). Not to mention the north actually allowing and working to protect the south’s right to keep slaves. Such event just did not exist in the fables.
The only time the devil is actually accused of anything is after he is giving knowledge to mankind. At no point is he ever said to have murdered or raped anyone.
I don’t know what library you’re talking about because it doesn’t match the description of the Bible.
In the book of Job, you see Satan casting down evil on Job and cursing him. Genesis shows Satan misleading Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Revelation shows Satan as the ultimate source of evil. Isaiah talks about how far Satan has fallen. Jesus - who is God Himself - talks about Satan being a father of lies and Satan even tempts Jesus in the wilderness. Yes, humans do also carry a fault of following Satan and his demons in the rebellion against God, but your idea of rebelling against God is seen as “hip” and “cool”, but rebelling against God is the bringer of genocide, wars, greed, famine and destruction. And then when God was incarnate on this earth as a Man, He preached love, kindness, morality and condemned evil. Yet we nailed Him to a cross, killing Him in one of the most horrific and humiliating ways possible. Yet on that cross He bore the punishment for our sins and offers us forgiveness. Not through our own doing or good works, but through His doing. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death that we deserved. That’s who God truly is.
I don’t know what library you’re talking about because it doesn’t match the description of the Bible.
The word bible translates to library.
Honestly its time you actually did a little reseach on the history of your religion.
When are we going to ban religion, spirituality, and other superstitious crap?
Seriously, EVERY time any of that comes in the news, its always about abuse, coercion, and violence.
Sorry, NOTHING good comes from believing in things like you’re a 5 year old. If you’re one of those sweet old grandma’s that uses their religion to do good in the world, then congratulations, you are being abused by your church.
You can do good without a church. If you want to help people, start a foundation, attract volunteers, and do good. You don’t need stone age superstitions to be able to do any of that.
Grow up, because you’re ruining this world
They can volunteer for it all they want, but no school is going to actually let them fill the role. No school administrator is prepared to deal with the fallout that would come from it. Huge props to any principal that attempts it though.
Man these people really watched the Handmaid’s tale and thought it was a documentary / instruction video