Satanic Temple is a ‘religious’ group from New York that is hell bent on handing out its materials to school kids in Orange County, Florida. WFTV.com, Channel 9 reports that their planned moves follow the distribution on behalf of both Christian and atheist groups of materials to Orange County public schools. The group even wants to pass out something they’ve titled “The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities.”
Lucien Greaves is spokesperson for Satanic Temple.
“The whole point here is not indoctrination but rather counter-indoctrination,” he explains. “It’s far better philosophically for us and we feel for the students, that they see there is a multiplicity of voices and that there’s many voices and choices.”
#Satanic Temple to Hand Out Children Activity Books: http://t.co/cOCNG3aP6w via @YouTube
— CBN News (@CBNNews) September 17, 2014
Mathew Staver is a representative of the group that distributed Bibles in the Orange County schools. He sees this effort on behalf of Satanic Temple as an attack move.
“This organization literally wants to shut down any opposing viewpoint, particularly one that’s Christian in nature. That’s inappropriate and I think it’s uncalled for,” Staver told the TV station.
Satanic Temple issued a press release that further explains the reasons behind their recent actions.
“Even as we prefer public policies respecting secularism, we feel that opportunities–such as this–to establish an equal voice for contrasting religious opinions in the public square, tend to favor marginalized, lesser-known, and alternative religions,” Greaves explains in the release. “I am quite certain that all of the children in these Florida schools are already aware of the Christian religion and it’s Bible, and this might be the first exposure these children have to the actual practice of Satanism. We think many students will be very curious to see what we offer.”
The Christian Post sought a statement from Florida’s Orange County School District regarding Satanic Temple and their impending course of action, but have yet to hear back from them.
Would you want these materials from Satanic Temple distributed in the schools your children attend?