this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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Community members in a Tennessee school district want to banish Satan from their children’s halls after the formation of a new club was announced.

The After School Satan Club (ASSC) wants to establish a branch in Chimneyrock elementary school in the Memphis-Shelby county schools (MSCS) district.

The ASSC is a federally recognized nonprofit organization and national after-school program with local chapters across the US. The club is associated with the Satanic Temple, though it claims it is secular and “promotes self-directed education by supporting the intellectual and creative interests of students”.

The Satanic Temple makes it clear its members do not actually worship the devil or believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural. Instead Satan is used as a symbol of free will, humanism and anti-authoritarianism.

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[–] Alteon@lemmy.world 192 points 9 months ago (9 children)

Me and my wife are both members of TST and we LOVE the work they do. The Tenets they promote are loving, self-respecting, and do justice towards an ideal world of Individualism, anti-authoritarianism, and critical thinking - i.e. everything that Christianity and modern conservatism in general are eager to suppress. We regularly donate to them, and we constantly purchase stuff through their store to help support them.

[–] CherenkovBlue@iusearchlinux.fyi 36 points 9 months ago (11 children)

Same, also a member of TST and a practicing romantic Satanist. It's brought a lot of strength, clarity, and confidence to my life.

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[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 188 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (15 children)

The uproar is the point.

The Satanic Temple makes it clear its members do not actually worship the devil or believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural.

But somehow conservative Christians believe that there are huge swaths of people who agree that their religion is 100% correct but worship the weak bad guy character.

(Which is not to mention that there are actually multiple bad guys who got combined, Satan and Lucifer and The Snake were originally different people)

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[–] Facebones@reddthat.com 166 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Reading the outrage comments always tickles me lol. Welcome to the point, bitches!

[–] Ultraviolet@lemmy.world 27 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It's a bit frustrating that it doesn't make any of them actually reflect on their hypocrisy though. They just double down on the hypocrisy with no questions asked.

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[–] Nobody@lemmy.world 115 points 9 months ago (3 children)

The Satanic Temple does a little trolling.

[–] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 39 points 9 months ago

As a treat.

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[–] Hoomod@lemmy.world 112 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Satan accepts everyone

Not his fault that God is picky

[–] Patches@sh.itjust.works 54 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Satan doesn't whisper "Believe in me".

He shouts "Believe in yourself".

Satan is rad as hell.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 44 points 9 months ago (17 children)

God is the dickhead that puts a dangerous tree in the garden despite knowing exactly what's going to happen. God is the asshole that wipes out everyone (even the animals) except one drunkard and his family because God apparently fucked up again. God is the one who creates a place of infinite punishment for finite crimes.

God is the real villain of the Bible.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 33 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And Satan is the hero that fought an omnipotent being knowing he would lose because he wanted freedom more than he wanted victory.

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[–] LifeOfChance@lemmy.world 102 points 9 months ago (1 children)

As someone planning to move to this area soon I want my kiddo involved!

[–] JakenVeina@lemm.ee 45 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Be careful you don't encourage it, or else they won't want to. :P

[–] Mango@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago

People are cats.

[–] eran_morad@lemmy.world 101 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

I’m cool with banning satan shit if we ban all other religious shit in politics and law. Fuck your imaginary friends.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 119 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The Satanic Temple is an atheistic organization that uses Satan metaphorically, mostly to troll Christians.

DO YOU WORSHIP SATAN?

No, nor do we believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural. The Satanic Temple believes that religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition. As such, we do not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions. Satanists should actively work to hone critical thinking and exercise reasonable agnosticism in all things. Our beliefs must be malleable to the best current scientific understandings of the material world — never the reverse.

https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/faq

As you can see from this uproar, it works quite well too.

[–] eran_morad@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago

Yeah, I know. Good.

[–] TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

That is the exact goal of The Satanic Temple. They would be incredibly happy to have their own symbols removed, as it would mean all religious symbols would be removed from government institutions. They are trying to scare Christians into voting against their own legislation, basically.

The first amendment in the constitution makes it so the government has to give equal rights to all religions, so the Christians can't remove the Satanic symbols without also voting to remove their own.

[–] kromem@lemmy.world 95 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (10 children)

The number of adults in the US that think Satan is a literal being is way too fucking high.

It started as an editor using 'adversary' in the place of what was probably the goddess Anat appealing the head of the pantheon to kill the son of the protagonist like in the earlier Canaanite A Tale of Aqhat as an intro into what was an adaptation of the also earlier Babylonian Theodicy in Job.

But we couldn't have a polytheistic holdover, so suddenly there was a supernatural 'adversary' ('Satan') in a story.

Which in turn spawned fanfiction during the prophet ages where they referred to the supernatural adversary of Job.

Then Hellenistic ideas around Hades (both the place and figure) get added into the mix, and we get the Enochian literature about fallen angels, where the guided katabasis influenced Virgil which later informs Dante's Inferno.

Then King James messes up translating Isaiah and the Latin for the morning star (Lucifer) gets mistaken for a proper name, further tying the supernatural adversary to being one of the Enochian fallen angels. And we get Milton's Paradise Lost.

It's all just mistranslations and fanfiction.

And yet millions of people believe it's actually a thing so much so that they freak out at the idea of any references to it as literally being dangerous.

In 2022.

An age filled with things beyond the wildest imagination of those in antiquity dreaming up miracles and wonders.

We're so beyond fucked as a species.

[–] phx@lemmy.world 37 points 9 months ago

To those people, if there's no Devil then it means all the bad stuff in their heads and hearts is just them. All the temptations are them. All the hatred, including self-hatred is them. There's no Devil that made them do it or think it, no external tempter or defiler to resist. They can't take that.

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[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 77 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It would be sad how badly these idiots fail to see the irony when it’s spelled out for them if it wasn’t so funny.

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[–] lobsticle@lemmy.world 71 points 9 months ago (3 children)

After School Satan Club would be such a great name for a band.

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[–] Landsharkgun@midwest.social 68 points 9 months ago

ASS Club.

Nice.

[–] El_guapazo@lemmy.world 62 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Conservatives always want to have a free "marketplace of ideas" until it's something they fear.

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[–] rayyy@lemmy.world 59 points 9 months ago

Of course Tennessee Christians are outraged. The after School Satan Club is most likely way more Christian than they are so there's stiff competition.

[–] ZeroCool@feddit.ch 54 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] GardeningSadhu@lemm.ee 54 points 9 months ago

good, the more noise they make the more this will spread

[–] Gazumi@lemmy.world 53 points 9 months ago

Actively missing the point......... "In a meeting with more than 40 pastors and other religious leaders, the district board chair, Althea E Greene, said: “Satan has no room in this district.”"

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 52 points 9 months ago

The kids are alright 😃

[–] Atomdude@lemmy.world 45 points 9 months ago (9 children)
[–] negativeyoda@lemmy.world 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Watching the Church of Satan get exasperated when they're tagged about this shit on Twitter never ceases to amuse me

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[–] badbytes@lemmy.world 44 points 9 months ago

Low IQ Christians never learn. They must be old dogs.

[–] Tedesche@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago

God bless the Satanic Temple!

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