The biblical title of “Satan,” literally translated, means “adversary,” and the ASSC is apparently establishing itself as an adversarial force to Christian evangelistic efforts in elementary schools.
“They’re doing the work of Satan, whether they want to acknowledge it or not, because this is what Satan would do,” Kauffman said of the organization that employs satanic imagery as a matter of irony. “Satan, the term itself, means evil. And this is not the influence you want to bring upon your children.”
According to Fox News, the ASSC has not been popular. Jane Addams School said that only two students have attended the program since it first began meeting in January, and those two students are from the same family.
In a statement to KWQC, Moline School District Superintendent Dr. Rachel Savage said, “Since we have allowed religious entities to rent our facilities after school hours, we are not permitted to discriminate against different religious viewpoints. To illegally deny their organization (viewpoint) to pay to rent our publicly funded institution, after school hours, subjects the district to a discrimination lawsuit, which we will not win, likely taking thousands upon thousands of tax-payer dollars away from our teachers, staff, and classrooms.”
The statement further reiterated that every after school program is voluntary and requires parental consent via a permission form.
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The Satanic Temple is allowed to use Jane Addams School’s facilities based on a 2001 Supreme Court case that ruled in favor of religious institutions being allowed to rent public school spaces after class hours and conduct programs according to their religious convictions. Prohibiting or restricting religious expression would be a violation of that group’s First Amendment rights.
While the presence of the ASSC in elementary schools is a deeply troubling prospect for many Christian parents in America, religious pluralism may nevertheless become increasingly common in after school programs. In order to oppose the presence of the ASSC on public school campuses, they would need to attack the legal precedents that have granted them the same freedom.
Historically, American evangelicals, and particularly Southern Baptists, have been champions of religious freedoms for people of all faiths. For example, the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission came to the defense of a Muslim group after a New Jersey town sought to block them from building a Mosque in the city in 2016, a move that raised eyebrows but was nevertheless consistent with the denomination’s long held stance on religious liberty.
However, as America becomes more religiously pluralistic, many evangelicals are grappling with how committed they actually are to religious liberty as a treasured value. For example, pastor and bible teacher John MacArthur made waves last month when he said, “Religious freedom is what sends people to hell. To say I support religious freedom is to say I support idolatry. It’s to say I support lies, I support hell, I support the kingdom of darkness.”
“No Christian with half a brain would say, ‘We support religious freedom.’ We support the truth,” MacArthur went on to say. While his words drew sharp criticism from some evangelicals, others nevertheless agreed with MacArthur’s sentiments, perhaps signaling a shift in the minds of some evangelicals with regard to the issue.
