It seems that The Satanic Temple is putting the Separation of Church and State to the test in Florida. Or rather, it is putting the Florida School Board’s policy of allowing religious material to be distributed in its schools to the test, by making plans to distribute a Satanic coloring book titled, The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities?next year.
As you can probably guess already, this is not sitting well with the School Board. So much so, that the School Board is actually considering to either change, or do away with this policy all together. It is reported that the vote on the issue would have to wait until late January or early February of next year.
Imagine that, eliminating an entire school policy due to the fact that other religions may want to take part in this policy. Could it be a classic case of, “It’s a good policy as long as it supports a specific belief??
In a press release from The Satanic Temple, spokesperson Lucien Greaves explains:
?We would never seek to establish a precedent of disseminating our religious materials in public schools because we believe our constitutional values are better served by respecting a strong separation of Church and State. However, if a public school board is going to allow religious pamphlets and full Bibles to be distributed to students — as is the case in Orange County, Florida — we think the responsible thing to do is to ensure that these students are given access to a variety of different religious opinions, as opposed to standing idly by while one religious voice dominates the discourse and delivers propaganda to youth.?
This statement not only sounds reasonable, but constitutional as well. While there are many that will not be able to get past the word ?Satanic? and see the legal implications of this issue, The Satanic Temple’s mission statement is as follows:
?The mission of the Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people. In addition, we embrace practical common sense and justice”.
“As an organized religion, we feel it is our function to actively provide outreach, to lead by example, and to participate in public affairs wheresoever the issues might benefit from rational, Satanic insights. As Satanists, we all should be guided by our consciences to undertake noble pursuits guided by our individual wills. We believe that this is the hope of all mankind and the highest aspiration of humanity.?
It will be interesting to see what the Florida School Board decides on the issue of allowing a Satanic coloring book into the school system. Which is allowed by its own policy. This could be a big win for The Satanic Temple in regards to exposing religious favoritism that goes against our constitutional values.
Or it could all just be a ploy to indoctrinate us into performing blood sacrifices and implementing totalitarianism. Wait?those things are mentioned in other books.
Lastly though, the coloring book isn’t all that bad actually. With a word search geared towards teaching children the value of friendship, love, and acceptance, there will no doubt be those that will lose their minds if it is allowed to be distributed along with Christian and other religious material.
Watch a video of The Young Turks discussing this below:
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