Satanic Temple set to return to Memphis-area school with 'Before School Satan Club'

The Satanic Temple has plans to come back to the Memphis area.

After hosting its “After School Satan Club” at Cordova-based Chimneyrock Elementary on Jan. 10, the Salem, Massachusetts-based nonprofit is poised to host a “Before School Satan Club” in the coming weeks. The pending dates are March 20, April 17, and May 15, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., the group said in a social media post.

The plan is to offer science projects, community service projects, puzzles and games, nature activities, arts and crafts, and snacks. A flyer posted on Twitter says “Hey Kids! Let’s have fun at the Before School Satan Club!” When the group started promoting the “After School Satan Club,” it used the line, “Hey Kids, Let’s have fun at the After School Satan Club.”

The club is not sponsored or approved by MSCS or the Memphis-Shelby County Board of Education. Legally, the district is required to allow the Before School Satan Club to use its spaces. In December, when The Satanic Temple first announced it would be offering the “After School Satan Club” at Chimneyrock, a spokesperson for MSCS provided the following statement:

“As a public school district, we're committed to upholding the principles of the First Amendment, which guarantees equal access to all non-profit organizations seeking to use our facilities after school hours,” the statement said. “This means we cannot approve or deny an organization’s request based solely on its viewpoints or beliefs. Board Policy 7002 outlines this commitment, allowing community groups and government entities to rent school property outside of school hours.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that district officials are happy about the organization’s activity. Not long after The Satanic Temple started promoting the original After School Satan Club, interim superintendent Toni Williams, board chair and reverend Althea Greene, and board member Mauricio Calvo passionately denounced the group, while flanked by pastors of local churches.

“As a superintendent, I am duty bound to uphold our board policy, state laws, and the constitution,” Williams said at the time. “But let’s not be fooled. Let’s not be fooled by what we’ve seen in the past 24 hours, which is an agenda, initiated to make sure that we cancel all faith-based organizations that partner with our district.”

Added board chair Althea Greene:

“You see the faith-based community standing here,” she said. “We're going to stand up and we're going to be vocal. Satan has no room in this district.”

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The Satanic Temple, however, maintains that its members do not worship or believe in Satan, instead viewing him as a literary figure who rejects tyranny. Its website says that The Satanic Temple is the “primary religious satanic organization in the world,” and that its mission is to “encourage benevolence and empathy, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice, and Undertake noble pursuits.”

It also asserts that its after-school clubs offer a “scientific, rationalist, non-superstitious worldview," and that it only places the clubs in schools where other religious organizations already have a presence. Per its website:

“Proselytization is not our goal, and we’re not interested in converting children to Satanism. After School Satan Clubs will focus on free inquiry and rationalism, the scientific basis for which we know what we know about the world around us.”

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Satanic Temple planning 'Before School Satan Club' at Tennessee school