Now that there’s an After School Satan club in a Utah elementary school, the Salt Lake Tribune seems to have discovered the dirty truth about The Satanic Temple: A big part of their activism is about challenging people’s ideas of what religious privilege entails. It has nothing to do with actual belief in Satan. (Shocking!)

When you open the door to religious clubs at public schools, or allow religious groups to do Bible giveaways to students, or put a Christian monument outside government property, the Satanists are going to do the exact same thing and there’s nothing you can do to stop them.

What’s frustrating is how the newspaper’s editorial staff belittles that activism.

Yes, satanic references tend to throw people off, and isn’t that the point, Satanic Temple? This could have been called the “Rational Thinking Club,” but that wouldn’t have accomplished the purpose. Think of it as a science club with snark. … Someday, when [grade school kids are] more grounded in the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation, they may look back at the Satan Club and chuckle. What seems less likely is that the club will become a viable vehicle for encouraging the critical thinking needed in every child, religious or not. That shouldn’t wait until after school.

No shit the name of the club is a huge part of why it’s effective. But why wouldn’t it be a viable vehicle for critical thinking? Teaching children not to believe in nonsense and encouraging them to ask good questions is a huge step in that direction.

Unlike the Good News Club, which the Satanists intend to counter, there’s no proselytizing. There’s no preaching of mythology in order to scare kids into acting a certain way. They’re not treating fairy tales as fiction.

If these schools did a better job of teaching critical thinking, the Good News Club wouldn’t have any members. So more power to the Satanists for spreading some common sense.

The Tribune should be praising their efforts, not denouncing them for making a point.



