On July 10 leaders of The Satanic Temple met in Salem, Massachusetts to discuss their plan to introduce Satan Clubs to elementary schools across the country. If you think I’m making this up, or that it’s an out-of-date April Fools’ joke, think again. According to a piece in The Washington Post called “An After School Satan Club could be coming to your kid’s elementary school”, the organization will begin petitioning school officials to allow such clubs at the start of the academic year.

According to its website, the mission of The Satanic Temple (TST) is “to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice, and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will.” The mission statement includes an illustration by Gustave Dore of Satan being cast out of heaven.

To help publicize the clubs, The Satanic Temple has come up with a promotional video and a separate website, AfterSchoolSatan.com. This is from the video: “This school year a new after school program will be offered in elementary schools nationwide. An after school club focused on rationalism, free inquiry…and fun.”

Targeted first will be schools in districts that host the evangelical Christian after-school program called the Good News Club. For many years those clubs were barred from public schools out of concern that allowing them would violate the Constitution. But in 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that excluding such programs was a violation of free-speech rights. And it is that ruling — argued for by the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Liberty Counsel — that the Satanic Temple will use to justify setting up Satan Clubs in schools.

Doug Mesner, a co-founder of TST who goes by the professional name Lucien Greaves, spoke to the gathering of chapter heads in Salem. “We would like to thank the Liberty Counsel specifically for opening the doors to the After School Satan Clubs through their dedication to religious liberty…So, ‘the Satanic Temple leverages religious freedom laws that put after-school clubs in elementary schools nationwide.’ That’s going to be the message.”

The Washington Post writes that “the group’s plan for public schoolchildren isn’t actually about promoting worship of the devil…According to Mesner…’Satan’ is just a ‘metaphorical construct’ intended to represent the rejection of all forms of tyranny over the human mind.”

The curriculum for the clubs is advertised as emphasizing “developing of reasoning and social skills,” with activities that will include “a healthful snack, literature lesson, creative learning activities, a science lesson, puzzle solving and an art project.”

According to Mesner, “the Good News Clubs focus on indoctrination, instilling children with a fear of hell and God’s wrath. After School Satan Clubs will focus on free inquiry and rationalism.”

When the Supreme Court handed down its 2001 decision opening the doors for this, Justice David Souter wrote a scathing dissent, suggesting the ruling would bring about a world in which “any public school opened for civic meetings must be opened for use as a church, synagogue, or mosque.” Perhaps he had a point.

It remains to be seen how many schools will actually start After School Satan Clubs. In any case, the story sends chills down my spine and reminds me of this C.S. Lewis quote from The Screwtape Letters:

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or magician with the same delight.”