Connecticut students have choice of Satan or Bible club. Why it’s not really good against evil.

Elementary school students in Lebanon will be able to join the After School Satan Club beginning December 1.

The Satan Club was requested by a parent from Lebanon Elementary School as an alternative to the Good News Club, according to the clubs’ campaign director, June Everett of Colorado. The Satanic Temple, an atheist organization, is behind it.

This is Connecticut’s first Satan Club, according to Everett.

“This particular parent was aware of the Good News Club and did not feel comfortable sending her children to the Good News Club and was more closely aligned with our seven tenets and our beliefs,” she went on to explain.

“So she reached out and asked if we could start an After School Satan Club at her children’s elementary school, so we went through the process and lined up volunteers to help with the club.” Of course, the school district understands constitutional law and the First Amendment, so they approved us without reservation.”

According to Everett, the club is not evil.

“We identify with the statement that is in John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost,’ where Satan stands up to the adversary and is essentially the ultimate rebel standing up for the rights of the other angels and the other people,” she went on to explain.

“I’m always having to explain to the Christians that you don’t have a monopoly on Satan,” Everett continued. “We understand that in your biblical world, he is a terrifying, evil being.” In our world, however, we see him in a different light. And we see him as the embodiment of radical authority defying.”

“Because a lot of those people have been kicked out of their church or abandoned by family,” Everett explained, Satan represents equal access for minorities and the marginalized, including LGBTQ people.

The club “focuses on science, critical thinking, creative arts, and good works for the community,” according to its website. “While engaged in all of these activities, we want clubgoers to have a good time.”

Satan Clubs, according to Everett, only visit places where religious clubs are active.

“What we do is we wait for the Good News Club to return and then we can return, but we don’t want to be the only religious club operating on campus,” she added. “So we have to wait for basically their permission slips or their fliers to start coming out before we take action.”

Both the Bible-based Good News Clubs and the Satan Clubs are permitted in schools as a result of a Supreme Court ruling, and the Lebanon superintendent has followed that ruling.

“The Lebanon Public Schools… must allow community organizations to access school facilities, regardless of the religious, political, or philosophical ideas they express, as long as such organizations comply with the viewpoint-neutral criteria set forth in the (school board’s) policy,” said Andrew Gonzalez, superintendent of the school district.

“Not everyone will agree with, or attend meetings of, every group that is approved to use school facilities,” the superintendent added.

“However, prohibiting particular organizations from accessing our school buildings based on the perspectives they offer or express could violate our obligations under the First Amendment and other applicable law and would not align with our commitment to non-discrimination, equal protection, and respect for diverse viewpoints.”

Everett stated that the Satanic Temple has a cybersecurity team that monitors the numerous threats that come in whenever a Satan Club is established, and that there have been several stemming from the Lebanon club, but none have ever been carried out.

“It gets interesting because the school’s first inclination is to shut us down after they receive a threat like that,” she went on to explain. “But what we learned when we won our case with a federal Trump-appointed judge in Pennsylvania this past year was that the First Amendment doesn’t cave to violence or threats.”

“They hate the fact that we teach the Bible to children in public schools,” he continued, “and they hate the Bible.” “They cannot legally remove us because, in June 2001, the United States Supreme Court ruled that we have the right to attend public schools.” We cannot be discriminated against based on our political beliefs. As a result, they attack us in various ways, trying to disrupt us in novel ways. This is their latest strategy.”

That strategy has worked a couple of times when a school district closed down all outside groups, as it has the right to do.

According to Esteves, the Satanic Temple has been running the Satan Clubs with little success since 2016.

“Their strategy has proven to fail, but they still continue to pursue the schools where we have Good News Clubs,” he went on to explain. “They’ve had very few clubs, they don’t get a lot of kids, they don’t last very long.”

The Good News Clubs, according to Esteves, teach children a better lesson. “Do they reject authority?” “And they kind of admire Satan as this supremely rebellious guy who rebelled against authority because he rebelled against God,” he went on to say.

“We believe in authority,” he stated emphatically. “We believe that God creates authority and that God establishes authority.” For example, God grants authority to parents to raise their children, and children must be taught to respect authority. Respect the teacher, the parent, and the police officer.”