An After School Satan Club is coming to Memphis but who are the groups behind it? What we know.
An "After School Satan Club" is coming to a Memphis school, but who is the organization behind it?
A Tuesday morning Facebook post announced that the club will be held at Chimney Rock Elementary School in Cordova. It is an optional after-school club. The post says towards the bottom "This activity is not endorsed or sponsored by Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
The post came from The Satanic Temple's Facebook account. The organization featured in the documentary "Hail Satan?" which has had multiple of these clubs in other states, but they have finally made their way to Tennessee.
Here is what we know about the organizations sponsoring the club.
Who is sponsoring the 'After School Satan Club?'
Based on the original Facebook post, two groups are sponsoring the club: The Reasonable Alliance and The Satanic Temple.
Reason Alliance is a non-profit organization that promotes religious pluralism, fights for reproductive rights, protects children from abuse at school, and defends the unfairly and unjustly marginalized. The organization was founded in 2014 by Malcolm Jarry and Douglas Mesner.
The Satanic Temple is a non-theistic religious organization dedicated to the practice and promotion of individual rights. Formed in 2013 by Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry, the organization has become an officially recognized religion by the United States government.
What does The Satanic Temple believe in?
The mission of The Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice, and undertake noble pursuits.
According to the Satanic Temple website, they follow these fundamental tenets:
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason.
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone.
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.
Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.
People's beliefs are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
According to the Facebook post, The Satanic Temple is a non-theistic religion that views Satan as a literary figure who represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit.
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How big is The Satanic Temple?
The Satanic Temple is primarily based in the United States with additional congregations in Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Here is where 47 of The Satanic Temple chapters are across the U.S.:
Alaska
Alabama
Albany, New York
Arizona
Atlanta, Georgia
Austin, Texas
Colorado
Connecticut and Rhode Island
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Delaware
Detroit, Michigan
Florida
Houston, Texas
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire and Vermont
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York City, New York
North Carolina
North-East Gulf Coast
Northern California
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
San Antonio, Texas
San Diego
South Carolina
Southern California
Tennessee
Utah
Washington
West Michigan
West New York
West Virginia
Wisconsin
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What things has The Satanic Temple done?
On their website, The Satanic Temple asserts that they have exposed harmful pseudo-scientific mental health care practitioners, openly challenged hate groups, campaigned to end corporal punishment in public schools, applied for equal representation when religious installations are placed on public property, and established clubs alongside other religious after-school clubs in schools overrun by proselytizing organizations. They have also provided religious exemption and legal protection against laws that unscientifically restrict people's reproductive autonomy.
It has eight ongoing campaigns listed on its website. These campaigns are responsible for coordinating community events and spearheading activism that protects The Satanic Temple members' religious rights.
The Religious Reproductive Rights campaign objects to many of the restrictions states have enacted that interfere with abortion access as well as other related issues that affect members' religious rights.
The Grey Faction campaign works to protect mental health patients and their families from pseudoscience and discredited therapies.
The Protect Children Project addresses abuses that take place in public schools that are perpetrated by school officials and deemed legal.
The After School Satan Club promotes self-directed education by supporting the intellectual and creative interests of students
The Sober Faction is a peer support group that offers a Satanic approach to addiction recovery.
The Satanic Representation Campaign promotes pluralism and fights for members' religious liberty.
Satanic Good Works collaborates with congregations that engage in their community work events that will provide the best outcome for those individual communities.
The Collegiate Affiliate Program provided post-secondary students with the opportunity to advocate for Satanic representation on their campuses without conversion.
What does Reason Alliance believe in?
Reason Alliance has six values it promotes and practices that are similar to The Satanic Temple's tenets.
Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care to never distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.
People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone.
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
Every value is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis After School Satan Club: What to know groups behind it.