After School Satan Club pushes back start date at Portland elementary school
The Portland Chapter of The Satanic Temple has pushed the start date of their After School Satan Club at Sacramento Elementary School back to November.
Finn Rezz, one of the heads of the Portland Chapter of The Satanic Temple, said that The After School Satan Club is a program focused "on science and rational thinking."
The club is a direct response to the fundamentalist Christian Good News Club, a "Bible-centered" after-school program "whose purpose is to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to establish (disciple) them in the Word of God and in a local church for Christian living."
The Portland chapter of the Satanic Temple has succeeded in bringing its after-school program to an elementary school inside city limits.
In a press release sent out by the Satanic Temple, the organization wrote, "Unlike the Good News Club, After School Satan Club does not try to convert children to one religious ideology."
"Instead," the release continued, "it teaches children to think for themselves."
The Satanic Temple describes itself as "a non-theistic religion." It's a national group, headquartered in Salem, Mass.
"We're focused on science and rational thinking," Finn Rezz says, adding that the After School Satan Club will promote "benevolence and empathy for everybody."
The first installment of the program, an open house parents, students, teachers and staff, was set to happen on Oct. 19, but the group has moved that date to an unspecified day in November.
The Satanic Temple said their after school program "will include healthy snacks and creative learning activities: literature and science lessons, puzzle solving, and art projects."
The program is free.
-- Lizzy Acker
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