Posted on 09/16/2014 6:05:52 PM PDT by markomalley
The Satanic Temple responded to a Florida school board and judge decision allowing the dissemination of religious materials in public schools by distributing its own Satanic literature to Orange County classrooms. “In response to a recent School Board decision in Orange County, Florida that allows for the dissemination of religious materials in public schools, The Satanic Temple will be distributing educational religious material to students,” reads a statement from the group.
The Satanic Temple (TST) describes itself as a group that, “facilitates the communication and mobilization of politically aware Satanists, secularists, and advocates for individual liberty.”
Earlier this month, a judge dismissed a Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) lawsuit against the Orange County School District seeking to overturn a school board decision allowing for the dissemination of religious materials in public schools – a move viewed as a blatant breach of the separation between church and state. The ruling also left open the option that if Christian groups can disseminate literature – atheist groups will have the same right.
But before the dispute could be taken to court, the school board agreed to allow an atheist group to distribute all of its pamphlets after first rejecting literature with titles such as “Jesus is dead” and “Why I am not a Muslim” because they would cause too much disruption, WFTV reported.
The group is still appealing the case because “there’s no policy right now to ensure the school board won’t discriminate against minority opinions” in similar cases.
“The Satanic Temple seeks to ensure that pluralism is respected whenever the Church/State division is breached,” reads a press release from the group.
The provided activity books flooding the Orange County Schools include that of the pamphlet entitled, The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities, which features activities based around the exploits of the cartoon character “Damian.”
A word scramble activity directions reads, “These bullies are mad and afraid of things they don’t understand. Help Damian use inclusive language to defuse the situation.” Another connect-the-dots description reads: “Damian is showing his class the way to make an inverted pentagram. Connect the dots to make one yourself.”
A drawing exercise asks, “What’s Cerberus dreaming about?” with a thought balloon drawn above the mythological hellhound.
The word search and word jumble ask the participant to find words such as “friendship, compassion, acceptance, empathy, reason and freedom.”
Satanic Temple’s spokesperson Lucien Greaves explained the situation in a Sept. 15 statement.
“We would never seek to establish a precedent of disseminating our religious materials in public schools because we believe our constitutional values are better served by respecting a strong separation of Church and State. However, if a public school board is going to allow religious pamphlets and full Bibles to be distributed to students – as is the case in Orange County, Florida – we think the responsible thing to do is to ensure that these students are given access to a variety of differing religious opinions, as opposed to standing idly by while one religious voice dominates the discourse and delivers propaganda to our youth.”
Nationally, The Satanic Temple has made headlines with a planned Black Mass on Harvard University’s campus in addition to a successful petition to the state of Oklahoma to allow it to erect a goat-headed Baphomet statue next to a display of the Ten Commandments.
We just have way too many bored and incompetent 1099’ed Journalism “professionals” running around trying to get “noticed”, by interviewing the weirdest wackos they can unearth.
As a former reporter/editor, believe me when I tell you that if you found one in 20 ‘professionals’ in the classic sense working as a reporter with integrity, you’d be doing incredibly good. In several years I came across a mere handful out of dozens I had genuine respect for. And most of those also left the business and never looked back out of sheer disgust.
J school turns out people for profit. People go there to push agendas when they get out. Such is the state of the modern reporter.
Cerberus is Greek mythology. Not Satanic.
By the way, Cerberus is greek for ‘Spotted”-
IE.. one of the oldest names for a pet in history:
SPOT.
(Who’s a good dog? Spot is! There’s a good boy...)
I have had many encounters with credentialed “reporters”.
I am also familiar with entities like the Poynter Institute.
But as a ray of hope, technology has helped rebirth a new and improved guild.
May God bless them and protect them.
Actually that's the Romanized form of the Greek name which was "Kerberos" or something similar. And known as "Garmr" in Norse mythology. Seems a lot of folks liked the idea of a terrifying multi-headed dog guarding the gates of Hell.
Although most of them gave the dog three heads, this activity book shows with just one head.
Also, the Harry Potter series had a guard dog with a similar name and three heads who guarded some magical/secret stone.
How about Separation of** SCHOOL** and State?
I hope this incident finally wakes conservatives up!
Fundamentally, it is **impossible** for any school to be religiously, politically, and culturally neutral because such a philosophic state of neutrality can NOT exist in the mind of any sentient human.
Fundamentally, government schooling violates every provision of the First Amendment ( speech, assembly, exercise of religious belief, and press).
Fundamentally government schooling is a First Amendment and freedom of conscience abomination to all who are under police force to attend and pay for it.
Regardless of how the atheists fantasize that it is so, there is no "separation of church and state" in the Constitution. It all stems from the deliberate misinterpretation of a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to a council of churches when he was president. This is, incidentally, the only instance I can think of wherein the leftists use an extraneous writing to make an argument stick. They certainly don't use the Federalist Papers to the same effect--because those don't say what the leftists want them to say.
The First Amendment states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Common decency would have kept these nutjobs in the shadows where they belong, if only decency were still reasonably common.
Churches used to hand out bibles and copies of the new testament in schools when I was a kid. No harm came to any of us as a result.
Next best: Everybody get your kids out of public schools.
If there wrre to be an Antichrist as a single entity such as Prophecy fans like to discuss, then it is surely Mahomet and the “religion” he started.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Government schools violate free speech of every child forced into one of its prisons ( oops! “schools”).
Government schools violate free assembly of every child forced into one of it holding pens ( oops! “schools”).
Government schools control the free press of every child forced into one of its indoctrination centers ( Oops! “schools”).
Government schools curtail the ability to peacefully assemble with those of the child’s or parent’s choosing. This is true for of every child forced into one of its propaganda tanks.
The ability of a child to freely express and practice his faith is strictly controlled by the government toadies ( misnamed “teachers”) who run these mind molding machines ( oops ! “schools”).
Government schooling is a First Amendment and freedom of conscience abomination to all those under its police enforced thumb....and...to all under police threat to fund them.
Personally, I hope to see more of this. Yes, I really do. Maybe then conservatives will come to understand that it is impossible for any school to be religiously, politically, or culturally neutral.
Get government out of the business of controlling the speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion of children and forcing citizens to pay for this abomination.
Personally...I am glad to see this. Hopefully it will awaken citizens to the fact that all government K-12 schools are a First Amendment and freedom of conscience abomination. None of them are religiously, politically, or culturally neutral. All of them push the NON-neutral worldview of the most politically powerful voting mob.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.