The Satanic Temple recently opened an after-school “Satan Club” in a Moline, us-regions, elementary school, as part of its nationwide campaign to push back against the religion Good News Clubs offered to schoolchildren after regular-hour classes.
Parents protested outside the Jane Addams Elementary School in Moline when the first after-school Satan Club met there last month.
Last Thursday, a few people came out to protest the club’s second meeting as well.
AFTER-SCHOOL ‘SATAN CLUB’ ELICITS CONCERN FROM PARENTS IN ILLINOIS
It’s why some say that spiritual warfare is now taking place in America’s education” target=”_blank”>public schools< ruled in June 2001 that faith” target=”_blank”>religious groups< to the Addams School district for comment about the Satan Club in Moline. A spokesperson said a flyer that had been placed within the school building was legitimate — but she stressed it was “not generated by the district, not distributed to all students, and not affiliated with any teacher in the district.” Candace Sountris, communications director, also said, “Community use of [the] school facility after school hours [is] approved by the Board of Education in accordance with IL School Code.”
Kauffman of Child Evangelism recently told Fox News, “We’re not trying to be against anyone. We’re simply trying to take the biblical Good News of the Gospel to the children.”
GROWING NUMBER OF STATES PUSH ‘BIBLE LITERACY’ CLASSES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The Satanic Temple says it’s really an atheist organization, despite a statue depicting its leader as a tall human with a goat’s head and horns and two children looking on adoringly.
Its says its followers don’t believe in spiritual evil or a literal devil.
This artist’s rendering was provided by the Satanic Temple some years ago of its then-proposed monument. The statue went up in Detroit in 2015; it was created with the help of a fundraising effort.
(Associated Press)
And for them, the devil is simply a symbol of “defiance, independence, wisdom and self-empowerment.”
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That cryptic verse in Scripture has spawned many religious discussions. But according to most theologians, that “crushing” and “bruising” happens in the New Testament, and the encounter begins in another garden, the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus is betrayed and arrested.
The victory over Satan occurs on the cross where Jesus is put to death, and where death itself, the true enemy, was defeated with Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
A woman prays to God in this file photo. Reece Kauffman of Child Evangelism and other Christian theologians believe the real spiritual danger today is believing that Satan doesn’t exist.
(Associated Press)
But it doesn’t mean Satan isn’t still dangerous. He’s like a wounded animal.
John Stott, the noted English theologian, used Satan’s depiction in the Bible’s apocalyptic book, Revelation, to explain why Satan is still a danger to us. It’s because we live in the overlap of the ages between the world of a fallen creation — and the new heavens and new earth that Jesus brought.
“Satan — the term itself — means evil. This is not the influence you want to bring upon your children.”
— Reece Kauffman of Child Evangelism to Fox News
Stott said Satan as the “Red Dragon,” and his legion of fallen angels, are still engaged in a spiritual battle with God’s image bearers, us … but that “he knows his time is short” (Rev. 12:12).
“The devil,” Stott also said, “has been defeated and dethroned … However, the rage he feels in the knowledge of his approaching doom leads him to redouble [his activities]. Victory over him has been won, but painful conflict with him continues” (“The Cross of Christ,” page 243).
Kauffman and other Christian theologians say the real spiritual danger is in believing Satan doesn’t exist.
Lauren Green is chief religion correspondent for Fox News Channel. She reports that the after-school Satan Clubs have not been that popular in Moline, Illinois. Only two young students — the same two students —attended the meetings so far this year.
You can fight against what you know — but not what you believe is not there at all.
Kauffman also says of the Satanic Temple, “They’re doing the work of Satan, whether they want to acknowledge it or not, because this is what Satan would do. Satan, the term itself, means evil. And this is not the influence you want to bring upon your children.”
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The after-school Satan Clubs have not been that popular. The school said two students from the same family attended the first meeting in January.
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Those same two students attended the second meeting last week.
To learn more about this story, watch the video at the top of this article, or access it here.
