OPINION:
The Satanic Temple has launched a lawsuit against Northern Elementary School in York, Pennsylvania, after officials there denied the group’s request to start an “After School Satan Club” for little kids.
The Satanic Temple has become both a blot on America and a sad commentary on the direction of this nation’s moral compass.
The fact that this evil is allowed to root and spread shows how far America has strayed from its founding principles; how lackadaisical citizens have become about protecting the culture from degradation; and how the norms in this country have tipped from Judeo-Christian and godly toward secular, humanist, atheist and ungodly.
This is what happens when a nation turns from God.
The wolves that were kept outside the gate are suddenly allowed in — and in they come.
And as The Satanic Temple’s leading figure and co-founder Lucien Greaves (not his real name) oh so often argues: If Christians get to have after-school clubs on public properties, then — as the Constitution makes clear — so can the Satanic Temple. It’s a free assembly thing; it’s a First Amendment thing; it’s an equal protection clause thing.
As if there’s no difference.
Except, there is. The Satanic Temple, no matter how it’s interpreted, no matter how it’s put forth, is evil. Christianity, by comparison, as a belief, as a foundation, as a religion, is not.
But because in 2019 The Satanic Temple received official IRS recognition as a church, the group now has all it needs to fight for entry into every school system in America that also offers after-school activities or clubs or events tied to any religion.
And what can America do to stop it?
By the Constitution, very little.
But through God, all things are possible.
If Americans didn’t want The Satanic Temple to have influence over little kindergartener’s minds, or gain inroads into little second-graders’ hearts, or steal innocence from little fourth-graders’ spirits, or darken and deny little fifth-graders’ souls, then Americans would have kept The Satanic Temple in the shadows, with the cockroaches, where it belonged. It was only when America grew unconcerned about the churchly matters of life, and when Americans abandoned the pews for the shopping malls, and movie theaters, and fitness centers and places of entertainment — teaching their children in these secular ways — it was only when this shift occurred in America from steadfastly faithful to and believing in the Creator, that the satanists made inroads.
If the people didn’t tolerate the wicked, then the wicked wouldn’t even dare come to the forefront; the wicked would stay hidden, in shame, in fear of persecution, in fright of attack.
The Satanic Temple has no fear of coming from the shadows anymore.
The Satanic Temple has no shame about its name, about its symbols, about its horrific promotional video, about its walk with children and dance with the innocent.
The Satanic Temple is busily moving itself into the mainstream — and soon enough, it won’t even feel the need to lie about its true, dark intents.
“[W]e’re openly non-theistic,” said Greaves, during a 2017 speech at the University of Chicago Law School. “The question becomes how can you be taken seriously as a religion at all?”
Well, that’s the root of it, isn’t it?
And in an America that stood tall for Judeo-Christian principles, filled with citizens who were guided by a moral compass of biblically-based beliefs, that question wouldn’t be difficult to answer at all. The answer would be a resounding: You can’t be. And the problem of satanists in public education teaching little kids in after-school clubs would be automatically moot: You don’t belong.
But America has lost her moral footing.
That’s given a foothold for evil masquerading as good to sneak in the school doors.
The only way to get rid of the satanists is to dry up demand for their particular brand of deception and lie, and to make them so unappetizing and stomach-turning they’re forced to crawl back into their dark holes.
The Constitution can’t do that.
Only a moral and virtuous people can.
The Satanic Temple won’t disappear until Americans turn back to God and in so doing, become incapable of allowing such evil to openly grow.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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