Tennessee after-school Satan club holds first meeting despite protests
Tennessee after-school Satan club holds first meeting despite protests
www.theguardian.com
Tennessee after-school Satan club holds first meeting despite protests
123 comments
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"RELIGIOUS FREEDO-No, not like that!"
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You have the freedom to be a Christian, but anything else and you're not a Real American TM.
ps: And if you're the wrong variety of Christian we'll be watching you.
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At this point, Christians aren't Real Americans. Those protestors are traitors who hate the Constitution and the rule of law.
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https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/about-us
I highly recommend reading the tenets. Good stuff.
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Those kids are very brave. School bullying is no joke. My daughter was bullied so harshly in her middle school that we had to pull her out of school and put her in online school. The school administration did nothing for her and they'll do even less than nothing for kids in this club that get bullied by religious students. I feel really bad for them in that regard and I hope they make it through without too much scarring.
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The school administration did nothing for her and they’ll do even less than nothing for kids in this club that get bullied by religious students.
I think part of the purpose of the club is to create a sense of shared identity and form a collective defense mechanism against bullying by aggressive students and administrators.
Of course, this gives the administration one big target to smash rather than a bunch of little targets. But that's the nature of organizing in defiance of a violent and oppressive authority.
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Kids like these give me hope for the future, no matter what disasters we have to suffer through!
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Always amusing that people protest this stuff based on some made up fear of their "soul", that can only be "saved" by preaching HATE for others different than you, instead of inclusion like the Temple. Hopefully these kids see the protesters for what they are and go on to have a more positive impact on society instead of trying to bring us all backwards.
Edit - Holy who taught me how to spell Batman!?
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Meanwhile, another protester, Samantha Harmon, said, “There is no reason that Memphis should have ever allowed an after-school Satan club to come in. It’s time to revise policy and it’s time for parents to get on their post and pray and protect their kids.”
Speaking to WMC, ASSC’s national campaign director pushed back against criticisms, saying: “We don’t go to a school unless there is another religious club operating.”
Oof. Nice rebuttal. I wonder how many kids attended; being in elementary school, I would imagine a lot of parents told their kids they couldn’t go. I’m glad it was successful but I’m honestly surprised they had any kids attend, given Tennessee and all.
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being in elementary school
Consider, too, how tragic it is that this has to be in an elementary school.
Nobody was willing to step in and protect these kids from indoctrination and abuse until the Satanic Temple came along. It's depressing to even think about how commonplace this is across the country.
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Meanwhile, another protester, Samantha Harmon,
said, “There is no reason that Memphis should have ever allowed an after-school Satan club to come in.told on herself about her seditious, anti-American attitudes and ignorance of the First Amendment.FTFY, article writer.
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It's after school, which is a smart move - there are probably some working single parents who are delighted to have a couple of hours of free child care.
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It's Memphis, right? There a probably tens of thousands of atheists in Memphis, and basically any big city. Not every person in Tennessee is a Maga christofacist.
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Just got done celebrating malicious compliance on another thread. So this one I'll just give a big cheer and thumbs up for The Satanic Temple and all the good it's doing in this country!
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It's crazy how these Satanists are indoctrinating children. It's not like a child just naturally chooses to be a Satanist- their parents put them up to it.
Ain't gonna have none of that shit in our home- we take them to church every weekend and make sure they believe exactly what we believe or I'll tan their hides.
My eyes are so far apart...
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Did you forget the /s ?
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I love A.S.S meetings so much, haha. Go Satanists!
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ASSC keepin' it classy!
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Not today Jesus, not today
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Satanists don't believe in Satana btw, they're mostly atheists, but adhere to the rule of Satan who happen to be better than the "all-loving all-good" God who brutally kills everyone opposing him
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Love using kids as political pawns
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Thankfully, intellectual dishonesty doesn't cause searing abdominal pain, as you'd probably spend a lot of your waking moments curled up in fetal position.
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The kids formed the club themselves with TST's approval. Should they not be allowed to form a club if they want to?
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Exactly. These clubs are not being put into schools by some outside corporation. They are made by students, with faculty support, like all clubs. The Satanic Temple provides support to these groups, because without an organization like them to back them up, clubs like this would all get shut down by bigoted principals and PTA groups.
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Do you think elementary school kids woke up one day and decided to spontaneously join together with other elementary school kids to reach out to the local Satanist chapter to invite them to bring more schoolwork?
Come on. Kids just want to play. The Christians, the Satanists and especially the kids parents are all complicit in using children for political gain.
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The fascists are the ones doing that. Complain to them, not us.
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"Love using kids as political pawns"
Are you a republican?
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No, I'm not. I don't even know what this has to do with Republicans...
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123 comments
What infuriates me about articles like this is that it really should just say that the school Satanic Club had its first meeting, the kids had a great time, here's everything they did and what they plan to do for the year, and here are some kids' reactions and quotes about the club.
Instead, it says the kids had "a great time" and then moves on to the protesters, offering them several paragraphs to spew their vile hate speech, repeating the garbage that their hate-filled signs say, and then even quoting two people. And then it follows that with basically an advertisement for "the Good News club, a Christian evangelical Bible club that meets before school hours."
It's a sign of how biased society is towards religion that an article about a non-theistic after school club gives half of the article to a handful of religious bigots to let them spew their hate speech and then promotes their own Christian school club.
On one hand, I agree that the story could and should contain more info about the positives of the club to really show people what it's like. I've read similar articles about other school districts that have the club, and they often give few details about the actual club, which is frustrating. On the other hand, I understand why the author chose to focus on what they did. If this club was established and everyone was cool with it, it likely wouldn't receive an article in a national publication because that's not very noteworthy. The news story in this case isn't about the club being formed; it's about the backlash to the club being formed, and that's what they're going to focus on. I'm not saying it should be that way (I like having a more complete picture of what's going on), but focusing on one aspect of a story and ignoring others is often how it appears to be when reading news.
I get where you're going with this, but I'm not following along.
Pointing out that there were protesters and explaining what they were doing there/why they were there is one thing. And that's important news. But this article went way way beyond that. They interviewed the protestors, put their names in the paper, and published their bigoted message along with it. They gave them fame and a platform, and helped them spout their hatred.
When there's a terrorist attack, responsible news agencies are careful to avoid giving unnecessary publicity to the terrorists, such as publishing their name and manifesto, and instead they focus on the victims. That's the attitude that should have been taken here. Mention the protestors, but don't platform them. Focus on the kids who are being harassed by these bigots, and show them in the positive light they deserve.
Lol Wtf is this?
The story is about the controversy surrounding the club. "New club starts after school, kids have fun" is a story that would only run in the schools newspaper. Outside of that it's a complete non story.
So of course they are going to report about what the people who are protesting this are saying about it.
Additionally, the "advertisment" was really just a clarification on the point by ASSC that they only go to schools where there is another religious club.
This is a very neutral article just reporting the facts, you had to try very hard to be offended by it.
Except this is not what I said at all.
Nice try at a dishonest post though. Read what I actually wrote and try again.
Nah, I didn't have to try very hard at all. But clearly you put a lot of thought into being a troll. Hopefully you didn't hurt yourself.
Isn't the name of the club deliberately provocative though? The only reason you would call it the Satanic Club would be to make Christians mad. Seems like trolling to me. Articles like this are exactly what the club wants.
Is it though?
"After School Satan Club"
Is that provocative? Is that offensive? Would you say that the school's evangelical "Good News Club" is provocative or trolling?
Calling is a Satan Club is "only to make Christians mad" but calling it a "Good News Club" is not trolling to make non-Christians mad? This says more about your own prejudices than anything else.
Yeah, probably.
So provocative.
Not like the wholesome Christian indoctrination clubs and Christian students who bully anyone who isn't cishet and white. Thank goodness they're in the school to show us the light.
I think you’re whoooshing the article. Let the author breathe and give them credit for parsing the subject in a carefully neutral manner whilst yet getting something of import across.
when "one side" wants to take away everyone's rights and burn down the planet, I think the "both sides" neutrality arguments should fuckin STOP
I don't see it that way. What I see is the author giving a platform to bigots under the disguise of what should have been a story focused on what the club actually does.
The club is being protested because of ignorance and bigotry. A responsible journalist would help to banish the ignorance by exposing the truth that fear and hatred is unnecessary. Instead, they provided a platform for bigots to spew more their hatred, even quoted two of them, and promoted a Christian club that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the article.
That's not neutral reporting.
They literally explained how it's not neutral.