Playing devil’s advocate

District leaders of Orange County, Florida, have found themselves in a lake of fire and brimstone. For several years the county has allowed religious material to be handed out freely at public schools. Up until very recently this material was usually Evangelical literature, but now The Satanic Temple has begun handing out material at public schools. Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the group, told WFTV,  “It seems that it would never occur to them that another religious group would want to come and put out their materials.“

Besides the ordinary pamphlets explaining The Satanic Temple’s beliefs and tenets they are also handing out The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities, an activity book complete with crossword puzzles and coloring. The Florida school board is unlikely to come out of this situation unscathed. Banning certain types of religious material is unconstitutional and would likely result in a lawsuit, while the same could be said about banning all religious material.

The Satanic Temple is also a strong supporter of atheism—their various campaigns include assisting the Freedom From Religion Association. In addition to their various advocacies against religious favoritism, the group built a statue depicting Baphomet that will soon stand besides a monument of the Ten Commandments in front of the Oklahoma Capitol building.