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Florida lawmakers are proposing two bills that, if handed, may allow for Satanic priests to serve as volunteer chaplains in public schools.
The companion bills — Senate Bill 1044 and House Bill 931 — would give schools the power to decide on which volunteer chaplains can present counseling companies to college students.
Under the invoice, every faculty may undertake a coverage authorizing volunteer faculty chaplains to supply help companies and packages for college kids. The invoice additionally requires principals of schools with volunteer faculty chaplains to tell all dad and mom of the companies, whereas additionally requiring written parental consent earlier than college students take part or obtain the companies.
Schools would be required to supply dad and mom with a listing of volunteers who’ve undergone a whole background verify. The dad and mom would then be capable of choose a chaplain of their selecting from the checklist.
‘AFTER SCHOOL SATAN CLUB’ DRAWS CONCERN FROM TENNESSEE PARENTS: ‘FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE’
The Satanic Temple emblem at its headquarters in Salem, Mass. (Getty)
Under the U.S. Constitution, the state just isn’t allowed to dictate the non secular teams that may take part as volunteers, so it may open the door to teams like The Satanic Temple to allow their clergy members to supply companies to college students.
Lucien Greaves, co-founder and spokesperson of The Satanic Temple advised Fox News Digital as lengthy as the Florida authorities needs to blur the road between Church and State by permitting chaplains into schools, The Satanic Temple is able to take part with hopes of preserving authorities viewpoint neutrality, but additionally as a substitute for “proselytizing evangelism.”
“In an effort to dismiss concerns about bringing religious viewpoints into schools, advocates for chaplain bills have a scripted response that insists their interest is in merely providing additional ‘emotional support’ for potentially troubled youth,” he mentioned. “If that were true, they could simply be calling upon volunteers who hold licensure as counselors to offer their services in the schools in their communities.”
Lucien Greaves, a co-founder and spokesperson for The Satanic Temple, advised Fox News Digital that the group began the after-school program as a substitute for different non secular teams that have been “proselytizing” to kids. (Josh Reynolds for The Washington Post by way of Getty Images / File )
Florida state Sen. Erin Grall launched the invoice, and didn’t instantly reply to Fox News Digital’s request for remark.
The bills are presently transferring by the state legislature, and if handed, would go into impact July 1, in response to FOX 35 Orlando.
Still, Greaves recommended the lawmakers have larger fish to fry.
The Baphomet statue at The Satanic Temple, Salem, Mass. (Joseph Prezioso / AFP by way of Getty Images / File)
“With a wealth of problems that lawmakers could be addressing, advocating for a disingenuous piece of poorly-thought model legislation supported by false arguments shows raw incompetence on the part of the chaplain bill’s sponsoring signatories,” he mentioned.
The Satanic Temple is not any stranger to First Amendment rights of faith, and since 2016 has been working to introduce after-school packages to schools in states like Virginia, Tennessee, and Kansas.
The temple is acknowledged by the IRS as a public charity.
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Greaves has described the type of actions that the after-school program facilitates, as a self-directed studying course of that entails enjoying video games, fixing puzzles, actions, and different issues which are instructional for the children — the place they will select which of them they need to work with.
The Satanic Temple initially constructed a fancy curriculum and consulted folks in the sector of training, however then modified it after realizing that it had turn into too elaborate.
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