by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Satanists are volunteering as chaplains in Florida public schools, arguing that the state’s new law allowing public school districts to have chaplains gives them the right to offer their services too, The Hill reports. The volunteers in question are members of The Satanic Temple, a Massachusetts-based organization that, among other activities, has taken a stand against the establishment of Christianity as a US state or national religion.
In April this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill giving public school officials the right to take on religious chaplains amid staffing shortages. The new law is controversial, with critics asserting it violates the “separation of church and state” jurisprudential principle first enunciated by US founding father Thomas Jefferson in 1802. The principle formed part of the discussions that led to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
Announcing his organization’s wish to send volunteer chaplains to Florida public schools, Lucien Greaves, co-founder of The Satanic Temple, said in a statement to The Hill: “Nothing in the text of the [Florida] bill serves to exclude us, and no credible interpretation of the First Amendment could. Should a school district now choose to have chaplains, they should expect Satanists to participate as well.”
“Either entirely ignorant of the most basic fundamentals of constitutional law or too incompetent to care, DeSantis fails to recognize that it is not the place of the government to confer unique rights to one religious identity while denying them to another,” Greaves said.
In response to the Satanists’ assertions, DeSantis said in a statement to reporters: “We’re not playing those games in Florida. That is not a religion. That is not qualifying to be able to participate in [the chaplain program.] We’re going to be using common sense … you don’t have to worry about that.”
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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