Satanic Temple launching program at Marysville elementary school, countering Christian programming
The Satanic Temple will launch its own religious release program at Edgewood Elementary in the Marysville Schools district as a counter to LifeWise Academy, which currently offers religious educational programming in the district.
The Salem, Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple first announced the program in a Nov. 23 Facebook post and spoke to WOSU on Wednesday.
Satanic Temple representative June Everett said the Hellions Academy for Independent Learning, or HAIL program, aligns with the organization's beliefs called the "7 tenets."
Everett said the Satanic Temple has been launching the program during school time in response to LifeWise Academy doing the same thing.
"We really we are no fan of it. We do believe strongly in religious pluralism and religious freedom. But we would absolutely go away if they stopped doing their program. But until they can, you know, as long as they continue to offer this to the public schools and demand that they be in the public schools, we will be there as well," Everett said.
The Satanic Temple has a history of taking similar actions when Christian groups attempt to put themselves into traditionally secular spaces.
The school district already has the Christian LifeWise academic program operating in the Marysville school district.
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