Satanic Temple expects 'befuddled school boards' after Florida school chaplain law. What is the Satanic Temple?

Thanks to a bill allowing volunteer chaplains in Florida public schools that passed in the Florida Legislature, students may have the opportunity to be ministered by the Satanic Temple.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the bill into law Thursday, said that will not be happening.

Under HB 931, volunteer school chaplains could be allowed by school districts "to provide support, services, and programs to students as assigned by the district school board or charter school governing board." Parents must consent and may choose from a publicly available list of chaplains and their religious affiliations, if any.

However, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits the establishment or promotion of any specific religion.

Enter the Satanic Temple.

The organization — which is itself recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt religious organization — regularly fights for religious freedom and the First Amendment by inserting itself into any rules or laws that allow religion into the government or public sector. So what happens now?

"Stand by to witness befuddled school boards acting outside of legal boundaries to mitigate parental outrage over Satanic chaplains," said Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves in an email after the bill passed, "while more rational concerns will surely center on proselytizing evangelicals in schools, all likely to result in costly litigation that will come at taxpayer expense, all of which could have been avoided if the alleged problem in need of a solution — providing more 'emotional support' for youth — had been addressed by calling for volunteer counselors rather than chaplains."

A similar bill in Utah, HB 514, failed. Georgia's SB 379 would allow volunteer chaplains to work alongside or replace school counselors but is attempting to head off the problem by specifically defining "chaplain" as not a person "who is a satanist."

What if 'someone was a Satanist'?Florida lawmakers pass contentious bill allowing for chaplains in public schools

What is the Satanic Temple?

The Satanic Temple was founded in Salem, Massachusetts in 2013 by Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jerry and began getting national attention after holding a rally in Tallahassee praising then-Gov. Rick Scott for signing a bill the previous year allowing public school students to initiate prayer and read inspirational messages at assemblies and sporting events.

The Satanic Temple has been fighting religious programs in public schools nationwide with its After School Satan Clubs as a counter to faith-based school programs, most recently winning the right to provide a school program to an eastern Pennsylvania school district along with a $200,000 settlement. The Temple's versions offer science projects, community service projects, arts and crafts, puzzles and games with what the organization calls a focus on rationalism.

"The After School Satan Club does not believe in introducing religion into public schools and will only open a club if other religious groups are operating on campus," the church's website says.

The Satanic Temple also has taken a stand against hate groups, corporal punishment in schools, abortion limits and other issues it feels are based on evangelical Christianity, often using images and references that seem to mock religious beliefs. The church uses a cartoonish version of the Christian devil as its logo as a symbol of rebellion and intellectual questioning, although it specifically rejects the concept of Satan as a supernatural being.

The Temple promotes seven tenets focusing on compassion, empathy, personal freedom, bodily autonomy, scientific facts, and the struggle for justice. The organization also offers support groups for recovery from addiction without including religion; exposes malpractice and pseudoscience; runs an anti-corporal punishment in schools campaign; and provides telehealth support for reproductive information nationwide and telehealth abortion services to New Mexico.

The Satanic Temple:After School Satan Clubs and pagan statues have popped up across US. What's going on?

What is Florida HB 931 / SB 7044, School Chaplains bill?

HB 931/SB 7044 authorizes school districts and charter schools to allow volunteer school chaplains "to provide support, services, and programs to students as assigned by the district school board or charter school governing board." It also requires districts to screen volunteers and requires parental consent before a student may utilize their services. Parents may choose from the list which will be posted by each district with the volunteer's name and religious affiliation.

Assorted amendments to ban school districts from preferring specific religious affiliations, require sexual harassment and assault prevention training, require chaplains to be from faiths recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense and hold a Master's or Bachelor's degree or higher in a theological field, and require an oversight committee and establish a complaint and termination process all failed or were withdrawn in the House.

Will there be Satanic priests in Florida schools? What happens now?

“Are there any prohibitions on what religions can be part of these programs, specifically if someone was a Satanist?” asked Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, during a discussion of the bill.

Bill sponsor Sen. Erin Grall, R-Fort Pierce, said that because of the First Amendment’s religious freedom protections, the bill wasn’t limiting.

"Some have said that if you do a school chaplain program, that somehow you're going to have Satanists running around in all our schools," DeSantis said at a press conference at a high school in Kissimmee, where he also signed a bill (HB 1317) giving more school access to “patriotic organizations."

"We're not playing those games in Florida," DeSantis continued. "That is not a religion. That is not qualifying to be able to participate in this."

The bill leaves it up to individual school districts to decide how to select potential chaplains for their schools. The Satanic Temple has already expressed interest in participating.

“Any opportunity that exists for ministers or chaplains in the public sector must not discriminate based on religious affiliation,” wrote The Satanic Temple’s director of ministry, who goes by Penemue Grigori, in an email. “Our ministers look forward to participating in opportunities to do good in the community, including the opportunities created by this bill, right alongside the clergy of other religions.”

"It appears that we will now be moving into the phase in which everybody pretends to be alarmed by the well-articulated, endlessly discussed, and openly-recognized unintended consequences of this unnecessary and disingenuously-reasoned school chaplain model legislation," Greaves said.

"Be prepared to see general outrage and confusion over the question of chaplain qualifications, motives, and requirements, all of which has been ignored in the facile deliberations of incompetent Florida politicians."

Did the Satanic Temple put up a satanic holiday display at the Florida Capitol?

After seeing the Florida Capitol Rotunda filled with Christmas displays, a menorah, and a Festivus pole inserted by the "Seinfeld" TV show made out of empty Pabst Blue Ribbon cans, the Satanic Temple petitioned for its own display in 2013.

That was denied, but they came back in 2014 and won the right to mount their own: a diorama of an angel falling from the sky into the flames of hell, underneath the words "Happy Holidays from the Satanic Temple." Within a day it was vandalized.

Other measures have met outraged resistance. In 2015, when the Temple was distributing Satanic coloring books emphasizing reason and anti-bullying messages along with cartoon children performing Satanic rituals, the Orange County School Board voted to ban all distribution of religious or political material in schools.

In 2019, the West Florida Chapter of the Satanic Temple "adopted" Hitzman-Optimist Park in Pensacola but within a week their sign and areas of the park were vandalized.

DeSantis not a fan of Satan

A Satanic Temple altar with a statue of the pagan idol Baphomet that was permitted at the Iowa State Capitol next to the nativity scene last December brought widespread outrage, criticism and debates over free speech before a Mississippi man destroyed it. He was later charged with a hate crime.

DeSantis, who was then running for the Republican nomination for president, appeared on CNN saying said it would not be allowed in the Florida Capitol and that it was former president and current GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's fault.

“The Trump administration gave them approval to be under the IRS as a religion, so that gave them the legal ability to potentially do it,” he said. The Satanic Temple received its tax-exempt status in 2019.

DeSantis later tweeted that the Temple should not be recognized as a "religion" by the federal government and offered to contribute to the legal defense fund of the vandal, who was a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot and a former GOP Mississippi House candidate.

Douglas Soule, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida, contributed to this article.