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They’re Coming For Your Children – Satanic Temple Religious Release Program Kicking Off in Ohio Elementary School

December 3, 2024

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Marysville’s Edgewood Elementary School is offering the Satanic Temple’s Hellion Academy of Independent Learning (HAIL) program beginning this month. This decision was made after a parent reached out to the Satanic Temple, asking for a program at the school. According to WCMH, June Everett, described as a “campaign director for the After School Satan Club and an ordained minister for the Satanic Temple,” claimed the “programs for students are only implemented when parents seek them out, and only in districts where other release programs are already in place.” This school currently offers a Christian-based program via LifeWise, which is “designed to take students through the entire Bible, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation,” according to the website, which adds:

Each lesson reviews a Bible passage as well as a “Living LifeWise” character trait. The lessons’ order and activities are flexible and can be modified as the teacher finds necessary. Download a sample of the curriculum here.

The Satanic Temple — not to be confused with the Church of Satan, which was founded by Anton Szandor LaVey in 1966 — said in a press release that it launched HAIL as a response to the uptick in Christian-based release programs in schools across the country.

They claim their program “allows them to learn about values such as empathy, compassion, and justice in a fun environment without religious pressure or coercion.” They also claim that students who chose not to attend the Christian programs are “later regaled with stories of fun activities and warnings from their classmates that they will surely burn in hell for not participating.”

The Satanic Temple adds:

These programs have been heavily pushed in recent years by groups such as Lifewise Academy and Joy El Club. These groups are only allowed to operate in public schools because they take students off site, they do not use public funding, and the school districts in principle do not discriminate against any similar programs based on the religion organizing the activity. HAIL will be testing school districts on that last requirement, but providing an alternative to these exclusively Christian, exclusionary RTRI offerings. If you want to know more about the HAIL curriculum and where the program will be offered.

Further, Everett claimed the Satanic Temple is fundamentally misunderstood, asserting that they do not worship the devil or sacrifice babies.

“It’s actually the opposite,” Everett claimed.

Everett made no mention of the Satanic Temple unveiling the “world’s first religious abortion clinic” in 2023, where it specifically said it would offer “abortion rituals” for mothers to get rid of unwanted shame for ending the life of their unborn child.

As Breitbart News detailed:

TST Health describes the “Abortion Ritual” as a “protective rite” designed to “cast off unwanted feelings” associated with taking the life of an unborn child. According to TST Health, the ritual involves spoken words exclusively and includes reciting the third tenet of the Satanic Temple — “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone” — and the fifth — “Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.”

Science, however, shows that a baby’s heartbeat begins around 21 days, and they can begin to feel pain in the first trimester, when many abortions take place. Brainwave activity also begins at six weeks as their limbs and organs begin to take form.

It should also be noted that the Satanic Temple states in its fifth tenet that “beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world.”

“One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs,” it states, apparently failing to see its own irony given the scientific facts about unborn children.

Further, the other tenets of the Satanic Temple are absent of absolute truth, largely based upon one’s autonomy.

The Satanic Temple, for example, believes individuals should act with “compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.” And these are the tenets they tout when attempting to appeal to schools. But this obviously leaves it up to the individual to decide the extent of “with reason.” The Satanic Temple also places an emphasis on justice, although it does not define what justice is. Once again, with the absence of absolute truth and emphasis on the self, it seems that, too, is up for each individual to decide.

This comes as Bible sales soar in 2024, and many purchasers are first time buyers.