Orange County, Florida – In what might aptly be termed a “gander ruling” as in “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander”, a state superior court judge ruled that because the school district in this Central Florida county 1.1 million people allowed Christian materials to be read in the school, they must do so for other religions.
This prompted the Satanic Church to introduce an activities book for children into the school district. Initially, the district had made an allowance only for Christian reading materials. This got them embroiled in a lawsuit over the lack of inclusion of other religions. In the end, the judge ruled that allowing religious materials must include all religions.
The ruling prompted the Satanic Temple to enter the picture. Truth be told, the Satanic Temple is hardly a religion of people devoted to the “Father of All Lies” as described in the scriptures. It is most likely a ploy of atheists to counter what they believe is the absurdity of Christianity by being absurd.
It is functionally equivalent to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. In fact, their religion’s central figure “Satan” as a long-horned hooved beast is actually an anachronism. It is one of the sacred figures of European paganism that the Catholic Church redefined as the image of Satan in their push to convert pagans during the dark ages.
This group exists merely to be a thorn in the side of Christian groups that want to see Christian values taught in schools. That said, over-zealous Christians have no one to blame but themselves for the “Satanic” children’s activity book being used in their schools.