Thanks to Christians, kids in Ohio can take classes in Satanism during school hours
The "Hellion Academy of Independent Learning" is a direct response to LifeWise Academy's Bible classes
This newsletter is free, but it’s only able to sustain itself due to the support I receive from a small percentage of regular readers. Would you please consider becoming one of those supporters? You can use the button below to subscribe to Substack or use my usual Patreon page!
The Satanic Temple is now giving students in one Ohio school district a chance to skip class, with no penalty, in order to learn more about their beliefs. And Christians deserve all the credit for making it happen.
As I’ve written about before, this is part of a program in Ohio called “Released time,” where students can skip class (with their parents’ permission) in order to obtain religious education.
A Christian ministry called LifeWise Academy has taken full advantage of this opportunity by handling all of the details for districts that allow students to participate. For a fee, usually paid for by local churches, they take care of the curriculum, staff, and background checks. Students go to those churches during the school day, get their dose of biblical indoctrination, then return to school for the rest of the afternoon.
Technically, “Released time” policies are religiously neutral. Any organization is allowed to offer these classes to students. Parents have to opt in to letting their kids participate. No school funds are used for them. That means if students are transported to a local church for these lessons, the church has to pay for the buses. Students also have to make up any missed assignments. They can’t skip certain core classes, like English or math.
NBC News reported in April that LifeWise now has chapters in “more than 300 schools in a dozen states, teaching 35,000 public school students.” (A different article from July said it was 525 schools in 23 states.)
Even though this is all legally above board, it’s a Christian Nationalist dream come true. That’s because it’s usually evangelical/Catholic churches that have the resources to offer these courses and pay for the costs associated with them. But while church/state separation is supposed to be maintained in these courses, that’s not what actually happens:
Opponents have also documented several instances of teachers and administrators promoting LifeWise to students, either by allowing LifeWise volunteers to visit classrooms, hosting schoolwide assemblies or advertising the program in paperwork sent home to parents — actions that, according to some legal experts, could violate the First Amendment.
Those are the potential legal problems. There are ethical ones, too.
Students who skip class for these church lessons—especially if they leave the same class each time—will likely be academically behind their peers, even if they’re skipping an elective. “Released time” also makes life harder for teachers who may have to catch students up on lessons they may have missed so that they can make sense of what’s happening when they’re actually in the classroom—it’s the same reason a field trip for one subject can have ripple effects on so many other teachers. And while students can’t skip certain required classes, they are able to skip art, music, or gym… which implies that those subjects (and those teachers) aren’t as important for their development.
Then there’s the peer pressure. If your friends are taking this Bible course, and getting prizes and candy while they’re there, you’re going to want to go, too. That’s not illegal, but it’s another strain on families who are religious minorities. It’s not hard to imagine a public school where, at some point in the day, only Muslim or Jewish students are sitting in class because their Christian peers have gone off to church.
The problems grew so large that, this past October, the Westerville City Schools in Ohio decided to cancel “Released time” entirely. Since that was a religiously neutral decision, they were legally allowed to do it. But Republican lawmakers have attempted to prevent similar actions by proposing legislation that would make “Released time” mandatory throughout the state.
This is where The Satanic Temple comes in.
The group is now offering parents of students at Edgewood Elementary School in Marysville, part of the Marysville Exempted Village School District, a chance to enroll their kids in the “Hellion Academy of Independent Learning” (HAIL).
HAIL is a “self-directed” weekly program that will teach kids compassion, empathy, problem solving skills, and critical thinking. It’s co-sponsored by the Reason Alliance, which is a separate organization founded by the same people who began The Satanic Temple. (HAIL is also operating in Pennsylvania.)
Why this school? Because LifeWise has set up shop in the same district.
Some parents are already up in arms over the possibility that “Satanism” may be taught to their kids. When WKYC in Cleveland posted about this program online, some commenters on Facebook flipped out:
The article itself didn’t have much opposition, though. Just one parent who agreed religious instruction of any kind didn’t belong in the public schools.
"At first, I thought it was a joke," said Crystal Dille, a Marysville parent with three children in the district. Dille said she doesn't support religious instruction affiliated with schools.
"Honestly, I would prefer that it be separated. I don’t think that either one has any business being in school. I would like to be the one in charge of knowing exactly what my kids are being taught," she said.
..
… parents like Dille said the Satanic symbols give her and possibly children the wrong impression of what is being taught.
"Keep in mind that the people coming in for these groups and organizations, whether it be LifeWise or this Hail Academy, they're not being fully vetted by the school," Dille said.
If anyone’s getting the wrong impression of what’s being taught based on the symbols, that’s on them. There’s nothing offensive or controversial in the actual description of what The Satanic Temple is offering.
LifeWise seems to know this is an all-or-nothing situation, too. If the district wants to get rid of the Satanists, they would also have to say goodbye to the Christian group, so CEO Joel Penton took a much more welcoming approach:
LifeWise isn’t fearful of other organizations offering RTRI [Released Time for Religious Instruction]. We believe all families should have the opportunity to choose religious study during school hours and we trust parents to make the best choice for their children.
That’s a wise move on Penton’s part. LifeWise has all kinds of money at its disposal and hundreds of schools they work with. The Satanists have this one tiny group… so far. But conservative Christians aren’t known for their ability to think rationally about these issues, and it’s possible they complain to the district so much that the school board ends up getting rid of “Released time” altogether, just like they did in Westerville. Better for LifeWise to say all comers are welcome than argue some beliefs shouldn’t be taught to kids.
Looks like the sponsor of the bill to mandate the option of religious education is aware of the issue as well:
House Bill 445, which is currently in the Ohio House Primary and Secondary Education Committee, would require Ohio school districts to adopt a policy allowing religious release organizations to operate in their district. Bill sponsor Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, told The Dispatch that he believed the Satanic Temple was attempting to scare legislators away from adopting the bill.
"I'm not sure there's going to be a lot of parents out there saying 'Yes, send my kids to Satan,'" Click said. "I really just don't think that is going to be a reality, it's more of a publicity stunt."
He’s giving away the game, isn’t he? If non-Christian groups participate in the program, and Click assumes it’s all part of a strategy to “scare legislators” from supporting his bill through a “publicity stunt,” then he’s implying this bill is meant to promote Christianity only.
He added that this wouldn’t work anyway because he didn’t believe anyone would sign up for it:
"They could have already done this and they haven't done it," Click said." So history tells us they're still not going to do it, and they might make an effort — I won't call it a noble effort — but they might make an effort."
Click also said he doubted many parents will provide consent to their children for this kind of religious release instruction.
"Most parents really would rather see their kids doing good, healthy things rather than satanic things," Click said. "So I really am extremely skeptical."
His ignorance is revealing. He says parents would prefer to see kids “doing good, healthy things rather than satanic things.” The “Satanic” things in question? Compassion. Empathy. Problem solving. Benevolence. Arts & crafts. Community service projects.
This is what Gary Click believes stands in stark opposition to his brand of Christianity.
The Dispatch article subtly highlighted this discrepancy by describing The Satanic Temple as a group that doesn’t worship Satan but rather “promotes equity, empathy, and social justice."
Also, how could you be fearful of this?
But it’s fair to wonder how many parents will enroll their kids in these classes. I asked June Everett, who’s overseeing this program, if anyone has signed up, and she told me that the group has already received several permission slips along with interest from local parents who are home-schooling their kids. The classes will take place at a public library, as opposed to any church.
The backlash, however, has been fierce and it’s not just from random strangers. Jermaine Ferguson, a member of the Marysville school board, posted this denouncement of HAIL on his personal Facebook page:
I find it very interesting that the anti-Lifewise group has targeted the elementary school that my kids attend and is shameless in their name, “Hellion Academy,” sponsored by the “Satanic Temple.”
It's not a true religion, and it's a mockery and a maneuver to attack a program that has caused no issues and is supported by the community at large.
The same folks who have told me that they will never support a levy until Lifewise is removed are now causing a disruptive ploy during an already difficult time in our community.
Don't join their cause. Reject the call and focus on what's authentic to our community.
None of that makes any sense. The Satanists are simply participating in a program the district offers. They didn’t “target” an elementary school any more than the Christians did. They didn’t do anything “disruptive” either, unless you believe the existence of non-Christians is inherently problematic.
Ferguson also seems to think the Satanists doing what a Christian group has already done serves as an “attack” on the program itself. How? Who knows. But Ferguson has the ability to end the program altogether if he wants. He has no business being mad because Satanists—or atheists or Jews or Muslims or any other group he can’t stand—want to participate.
HAIL classes are slated to begin this month. If nothing else, it’s great to see non-Christian groups challenging conservative Christians at their own game.
I think a big part of why conservative Christians are so obsessed with forcing their religion into the public schools stems from just how badly churches have failed at pushing their message to the same age demographic. At the end of the day, the religious right simply does not believe in genuine education, let alone critical thinking.
The fact that people focus like a laser on the word 'satanic' and dismiss the actual content of the HAIL program shows 1) deeply prejudicial views of any religion other than christianity; 2) that this released time program is clearly designed to promote christianity by government in violation of the Establishment Clause; 3) that christians are a bunch of hypocrites whose privilege all these years causes them to view equal time for other belief systems as an infringement on their favored position.
All of which, it's important to point out, is why the First Amendment's Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses were added to our Constitution in the first place. Government, and that includes public schools, is supposed to remain neutral on religion. When it fails to do so, as the OH legislature has done here, it's only fair for other religious groups to take advantage of the same opportunity that was set aside for christians. And THAT's the real crux of the complaints: that other belief groups are asserting their right to take advantage of a privilege that was clearly designed to benefit christians and only christians.