Satanic Temple Co-founder Challenges Gov. Desantis on Religious Freedom
The Satanic Temple’s (TST) co-founder challenged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to a religious freedom debate after the governor singled out Satanists, claiming they were barred from participating in a new chaplain program passed into law last week.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation allowing school districts to provide volunteer school chaplain services.
According to the measure, each school in the state can develop a policy permitting volunteer school chaplains to provide support services and activities to kids. The measure also requires principals of schools using volunteer school chaplains to notify all parents of the services being provided, as well as obtain written parental agreement before pupils participate or receive them.
On Thursday, DeSantis emphasized that the initiative was “completely voluntary for a parent or student to participate.” He also stated that TST members will be unable to act as public school chaplains.
“Some have claimed that if you implement a school chaplain program, you will end up with Satanists in all of our schools. “We aren’t playing those games in Florida,” DeSantis promised the gathering. “That’s not a religion. That does not qualify to engage in this. So we’re going to use common sense in this situation. You do not need to worry about it.”
As the law progressed through the state legislature, TST vowed to sue if any of its members were barred from working as chaplains in the program. TST co-founder Lucien Greaves told Fox News Digital that the governor has made several comments against the organization without knowing who they are or what they think.
“This should be of significant concern to anybody, regardless of their own religious views,” he said. “Worse, in signing HB 931 into law, the governor simply announced, from the podium at a press conference, that Satanists were to be considered unqualified for the school chaplaincy program while citing no legal theory to support his view.”
The co-founder of TST stated that the legislation demonstrates DeSantis’ ignorance of how the law works and the fact that the bill he signed into law “does in fact allow Satanic chaplains in schools,” demonstrating the governor’s ignorance of the boundaries of his authority.
Greaves later informed X that the IRS recognizes TST as a tax-exempt church.
“If FL’s Republican administration deliberately excludes the group from the state’s new school chaplain program, that would constitute the kind of discrimination that would likely fail in court,” he said in a post.
Rachel Chambliss, the executive director of operations for TST, also invited DeSantis to a public debate with Greaves about their legitimacy as a federally registered religious institution.
“In light of Governor DeSantis’ recent remarks concerning our involvement in Florida’s new School Chaplain program, we find ourselves in respectful disagreement,” Chambliss said in a statement. “We believe that a public debate would provide an excellent platform to thoroughly discuss the principles of religious freedom in America.”
Nonetheless, Greaves deemed the governor’s conduct “erroneous.”
“If I am correct, and DeSantis is merely engaging in empty grandstanding with a complete disregard for the intelligence of the people of Florida, he will surely ignore this challenge,” he said.