so tonight's original now with in-depth reporting on a topic we've been watching and tonight it's an unexpected but powerful Group which says they're fighting to protect the separation of church and state the satanic temple who told you about them before on the show remember they're battling a lot of conservative movements by fighting for what they say is their members religious rights one issue we've seen them gain some traction on is abortion they've sued States over access to it even launching what they call the first ever religious abortion clinic Network now the satanic temples take taking
on religion in schools using new laws in several states to try and get Satanist ministers inside classrooms here's Mora Barrett tonight the satanic temple wants to put its own ministers in public schools in both Florida and Oklahoma it's a move in opposition to conservative lawmakers in those States voting to allow religious chaplain to serve in schools essentially as counselors chaplain have a very specific role 13 other states have proposed similar bills this year the Demonic sounding group using this debate to push back on certain Christian ideals and its increasing overlap on public life if they
pass these bills they're going to have to contend with Ministers of Satan acting as chaplain within their school districts Luan Greaves who uses a pseudonym to protect against threats is a co-founder of the satanic temple they are going to lose in court the Constitution is unambiguous about this you just cannot take a religious identity and cut it out from a public account accomodation they'll have to pay the attorney's fees and frankly they shouldn't be putting that kind of budget into this kind of into this kind of culture War Grand standing BS though in its name
the temple doesn't worship Satan instead describes itself as non-theistic and has become known for inserting itself into various culture wars as an opposition to hardcore Christian ideals whether you agree with them or not they're certainly are very thoughtful about their activism what they're concerned about is how Christianity is privileged within an American society and has rights that other minority religious groups don't have uh and so they see themselves as uh Defenders of religious liberty and the rights of religious minorities according to its website the temple sees Satan as a symbol of Eternal Rebel in opposition
to arbitrary Authority and believes in reason empathy and the pursuit of knowledge their efforts come off as mocking and satirical but are with serious meaning one issue is gaining of traction on abortion bodily autonomy after the overturn of roie Wade it named a teleah health abortion clinic after Supreme Court Justice Samuel Leo's mom and since sued several states to argue that abortion restrictions violate religious freedom for their members and then when Arkansas installed a statue of The Ten Commandments outside its state capital the temple unveiled its own statue of the goat-headed figure Baff the number
of congregations of the satanic temple more than doubling since 2021 amid the rise of Christian nationalism how does this push towards more conservative values play into that from your perspective those who would be drawn to the satanic temple are particularly concerned about Christian overreach and that there is this fear that somehow America or at least parts of America are becoming a Evangelical Christian theocracy as opposed to a secular democracy the temple sees strength in that awareness in their mission as they put it to Fight Fire With Fire Mora is joining us now super interesting Mora
talk through some of the broader goals here the bigger goals of the activism of this of the satanic temple here hi we reported this out with conjunction with our digital colleague Tyler Conca and what we found is even though it's a very unique and unusual form of activism it's effective there's arguments and precedent where federal courts have sided with the temple and essentially what they're doing here is going up against Christian or conservative movements that are trying to upend breakthrough protections that are already in place and the temple is working to highlight those inequalities even
more so hie MOA Barett thank you so much you and Tyler for that uh very interesting reporting appreciate it thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media
