Last month, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill authorizing Florida school districts and charter schools to adopt a policy for chaplains “to provide support, services, and programs to students"...provided those chaplains aren't Satanists. "We're not playing those games in Florida. That is not a religion," DeSantis said of Satanism. "That is not qualifying to be able to participate in this." The thing is, though, Satanism most definitely is a religion, and in the case of The Satanic Temple it is a religion in the eyes of United States tax law. DeSantis may well have said this knowing his bill likely violates the 1st amendment and thus inviting an inevitable legal fight with The Satanic Temple's founder, social justice and 1st Amendment activist Lucien Greaves. In our final episode of the season - marking the podcasts' one year anniversary - Kelly and John talk about the bill as part of creeping Christian Nationalism, why it's so hard to define a religion (and why governments shouldn't be in the business of doing so), and what Lucien Greaves and The Satanic Temple actually stand for.
