The Satanic Temple wants to help high school graduates pursue higher education with its “Devil’s Advocate Scholarship.”
The organization, which fights for a separation between religion and pubic affairs, will sift through submissions from 2020 graduates and award two winners $500 in scholarship money. Interested applicants are asked to submit a creative response in the form of an essay, poem, work of art or film answering one of two questions.One asks what applicants have done to promote the temple’s tenets and mission.
The other asks for a description of a teacher who “crushed your spirit, undermined your self-confidence, and made you hate every minute you were forced to be in school.”
The scholarship application period opened Monday. Malcolm Jarry, the organization’s co-founder, told CNN on Wednesday that 50 applications had been received. Jarry said the idea came about when a high school student emailed him to ask for a letter of recommendation for a religious scholarship that was being offered at her school.
The Satanic Temple has used symbols of Satan to draw attention to what it sees as the hypocrisy of Christian symbols on government property. For years, it petitioned to have a massive Baphomet statue — a goat-headed symbol linked to Satan — in the Oklahoma state Capitol, which was home to a Ten Commandments statue.The scholarship is open until August 31. Winners will be announced on the temple’s website September 15.
Source: CNN