Satanic Temple offering ‘Devil’s Advocate’ scholarship for college-bound teens
The Satanic Temple wants to help students on the path to higher learning with a new academic scholarship.
Applications for the “Devil’s Advocate Scholarship” are being accepted and are open to any 2020 high school graduate, according to the organization’s website.
The temple, which fights for stricter separation of church and state, said it will award students “who champion individualism, free-thought, empathy and other noble aspects of The Satanic Temple’s mission to better society.” Winners will receive $500 to use toward their higher education.
Malcolm Jarry, co-founder of the Salem, Massachusetts-based group, said the organization has received 50 applications as of Wednesday, according to CNN.
To apply, students must submit a creative response that answers one of two questions, according to the temple’s website. Applicant responses may be in the form of a poem, essay, film project or other creative expression.
The scholarship aims to help students, but also highlights the issues of what The Satanic Temple calls “compulsory education,” the Associated Press reported.
Jarry criticized the need for mandatory schooling, arguing that “it violates students’ fundamental civil rights and ingrains obedience to unearned authority,” according to the outlet.
“While learning involves a self-directed approach to better one’s understanding of things, schooling involves the imposition of an oppressive hierarchical structure that demands obedience to authority first and foremost and determines what knowledge should be disseminated and how it should be imparted,” the Temple’s website adds.
The idea for the scholarship came after a student emailed Jarry asking for a letter of recommendation for a religious scholarship offered at her school, CNN reported.
“I was disappointed that she did not receive the scholarship and saw that moment as an opportunity to offer our own scholarship that reflects our own values,” he said.
Despite its name, the group is a “nontheistic international religious organization” that preaches “benevolence and empathy among all people,” its website states.
Members view Satan as a literary construct — not an actual being, according to CNN.
All scholarship entries are due by Aug. 31 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
The Satanic Temple will announce two winners on Sept. 15 and display their work on its website.