Salem's Satanic Temple Offering College Scholarships

SALEM, MA — The Satanic Temple, the Salem-based nonprofit that advocates for a clearer of separation of religion and government, is offering college scholarships to students who graduate high school in 2020.

The two-question application asks students to explain how they have promoted the Satanic Temple's mission and to describe a teacher who "crushed your spirit, undermined your self-confidence, and made you hate every minute you were forced to be in school. "

The Satanic Temple opposes mandatory schooling, saying it violates civil rights and "ingrains obedience to unearned authority."

The Satanic Temple opened its international headquarters in Salem in 2016. The group is set up as a nonprofit religious organization and has about 40,000 members nationwide. According to its Website, Satanism is misunderstood and commonly portrayed as devil worship when, in reality, the belief system preaches independent thought and using evidence-based science as a basis for understanding the world.

The scholarship application deadline is Aug. 31.

Dave Copeland covers Salem and other North Shore communities for Patch. He can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).