The "Thou Shalt Nots...." Issue - Again

Back in January 2014 I wrote about an issue involving the display of a Ten Commandments monument in the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol, and an associated request from another body to erect a different monument in the grounds. Things have moved on a tad since then. Oklahoma's Supreme Court has ruled that the Ten Commandments monument be removed from the Capitol grounds.

The Court Has Ruled: Remove The Monument

The Oklahoman [newspaper] editorial board has weighed in on the Ten Commandments monument controversy with a tortuous and illogical argument that the state should now repeal its constitution..........................
Since then the conservative crowd in Oklahoma has been in a complete meltdown, suggesting everything from repealing the constitution to impeaching the judges who made the decision. Both Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and Gov. Mary Fallin have publicly pledged their support for keeping the monument at the Capitol. One lawmaker has even made the claim that the ruling “could even lead to churches, synagogues, mosques and other buildings used for religious purposes being unable to receive police and fire protection as they would be directly or indirectly benefiting from public monies.”

Freedom of religion (any religion) is supposed to be one of the USA's most treasured rights. I don't see how this squares with emphasis on just one religion: Christianity. An American citizen of any faith, other than Christianity, or an agnostic or atheist (which I am, depending on the day), could be feeling very much an outsider when all emphasis, all the time is on Christianity. This doesn't seem to me to be in the spirit of the Bill of Rights. How can it be morally right to place a monument to some Christian Bible verses in the grounds of a government building, from which a state government supposedly represents all Oklahomans, of every religious shade, as well as those who are non-religious, equally?

As I've written before, more than once, whenever Oklahoma is in the news, it's always for something embarrassing or tragic. In this case it's the former - I'm at least thankful for that.

Craven Images

Any time our home state, Oklahoma, gets itself into the news it's always for something either horrific, or vaguely embarrassing! This time, thankfully, it's the latter. It's a variation on the old controversy about depictions of The Ten Commandments being displayed in State buildings or on State property. If I recall correctly The Ten are displayed in the foyer of a public building in our town - the courthouse, I think. I remember doing a "tsk tsk" as I walked past last time we were in there. It wouldn't rankle half as much if those displaying The Ten would live up to 'em. "Thou shalt not kill!" that one didn't take, did it? And what about the warning against graven images - could it not be argued that a sculpture or any display of The Ten is nothing more than a graven image?

This latest news has a lighter side to it - it's another "if you didn't laugh you'd cry" moment. From The Daily Mail:

Satan worshipers want 7-foot-tall statue of devil put at Oklahoma state Capitol

The New York-based Satanic Temple formally submitted its application to a panel that oversees the Capitol grounds. The application includes an artist's rendering of Satan as Baphomet, a goat-headed figure with horns, wings and a long beard. They want it to sit where a Ten Commandments monument sat in 2012. In the rendering, Satan is sitting in a pentagram-adorned throne with smiling children next to him.......................

The push by the Satanic Temple has rankled elected leaders in this conservative state known as the buckle of the Bible Belt, who say such a proposal would never be approved by the commission.

'I think you've got to remember where you are. This is Oklahoma, the middle of the heartland,' said Don Armes, Republican representative for Faxon.

'I think we need to be tolerant of people who think different than us, but this is Oklahoma, and that's not going to fly here.'

While Greaves acknowledges the Satanic Temple's effort is in part to highlight what it says is hypocrisy of state leaders in Oklahoma, he says the group is serious about having a monument placed there.

Wonder how it'd go down if I put in an application to have a sculpture in the Capitol grounds depicting the ecliptic with signs of the zodiac ?