The Satanic Temple is now seeking a location in Arkansas to install its religious structure that it initially wanted to install in Oklahoma after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that a Christian structure would have to be moved from its Capitol grounds, thus simultaneously thwarting the secular organization’s plans of installing a secular structure of their own at the same spot.
Hoping that they can now enshrine their deity outside the Arkansas Statehouse, the Satanic Temple, which believes in the separation of church and state, has already spent over $100,000 to design as well as construct an 8 ½ feet tall bronze Baphomet statue that depicts Satan as a goat-headed creature with horns, wings, hooves and a beard. Since Oklahoma outlawed the Ten Commandments structure from its Capitol grounds, the Satanic Temple has now turned its attention to Arkansas, where earlier this year, lawmakers approved of yet another Ten Commandments display on public land.
“It was always our intention to take this wherever it was relevant, wherever it was necessary, and wherever that dialogue needed to take place,” said Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the Satanic Temple, which is less concerned with worshipping Satan and more concerned with pointing out what it perceives to be the improper influence of religion on the state.
The 1 ½ ton structure, with an inverted pentagram in the background and statues of two young children in the foreground, is indeed a head-turner. When the secular organization wanted to make a valid point by placing the structure on Oklahoma’s Capitol grounds, the state’s Supreme Court ruled in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Ten Commandments on state property that Oklahoma’s constitution indeed bans governments from doing anything to profit a religion, either directly or indirectly. The judges hearing that particular case said the Ten Commandments had evident Jewish as well as Christian overtones and because of those reasons, the structure would be considered unconstitutional.
At the time of Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling, Greaves had said that the Baphomet statue, which is expected to be unveiled in Detroit on July 25, is meant to portray religious liberty and plurality.
Arkansas’ Ten Commandments structure could be installed by the end of this year, alongside 15 other structures on the state’s Capitol grounds, said Senator Jason Rapert, who drafted the bill that authorizes the new proposition, while dismissing all notions of his bill possibly summoning the demon.
“The Satanist Temple, or whoever these pagans are, are simply trying to draw attention to themselves and it's simply an outrageous gesture that flies in the face of the sensitivities of the people of the state of Arkansas,” Rapert said. “In my opinion, a lot of what they stand for is detestable to the everyday American and definitely to the everyday Arkansan.”
The United States Supreme Court had earlier approved of a similar religious structure in Texas but barred two others in Kentucky. Both Oklahoma and Arkansas legislators had said that the Ten Commandments were being installed for their historic heritage and not their religious connotations.
Photo Credits: Washington Post
