The Republican Party of Oklahoma has offered home to a religious structure that was asked to be removed from the Capitol grounds by October 12. Party members said that the teachings etched on the Ten Commandments monument and espoused by Republicans, define America.
Last month, a judge ruled against requests from the state’s Republican leadership to allow the 6-foot tall Ten Commandments monument to stay put at its current location on the Capitol grounds, ordering authorities to have it removed at the earliest. Now, the interim chairperson of the Republican Party of Oklahoma has offered to display the structure outside the party’s headquarters in Oklahoma City.
“It really defines us as a nation,” said Estela Hernandez “We really are a moral nation and, when we look at those laws that are enshrined in that monument, that's what we follow today.”
Last week, the Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission, which manages art displays in public spaces, voted 7-1 to allow the Office of Management and Enterprise Services to remove the structure. No decision was reached by them however about where it should be placed next.
The stone structure, promoted by lawmakers and sponsored by private funds in the socially conservative state, has prompted complaints from secular groups that say its presence on the Capitol grounds defies the American Constitution’s provisions for the separation of church and state.
In June this year, the Supreme Court in Oklahoma had ruled that the monument must be removed from the Capitol grounds, as its presence there violates not only the American Constitution but also the state’s constitution, both of which ban the use of public property for the benefit of any religion. Lawmakers had suggested at the time that the monument serves more of historic purpose than a religious one. That led to other groups, including the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Satanic Temple, to seek permission for their own monuments on the Capitol grounds, which they said would also depict historic events and not religious ones.
Photo Credits: Christianity Daily
