A battle will soon be held in Oklahoma over a statue of Satan that a group wants to erect near the monument of the Ten Commandments on the Statehouse lawn in Oklahoma City. A group called the Satanic Temple, backed by the ACLU, is insisting that its nearly-completed statue should stand near the monument, while a spokesman for the governor bluntly said that setting up the Satanic statue on the grounds will never happen.
According to Lucien Graves, spokesman for the Satanic Temple, the sculptor working in New York has not been identified, but has been commissioned by the Satanic Temple, which has raised more than $20,000 for the project. Greaves boasted, “We’re really coming along fast.”
The bronze statue will represent the Baphomet, or Sabbatic Goat, which has been commonly thought to represent Satan for hundreds of years. To make matters more disturbing, the statue has a smiling child on each knee.
The statue was first seen publicly on Vice. The Satanic Temple is attempting to prove that Oklahoma has a double standard by refusing the Satanic statue while accepting the monument of the Ten Commandments, which the state deemed was permissible because it was donated. The Oklahoma chapter of the ACLU had sued the state over its acceptance and placement of the monument. Since the monument was erected, the state refused to give permits for other monuments.
Alex Weintz, spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin, told Fox News, “There will never be a satanic monument on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol and the suggestion that there might be is absurd.”
Greaves said, “When we reach out to them and told them of our intentions, the response we got was asking for the design sketches but we never heard back from them. As soon as we are ready, we will reach back out to them.”
Brady Henderson, legal director of the Oklahoma ACLU, told FoxNews.com, “We don’t think the state should place religious artifacts on state property unless the people of the entire state agree with its message. One of the concerns is that even if you allow all faiths to place something in a public area, it quickly becomes a farce.” He supported his position by mentioning the Florida State House’s trouble after it decided to accept holiday decorations from all faiths near a manger scene. Henderson said, “What happened is that you had someone placing a festivus pole made out of beer cans and one group placing a pile of spaghetti on top of a chair. So these types of things do nothing to uplift people’s faiths and beliefs. There’s nothing served by belittling them.”
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