In 2012, Oklahoma state officials approved of a Ten Commandments monument being placed outside the capitol building. Last year, the Satanic Temple said they, too, wanted to donate a monument… a Hindu group soon followed.

Eventually, the state officials issued a moratorium on all monuments while they sorted out the legality of the original one. But that didn’t stop the Satanic Temple from raising money for their monument online. They wanted $20,000. They received $30,000. And we’re finally getting a glimpse of what their monument will look like:

Vice‘s Jonathan Smith took that picture and says this:

Now an artist trained in classical sculpture is toiling away in New York, crafting a Baphomet figure sitting beneath a pentagram and flanked by two children gazing upward in loyalty. When it is finished, it will be cast in bronze and, the Satanists hope, eventually displayed in Oklahoma. … The Baphomet, which will stand seven feet tall and be a testament to the glory of the Angel of the Bottomless Pit, would be placed directly beside the sculpture glorifying the laws given to Moses by the Christian God. The idea of a Satanic monument sitting on government property in Oklahoma — which is like the Bible Belt’s Bible Belt — seems a bit far-fetched, but [Temple spokesperson Lucien] Greaves says that “there has been quite a bit of discussion among legal scholars who recognize how difficult it would actually be for Oklahoma to turn us down… Constitutional law is quite clear on this issue: The state can’t discriminate against viewpoints. If they’ve opened the door for one, they’ve opened it for all.”

Can’t wait to see the lovely Satanic Temple monument nestled right between the Ten Commandments and a lot of angry, bitter Christians who don’t understand how the First Amendment works.

(via Christian Nightmares)



