An Oklahoma county judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of a Baptist minister charging that the 6-foot tall granite Ten Commandments monument that was placed on grounds of the state capital violated the state’s constitution. The judge blocked the lawsuit from even going to trial. The ruling will be appealed to the state supreme court and there is another lawsuit pending in a federal court that is scheduled for trial on March 10, 2015.
Interestingly the judge said that, “the monument serves a secular — not religious — purpose and occupies a small plot on the north side of the state Capitol that’s part of a 100-acre complex which has 51 other monuments.”
This reasoning has implications because other religious groups also want to put up their own monuments. A Hindu group has proposed putting up a statue of the monkey god Hanuman and a Satanic group has proposed putting up their own 7-foot statue to Baphomet. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster also wants in.
These monumnets have been blocked by the state, ostensibly on the grounds that they have placed a halt on issuing new permits until the cases are resolved, but likely because there is no way that they will allow monuments to monkey gods, goat-headed gods, and spaghetti-and-meat-ball based gods on their ‘sacred’ capital grounds.
I think there’s something missing from this post.
What secular purpose? Where else is there a reference to the Ten Commandments other than the Bible? This level of intellectual dishonesty no longer shocks me.
Alverant,
I have corrected it.
1. Well it does serve a secular purpose, sort of. It’s xian territorial marking. Exactly like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant.
2. However, that is still discriminatory and illegal.
3. Well, seriously now, what is this secular purpose? As it stands, this is simply an assertion with no proof, data, or reasons and clearly wrong.
Completely irrelevant. What difference does in make how small it’s footprint is, what direction it faces, or how many other monuments there are? You could say the same thing about the proposed statue of Thor battling a Frost Giant or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (Which BTW, have far more relevance and artistic merit than a boring block of granite with some Iron Age rules written on it.)
They aren’t even trying any more. This judge is being dishonest and doesn’t care that everyone knows it. It’s not law, it’s power.
Matt G. might not be shocked but I am.