Here's
the First Look at the New Satanic Monument Being Built for Oklahoma's
Statehouse
Written
by: Jonathan Smith
Praise be to Satan. All photos by the author, who has a
shitty camera phone
In January the Satanic Temple announced
plans to erect a monument glorifying the
Dark Lord on the front lawn of the Oklahoma Statehouse. An Indiegogo campaign
was launched with what seemed like a somewhat lofty goal of $20,000, but by the
time donations ended almost $30,000 had been raised. 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 statue is a direct response to the state's
installation of a Ten Commandments monument outside the Capitol in 2012. State
Representative Mike Ritze paid for the controversial statue with his own money,
and therefore it was considered a donation and OK to place on government
property. Following that line of reasoning, the Satanic Temple submitted a
formal application for their
monument.
As Trait Thompson of the Oklahoma Capitol
Preservation Commission told CNN last
December, "Individuals and groups are free to apply to
place a monument or statue or artwork." The applications are then approved or
rejected by the Commission. Unfortunately, the state has placed a halt on
issuing permits for any other monuments until a lawsuit filed by the ACLU
against Ritze's Commandments monument is settled.
Nonetheless, the Satanists are building this
thing, and I was offered an early peek at the work in progress by Temple
spokesperson Lucien Greaves.
Greaves told me he has received numerous threats from people who want to attack
the sculpture, but that he "wouldn't expect these outraged and nearly insensible
reactionaries to actually know how to assault a bronze monument without severely
hurting themselves in the process." Still, he's not taking any chances. The
Temple is building a mold of the sculpture so they can pop these things out like
evil, terribly expensive action figures whenever they need a new
one.
"Depending on our insurance policy," Greaves said, "we may be able to cast two
from the destruction of one, expediting our arrival to the next
battleground."
The Temple estimates that the monument will be
finished in a few months. Once it's done, they plan to put it in front of the
Oklahoma Statehouse regardless of the the Capitol Preservation Commission's
ongoing battle against the ACLU. They feel this should be allowed because their
application was submitted before all the hullabaloo over Ritze's
monument.
"After all," Greaves told me, "the Ten
Commandments still stand at the State Capitol. We are fully willing to place our
monument at the Capitol, even while the ACLU suit is fought, with the
understanding that a judgment against the Ten Commandments will have
ramifications for our monument as well, likely resulting in the removal of
both."
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 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."
Ryan Kiesel from the Oklahoma ACLU seems to
agree. He told the Libertarian Republic, "If, at the end of the day, the Ten Commandments
monument is allowed to remain on the Capitol grounds with its overtly Christian
message, then the Satanic Temple's proposal can't be rejected because it is of a
different religious viewpoint."
When
the monument is finished, the Baphomet will rest on the block beneath the
pentagram. His lap will serve as a seat for children.
One popular argument being used against the
Temple's monument is that it doesn't have "any historical significance for the
State of Oklahoma," as State Representative Paul Wesselhoft told a local
news station in January. "The only
reason why the Ten Commandments qualified," he continued, "is because at the
Capitol, what we do is we make laws. We are lawmakers. Well, one of the earliest
laws we have are the Ten Commandments." This, it is important to remember, was
said by a current democratically elected member of the legislature.
Greaves told me that "the idea that the Ten
Commandments are foundational to US or Oklahoman law is absurd and obscene. I
would argue that the message behind our monument speaks more directly to the
formation of US Constitutional values than the Ten Commandments possibly could.
It especially does so when it stands directly beside the Ten Commandments, as it
affirms no one religion enjoys legal preference."
Regardless of what happens at the statehouse,
the Temple is charging ahead with the monument. And if it doesn't end up in
Oklahoma City and the Ten Commandments are forced to be removed, the Satanists
will try to find a home for the Baphomet in another deserving state. Texas, for
instance, has had a monument of the Ten Commandments sitting on its capitol
grounds for 40 years. As Greaves put it, "There are no shortage of public
locations across the US where religious monuments await a contrasting
voice."
If you would like to support the Temple's
monument, go to their website and buy
some nice Satan swag. All proceeds will go toward the
Baphomet.
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