After a long fight that famously included the prospect of a Satanic statue being erected at the Oklahoma statehouse, a monument of the Ten Commandments has finally been removed, NBC News reports.
The Satanic Temple's Baphomet statue is currently located in Detroit, but the Satanic Temple was ready to move it to Oklahoma. The Temple's spokesperson, Lucien Greaves, told Jezebel that the removal of the Ten Commandments was a win-win for the Satanists. In an email to Jezebel, he wrote:
It’s important to understand that we’re neither fighting exclusively for 10 Commandments monuments to be removed, nor are we merely fighting for the right to put Baphomet on government property. What we’re fighting against is a situation in which one particular viewpoint enjoys the appearance of privileged treatment and governmental authority. Despite finding our offices of public service besieged by proselytizing evangelicals, clearly trying to advance a distinct religious agenda, we still live in a pluralistic nation where “religious liberty” isn’t theirs alone.
But even as the monument was removed under court order, Governor Mary Fallin (R) has already launched a campaign to restore it.
"It's not a Republican, Democrat or independent issue," Fallin said at a news conference in Oklahoma City, according to NBC. "The Ten Commandments is a historical monument. We brought it to this location. We felt it was a good place to be able to display it properly so people could see it."
The state Supreme Court ruled in June that the monument was unconstitutional. Its removal was chalked up as a victory for the Satanic Temple, which had commissioned a $100,000 statue of Baphomet, a goat-headed, horned, winged deity to be placed at the statehouse if the Ten Commandments monument was allowed to remain.
On Tuesday, Fallin called for an amendment to the state constitution that would allow voters to decide on whether the Ten Commandments monument would be at the statehouse.
The Satanic Temple has joined the cause of the Universal Society of Hinduism in a similar fight for pluralism in Arkansas, where lawmakers have erected a Ten Commandments monument on state capitol grounds but told the Hindu organization they could not erect a statue of Hanuman, a deity in their faith.
The Satanic Temple plans to seek approval to put their bronze, 8.5-foot tall Baphomet statue at the capitol as well.
Watch video of workers removing the monument from the Oklahoma statehouse, as posted by NBC News, here:
