“The placement of the monument under this section shall not be construed to mean that the State of Arkansas favors any particular religion or denomination over others”, SB 939 read in part.
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Arkansas clearly knew this when they passed the bill authorizing the monument’s construction, as the language in the bill deliberately avoids the Ten Commandments’ religious meaning in lieu of making the patently false claim that the stone tablets represent the basic principles of American government. What happens to the monument once it is removed from the Capitol grounds has also not been determined.
The monument had been covered in 2012 when the Freedom from Religion Foundation sued on behalf of an unnamed parent and her daughter who wanted it removed.
However you feel about the Ten Commandments, wherever you may want to think of them and pray to the God whose law they represent, once you start erecting monuments, the challenges will be never-ending.
Since the monument was erected, several other groups have asked to put up their own monuments on the Capitol grounds.
“Most freethinkers find the Ten Commandments to epitomize the childishness, the vindictiveness, the sexism, the inflexibility and the inadequacy of the Bible as a book of morals”, the group wrote. “The Ten Commandments, couched in negatives and full of ‘thou shalt nots, ‘ are the antithesis of the Bill of Rights, focused on positives and guarantees to protect freedom, liberty and conscience”, the letter also said. It is not the business of the State of Arkansas to tell citizens which gods to have, how many gods to have or whether to have any gods at all!
There are many places in both states where displaying the Ten Commandments might be uplifting or encourage thoughtful reflection, on private property where the public might see it.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s June decision prompted an outcry from some conservative legislators who vowed to impeach the justices or amend the constitution to remove the provision prohibiting the use of state money or property for religious purposes.
There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.
“The wording of the Oklahoma Constitution is very clear and the Supreme Court has done what it is supposed to do – to rule on the constitutionality of a law or action”, the letter said.
Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.
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The catch is that, even when the government is speaking, there’s at least one constitutional limit on what it can say: It can’t endorse religion. On April 22, FFRF warned Hutchison in a letter that he should not seek to place the Ten Commandment monument on capitol grounds.
