The Ten Commandments monument is funded by a private group.
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The Satanic Temple recently announced that it had formally petitioned the Arkansas Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission for permission to bring a massive statue of its demonic deity Baphomet to the Arkansas Capitol.
A group is asking Arkansas officials to allow a Satanic statue to be constructed outside the state Capitol, where a new law allows a monument to the Ten Commandments. “The bill hopes to preemptively head-off an Establishment Clause dispute by asserting the secular nature of the 10 Commandments, stating that the monument represents ‘an important component of the moral foundation of the laws and legal system of the United States of America and the State of Arkansas, ‘” it continued.
The Satanic Temple says they will pursue legal action if Arkansas doesn’t comply.
“The Arkansas Legislature unwittingly opened the door for our monument to be erected at Little Rock, while they clearly believed they could preference the Ten Commandments”, spokesperson Lucien Greaves said in the release.
According to their website, The Satanic Temple’s mission is to “encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice, and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will”.
Last month, Martin’s office denied a request from the Universal Society of Hinduism to place a statue of the monkey God Hanuman on the Capitol grounds. This particular bronze, 9-foot sculpture was originally meant for Oklahoma, where the Satanic Temple attempted to put it next to a Ten Commandments statue there.
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Satanists aren’t the first religious group to try and get a religious monument up at the Arkansas capitol building. “We want it to be reflective”, Hutchinson told reporters in July.
