Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself - Satan May Be Coming to Oklahoma

Ten Commandments Display at the
Oklahoma State House

The state of Oklahoma in November of this year allowed the erection of a monument to the biblical Ten Commandments on the grounds of their capitol building in Oklahoma City.  Approved by a vote in 2009 and paid for with private funds, the monument is a duplicate of one that has stood on the grounds of the Texas state capitol in Austin since the 1960s.

The monument is a duplicate because in 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the display in Texas to be constitutional based on historic relevance and the inclusion of symbols such as an American flag and a masonic eye above a pyramid.

In 2005 two cases were put before the Supreme Court on the same day.  The one mentioned above was Van Orden v. Perry.  The other was McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union.  The latter resulted in a finding that displays in two counties in Kentucky were unconstitutional having been considered to have no secular value and only intended to promote religion.  In Oklahoma the reason the display copied the Texas version was due to the fact that that monument had passed constitutional tests.  But the monument in Texas had been in the same spot for two generations so historical value was given much weight.  The ACLU is still deciding whether or not they will pursue the case.

At the Pink Mass

Enter Lucien Greaves.  Greaves is the leader of the The Satanic Temple, a New York based religious group that follows the teachings of the Satanic groups who have been around since the early 1900s.  Not really the Satanic stuff of Rosemary's Baby but more Wiccan in practice.  Greaves seems to be heavily into promotion via social networking and guerilla PR.  Earlier this year he and his group performed a same-sex wedding ritual, called a pink mass, at the grave of the mother of one of the founders of the Westboro Baptist Church.  If you aren't familiar with the Westboro Baptist Church, they're the guys who go to military funerals with the "God Hates Fags" signs.  Classy bunch.

But Lucien Greaves is obviously good at drumming up free publicity for his church.  He announced that The Temple of Satan (TST) is speaking with officials in Oklahoma about putting up a monument honoring Satan.  If the Ten Commandments are allowed to stay on the capitol grounds in Oklahoma City then it would seem all the TST needs to do is put some American symbols like flags and eagles on their monument and how can they be denied?  He suggests his group will put up $20,000, the Ten Commandments monument cost $10,000, to erect either something like a pentagram or an interactive exhibit.  You know, for the kiddies?

The Temple of Satan

The case in Oklahoma is just part of the epidemic of shove it in your face politics from the conservative right over the past several years.  More of that "you can't tell us what to do you stinking feds" thing that has become a hallmark of the Tea Party.  Stunts like this are red meat for the poorer members of the party.  While people like the Koch Brothers work behind the scenes on issues like union busting, religious issues like these are part of the game in which you get poor people to vote against their own economic interests by appealing to their faith based beliefs.

You'll hear arguments that our code of law is based on the Ten Commandments.  I guess those people that make that argument forget or don't know that murder, theft, etc. are illegal in every culture.  Those laws are based on basic natural law that is even followed to a degree in groups of wolves or chimpanzees.  Groups that push things like putting up Christian monuments in public places are just interested in pushing what they consider to be an anti-political correctness agenda.

Lucien Greaves' Facebook Avatar

Political correctness is a bogey man in the conservative community.  It's "the man" telling you what you can and can't say.  It's women and minorities being overly sensitive about what used to be common terms and accepted treatment once upon a time, like in the TV show Mad Men.  This was first addressed in the public arena on the amazing show All in the Family during the 1970s.  Archie Bunker, the head of the family, was the hard working Everyman facing a world gone crazy with civil rights and women's issues.  You knew he had a good heart but he was constantly getting in trouble trying to handle a vocabulary and ideas that were foreign to him.  Archie Bunker handled it much better than most of the angry white men populating the Tea Party and Republican Party.  They don't see the need to change how they behave because it could possibly offend someone.  In fact they frequently get a thrill out of offending people purely for shock value.  (see Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern)

As I see articles posted on Facebook and see the comments made from this type of conservative you'll see statements like majority rules and that sort of sentiment.  Of course these are the kind of people who would call themselves constitutionalists.  The beauty of the U.S. Constitution is that it has built in protections for minorities.  Those not specifically spelled out in the original document have been added as amendments and in rulings from the Supreme Court.  If majority rule were allowed as these people wish there would most likely still be slavery in parts of our country.  Women might still not have the vote much less any ethnic minority.  That's part of our fabric as a nation.  The needs of the few are represented, at least in theory.  And it's people out there like these conservatives that the constitution was intended to keep from inflicting their will on any minority.

The Oklahoma case will be an interesting one to follow.  I don't know how far Greaves plans to push it.  Perhaps he's just hoping that the politicians in Oklahoma will cave and pull down their monument.  If they call his bluff it would be hard to argue that he shouldn't be able to put up his own monument.  And that opens up the opportunity for any group out there to start putting up religious monuments all over the place.  It would be nice if Christian groups would just stop trying to push their religion with these arguments over displaying on government property or praying in public.

Maybe they could refer to the words of Jesus, though it seems like they aren't terribly familiar with them.  He said, in Matthew 6 (emphasis mine) "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward."

Again, I'm not Christian, but I do know what Jesus said.  This, by the way, is, in theory, the same Jesus they worship.  And the sentiment expressed is the same in every translation of the Bible.  The people Jesus was calling out were the Pharisees of the Jerusalem of his time.  They bear a striking resemblance to the Michele Bachmanns and Sarah Palins of our time as well as to many people on the political right who call themselves Christian and follow the teachings of Prosperity theology.  I think it's safe to assume that Jesus of Nazareth would be just fine with political correctness.  Hell, I think he might even be on the side of the Satanists in this one.