Dec 19, 2020
Dec 20, 2020
Swamped with inquiries about building on Capitol grounds monuments from groups ranging from PETA to Flying Spaghetti Monster advocates, the State Capitol Preservation Commission
The Commission said it had been swamped with requests from groups including Hindus, Satanists and Church of the Dude.
In October 2015, workers removed the Ten Commandments monument from state Capitol grounds after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the privately funded monument was religious in nature.
Here s a look back at the Oklahoma s Ten Commandments monuments at the state Capitol, Haskell County and LeFlore County courthouses:
Haskell County Ten Commandments
Haskell County Commissioners Sam Cole (left) and Henry Few at the Ten Commandments monument in front of the Haskell County Courthouse back in November 2004. The men are two of the three commissioners who approved the placing of the monument. Tulsa World File
Photo: Piti Tangchawalit/Shutterstock
Derrick Z. Jackson, fellow | December 18, 2020, 2:14 pm EDT This post is a part of a series on
As much as the Constitution guarantees religious freedom in the United States, it is hard to imagine a compassionate god approving of freedom that comes with the sacrifice of souls at the altar. And yet, that is what the Supreme Court in essence sanctioned in its recent 5-4 verdict invalidating New York State’s pandemic rules on in-person religious worship.
The conservative majority of justices sided with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and two Brooklyn Orthodox Jewish synagogues that the rules were discriminatory compared to those for secular businesses. The court has since also backed churches against COVID-19 restrictions in California, New Jersey, and Colorado, instructing lower courts to reconsider the cases on the basis of the New Yo