It was a dark day in Oklahoma on Monday when a contractor removed a controversial monument of the Ten Commandments from the Oklahoma Capitol grounds, a job which was performed under the cover of darkness to avoid confrontation.
The Daily Mail is reporting on the removal of the monument which has been at the center of a dispute over the alleged “separation of church and state”. A variety of groups have protested its presence on public property, including a Hindu leader in Nevada, an animal rights group and the satirical Church of the Flying spaghetti Monster.
The Satanic Temple of New York also threatened to erect its own statue, a seven-foot-tall statue of Satan as Baphomet with a pair of adoring children at his feet.
Last year, the original monument was destroyed when a 29 year-old man drove his car across the Capitol lawn and smashed into it.
A new monument was erected a short time later.
The state’s Supreme Court finally decided in June that the display violates a state constitutional prohibition against the use of public property to support “any sect, church, denomination or system of religion.”
However, the state’s governor, Mary Fallin, vowed to keep the monument where it was while the state attempted to appeal the decision. When all efforts failed, the state hired a contractor to remove the 4,800 pound monument, paying the company about $4,700 to complete the job.
The contractor decided to work after dark and began removing the monument shortly before 10:30 p.m. on October 5. It will then be transported to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs offices a few blocks away.
“We wanted it to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible, and doing it at night gave us the best opportunity to do that,” said John Estus, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. “The Highway Patrol was also very concerned that having it in the middle of the day could lead to having demonstrations of some kind.”
The erection of the monument was originally authorized by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2009 but it attracted lawsuits from a variety of groups and individuals.
“This is a historical event,” said former state Rep. Mike Reynolds, who voted to authorize the monument and was on hand to watch it being removed. “Now we know we have to change the Constitution. It would be good to get rid of some of the Supreme Court justices, too.”
Several legislators are already discussing a plan to place a question on the state ballot next year and let the public decide the ultimate fate of the monument.
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