OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Despite a lengthy court battle, threats from the Satanic Temple, and a crash recorded on video—there’s a new effort to bring a Ten Commandments monument back to the Oklahoma State Capitol.
Senator David Bullard filed a bill to be heard in the upcoming legislative session that would “prominently display and protect” a Ten Commandments monument both inside and outside the Oklahoma State Capitol.
Sen. Bullard declared the monument symbolic for its “historic significance” for Oklahoman and American history.
If the bill passes, the Governor, House Speaker and Senate President Pro Tempore will help design, place, secure, and construct the monument.
The bill also says only donated funds can be used for it, and the monument cannot be relocated once it’s in place without the approval of 3/4 of both the Senate and House.
If the monument is damaged, the person responsible for its damage will be charged with a felony.
Oklahoma’s previous State Capitol Ten Commandments monument now sits in front of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs building.
How it got there is a long and storied history that ultimately lead to a State Question in which the people of Oklahoma decided public funds could not be used for religious reasons.
The original Ten Commandments monument was privately funded and built in 2009.
It was placed on the capitol grounds in 2012.
During the fight over the monument, the New York-based Satanic Temple notified the Capitol Preservation Commission that it wanted to donate a monument of its own in 2013.
One design included a pentagram and the temple said the monument would be an interactive display for children.
The Satanic Temple also unveiled a Baphomet statue at the Arkansas Capitol in 2018. The Arkansas Capitol building is also home to a Ten Commandments monument.
In July 2015, the Oklahoma Supreme Court reaffirmed a decision that a Ten Commandments monument on the State Capitol grounds must be removed. The court said the monument was a religious symbol and violated the state’s constitution.
“We are a state of diverse people culturally, religiously, racially, and ethnically,” said CAIR Oklahoma Executive Director, Adam Soltani, “The decisions that are made at the Capitol Building need to reflect this diversity and should never violate the rights of any group of people.”
The next year, several bills sought a public vote on whether to amend the state constitution to remove the language that prohibited the use of public money from benefitting a religion.
State Question 790 was voted on by the people of Oklahoma in 2016 and overwhelmingly defeated, keeping the state’s constitution intact.
“People voted no, many are Christians, (and) don’t want this because they don’t want the government opportunistically taking over icons that they find sacred to us on State Property and act as a divisive ploy,” said Satanic Temple Co-founder & Spokesperson, Lucien Greaves.
Despite the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling and most Oklahomans wanting to keep public funds away from religious purposes, lawmakers have tried their hardest to bring the Ten Commandments monument back through legislation in recent years.
The original Ten Commandments monument was moved from the State Capitol grounds in the dead of night to OCPA headquarters just a few blocks away.
Before removing the monument, however, a man drove his car into it.
Michael Reed, from Roland, Oklahoma, was charged with several counts of destruction of state property, indecent exposure, reckless driving and making threatening statements in 2014.
Reed later turned himself into the Federal Courthouse in downtown Oklahoma City.
Three years later, he drove into a similar monument placed outside the Arkansas State Capitol building.
He recorded himself during the incident.
“Oh my goodness,” Reed said in the video before plowing into the monument with his car. “FREEDOM!”
Reed was never convicted and instead spent time in mental health facilities.
The monument was fixed and then moved to OCPA.
SB 1858, filed by Sen. Bullard, has been referred to committee hearings, but groups in Oklahoma say if it is passed, they will fight it,
“I see organizations such as CAIR and the ACLU, among others, looking at legal challenges, and those will be successful because this is a clear violation of the religious freedoms under the First Amendment of the US Constitution,” Soltani said, “It’s a waste of time, it’s a waste of taxpayer money, and quite honestly, the legislator should be looking at the more important issues facing our state.”
On Wednesday, Fox 25 will be sitting down with Senator Bullard to discuss his reasonings for pushing the bill this year, despite all of the history surrounding the monument.