The Prince of Darkness won’t see the light of day in Oklahoma, if lawmakers have their way.
A satanic group commissioned a statue of the devil, raising money to pay a sculptor who it won’t identify, as a way of protesting the Sooner State’s placement of a Ten Commandments monument on the Statehouse lawn in Oklahoma City. The statue, being sculpted in a New York studio, is nearly complete, according to Lucien Greaves, spokesman for the Satanic Temple.
“We’re really coming along fast,” said Greaves, whose group claims to have raised more than $20,000 for the project through an online crowd-funding site.
The statue of the Baphomet, or Sabbatic Goat, a figure that has been used to represent Satan for centuries, is to be made of bronze, poured over a clay mold. Images provided to FoxNews.com show the hideous figure on a throne, with smiling children at each knee. Greaves’ organization seeks to force Oklahoma to allow placement of their statue or demonstrate what it considers an unconstitutional double standard.
Oklahoma officials say there is no way in hell that a statue of Satan will ever assume a position at the Capitol. “There will never be a satanic monument on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol and the suggestion that there might be is absurd,” Alex Weintz, spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin. The Satanic Temple hatched the plan last December after the Ten Commandments monument, presented as a gift from state Rep. Mike Ritze, was placed on the lawn. Because it was a donation, state officials declared that it was permissible to place it on state property. But that prompted Greaves and the Satanic Temple to say they could do the same with a monument of their own.
