Worthy Christian News > US News > Satanists sue Arkansas to have satanic statue placed next to Ten Commandments at state Capitol

Satanists sue Arkansas to have satanic statue placed next to Ten Commandments at state Capitol

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A group of Satanists have filed suit against Arkansas, requesting that a statue of a satanic deity be installed next to the Ten Commandments monument on the state Capitol grounds, Christian Headlines reports. A federal judge has allowed the Satanic Temple group to join a case brought against the state by ACLU and the Freedom from Religion Foundation, who want the Ten Commandments monument removed but not replaced with something else.

A monument of the Ten Commandments was installed on Arkansas State Capitol using private funds in 2017: in 2015 the state passed legislation referring to the Ten Commandments as “an important component of the moral foundation of the laws and legal system of the United States of America and of the State of Arkansas.”

Now, the Satanic Temple, an IRS-recognized atheist church which has filed some seven similar lawsuits in different states, is arguing not that the commandments monument should be removed, but that a statue of a satanic winged goat idol known as Baphomet should be placed next to it.

According to the Satanic Temple, the monument to the Ten Commandments is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because it is tantamount to government approval of one religion over another. The secularists argue similarly in their request for the Ten Commandments to be removed, but the Satanists have gone further in wanting to replace the Biblical monument with a demonic idol.

Arkansas fought to keep the Satanic Temple out of the lawsuit filed by ACLU saying the Temple is a “notoriously-transparent” front for “trolling,” Bloomberg reports.