Music

A government building might be getting a Satan statue thanks to metal

by Tyler Munro

Nearly five years ago, Oklahoma state legislature approved a monument paying tribute to the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments. Immediately, people were pissed: P.E.T.A., Hindus, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Satanic Temple all cried foul. Freedom of religion? Sure. But where was the separation of church and state?

It’s that argument that got the metal as fuck statue you see up top built.

Spearheaded in large part by Vital Remains vocalist Brian Werner, a High Priest in the Satanic Temple, the statue, which features a soon-to-be-bronzed Baphomet lording over two children came to be after the church’s campaign went viral and earned more than $30,000 in donations. But the fight isn’t over yet.

Worse, the delay is caused by the same sentiments that got it made in the first place.

Vice says that while the Satanic Temple filed all the proper documents to start the process of getting the statue erected outside the capitol, the lawsuit initiated by the ACLU in protest of the original Ten Commandments monument has left its fate frozen in bureaucratic hell. No pun intended.

But whether the courts make it official is irrelevant. The church isn’t just ready to put it up regardless of whether they’re allowed to—they’ve already prepared for the likely vandalism to follow.

Temple spokesperson Lucien Graves says they’re building a mold of the sculpture to quickly replace any damage done to the original, even if he “wouldn’t expect these outraged and nearly insensible reactionaries to actually know how to assault a bronze monument without severely hurting themselves in the process.”

And if Oklahoma turns it down, the church says there’s no shortage of places that could use such a satanic statue.

What do you think? Is the statue a fair protest of the Ten Commandments monument, a fair depiction of religious freedoms or a blasphemous slap in the face? We know where we stand—Hail Satan!