'The Universal Society of Hinduism plans to submit an application to the Oklahoma State Capitol Preservation Commission for permission to place a statue of Lord Hanuman on the statehouse grounds.'
All of this started with the Oklahoma State Legislature passed a special measure to allow for religious displays on the statehouse grounds, with the state representative who proposed the bill leading a private fund-raising to put a 7-foot tall Ten Commandments monument in place.
Sure, the ACLU filed one of those predictable law suits about entanglement of church and state, but the New York-based Satanist Temple came up with the much more interesting plan of applying to put their own religious monument on the Oklahoma statehouse grounds — and now the Universal Society of Hinduism plans to apply to put a large statue of Lord Hanuman there, too.
Which puts Oklahoma in kind of a bind. Having established that one religion is allowed to put up a monument, there seems to be no legal grounds (just lots of harrumphing grounds) to explicitly discriminate against other religions doing the same. Unless they decide to ban all such monuments — which is just what the ACLU prefers.
Stay tuned.
Hindus join Satanists demanding equal placement on Oklahoma capitol grounds | The Raw Story
Members of the world’s oldest faith would like to join a display of religious symbols at Oklahoma’s state capitol, joining a Judeo-Christian tablet and a proposed Satanist monument. The Universal Society of Hinduism plans to submit an application to the Oklahoma State Capitol Preservation …
Honestly, I have no problem with this.
If the Hindus want to put a giant Mojo-jojo up next to the Ten Commandments, they should be able to in the spirit of fairness.
+Mark Means I have no problem either which way. Celebrate diversity and participation by all by allowing such things. Avoid concern over only the "rich" religions being able afford something or in drawing the line as to what qualifies and what does not by simply excluding such things. Either way is playing fair.
Perhaps the secular humanists will put a monument up too.
I wonder, though, if polytheistic religions get an advantage here. If one statue per deity is allowed, the Hindu gods will be all over the place. 🙂
Well, +John E. Bredehoft, Christians could put up crosses, creches, saints, separate statues for each of the Trinity, Mary … you could even have dueling differnetly numbered versions of the Ten Commandments. The only limit is the size of the pocketbooks and the amount of space on the statehouse lawn.
Forgot about the saints… 🙂
+John E. Bredehoft Next best thing to polytheism. 😉
Could we get a statue of Cthulhu?
I suspect you'd need to find an actual, authentic worshipper to apply for such.