Oklahoma lawmaker refiles bill to erect two Ten Commandments monuments inside and outside Capitol
State Sen. David Bullard tried this last year and failed. But the state's GOP has only gotten more extreme since then.
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An Oklahoma lawmaker is trying once again to resurrect Ten Commandments monuments inside and outside the State Capitol. He failed last year in a similar attempt and a previous display was ruled unconstitutional by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, but Christian Nationalists never let the laws interfere with their theocratic fantasies.
Senate Bill 380, sponsored by State Sen. David Bullard, says “a monument of the Ten Commandments shall be prominently displayed and protected on the inside and outside of the Oklahoma State Capitol…”
(So two monuments, really. And the funds for the displays would be donated so as to not use taxpayer dollars.)
When he tried this gambit last year, the bill didn’t make it out of committee, but the Republican Party in his state has shifted even more to the right and you never know what they’ll do to appease extremists like Ryan Walters and Donald Trump.
What makes this particular bill stand out is that it’s already been adjudicated.
In 2009, then-Gov. Brad Henry signed a law authorizing a stand-alone Ten Commandments monument to go up outside the State Capitol. A display was finally erected in 2012. Soon after, The Satanic Temple offered to donate its own monument outside the Capitol and a religious zealot named Michael Tate Reed later drove his car directly into the monument, destroying it. It was fiasco after fiasco. (Perhaps in anticipation of vandalism, the new bill includes a line saying that anyone who destroys the monuments “shall be, upon conviction, guilty of a felony.”)
Then came a lawsuit to take it down.
While a district court judge initially sided with the state, the Oklahoma Supreme Court declared the monument unconstitutional in 2015. The justices said the monument operates “for the use, benefit or support of a sect or system of religion” and it therefore violated the part of the Oklahoma Constitution banning the use of public property to promote religion. Even after conservative lawmakers demanded a rehearing, the justices reaffirmed their decision.
It wasn’t just a one-off legal setback either. In 2016, Oklahoma voters (!) rejected an attempt to repeal the part of the State Constitution cited by those justices—the Blaine Amendment—banning the use of taxpayer money or public property for religious purposes.
Over the past couple of years, every time lawmakers have tried shoving the Commandments in public schools or promoting Christian Nationalism in other ways, there’s enormous backlash from the public. The fact is: No one wants this except Christian zealots who believe the government’s role is to advertise their religious mythology.
And David Bullard is a Christian zealot. So much so that he routinely brags about meeting Christian pseudo-historian David Barton and going to his ministry’s events.
Last year, when Bullard tried passing this bill, he argued that the monument had "historic significance" for Oklahoman and American history. But that’s a lie. Our nation wasn’t built on Christianity. It was built in spite of it, with an emphasis on religious freedom and with a Constitution specifically devoid of religious intrusion. (As the saying goes, the word religion appears twice in the document, and both times, it’s preceded by the word “no.” Any religious references are perfunctory, such as a mention of “the year of our Lord.”) The state’s constitution’s line between church and state is even more pronounced.
This bill has been filed alongside a different one that would force the Commandments in every public school classroom. That bill was also a failure when it was introduced last year, but its sponsor is giving it another shot.
Even if they’re successful, these bills would accomplish nothing of value. They would be symbolic ways to promote Christianity, under the guise of history or morality, while sending a clear message to non-Christians and non-religious people in Oklahoma that they are second-class citizens. The bills represent nothing more than the hubris of conservative Christians against well-defined laws and the will of voters.
The laws haven‘t changed. Even the bills haven’t changed. That’s why lawmakers in Oklahoma need to reject them (or just ignore them). There’s no benefit to giving them any consideration.
One other interesting note: The bill that Bullard is proposing says that, if the Ten Commandments monument is challenged in court, the state’s Attorney General “is authorized to prepare and present a legal defense of the display.” The current AG in Oklahoma is Gentner Drummond, who’s been a surprising defender of church/state separation in recent years. It’s hard to imagine he would go along with this. Then again, he just announced that he’s running for governor in two years. Given the state of the GOP, it wouldn’t be shocking whatsoever to see him throw the Oklahoma Constitution under the bus if it means giving himself a better chance of getting elected.
The philosophy of John Locke had far more influence over what went into the Constitution than the Ten Commandments. Interesting that he wants these religious dictates posted in the capitol as eight of the Commandments would be unconstitutional should anyone try writing them into law. This is what the religious right does rather than address any genuine problems, like the fact Oklahoma ranks 49th in education. Looking for supernatural solutions to complex social problems has never worked, and never will.
"It's deja vu all over again"