Man Destroys Oklahoma Capitol Ten Commandments, Saying Satan Told Him To Do It

Yesterday the Oklahoma Highway Patrol took into custody a man who Thursday night ran his automobile into the Ten Commandments monument on the Oklahoma State Capitol grounds. The monument was broken into pieces. According to NewsOK, Michael Tate Reed, Jr. told authorities that Satan had directed him to urinate on the monument and destroy it. Reed was taken to a mental health facility for an emergency order of detention and an evaluation.  Last month, a state trial court dismissed an Establishment Clause challenge to the monument (see prior posting), and on Thursday the ACLU had filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court.  Commenting on Thursday's destruction of the monument, the Oklahoma ACLU executive director said: "Whether it is politicians using religion as a political tool or vandals desecrating religious symbols, neither are living up to the full promise of our founding documents." Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said she would help raise private funds to repair the monument. And a spokesman for a New York based Satanic Temple that had applied to add its own monument to the Oklahoma Capitol grounds (see prior posting) said: "If our monument stands at the state Capitol, we want it to complement and contrast the (Ten) Commandments, with both standing unmolested as a testament to American religious freedom and tolerance."