Satanist Monument Plan Dismissed As 'Publicity Stunt' By Oklahoma Lawmakers

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Legislative leaders in Oklahoma sought to ease public concern Monday over a plan by a group of satanists to erect a monument at the state Capitol.

Both House Speaker T.W. Shannon and Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman suggested that such a plan was far from a reality, and members of the committee that would need to approve the monument sounded skeptical. But a constitutional law professor says the state could be on legally questionable ground if it rejects the New York-based Satanic Temple's request to put an homage to Satan near a Ten Commandments monument that's already at the Capitol.

The Associated Press reported Sunday about the Satanic Temple's plans to donate such a memorial. The Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission would have to approve such plans.

"That's Oklahoma's house. It's not the Satanic club of New York's house," said Capitol architect Duane Mass, who serves on the commission.

Officials with Satanic Temple suggest that Oklahoma opened the door to other religions when it allowed the Ten Commandments monument, with a sectarian message, to be placed at the Capitol.

"The whole point is that we're a religiously pluralistic society, so if there's going to be one, there will be others, or at least we'll make the effort for such," said Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the Satanic Temple. "Or there will be neither. Those are the only real options."

The Republican-controlled Legislature in 2009 authorized the placement of the privately funded Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol, and former Democratic Gov. Brad Henry signed the bill into law. It was placed on the north steps of the building last year, and the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has sued to have it removed.

At Big Truck Tacos, a restaurant about a mile from the Capitol, 26-year-old Matthew Burrell questioned what the satanists had done to deserve a monument.

"Monuments are built in response to something great being done," Burrell said. "What have satanists given to society that actually benefits the city or the state?"

Bingman suggested the idea sounded like a "political stunt," while Shannon spokesman Joe Griffin said the Capitol was not an appropriate place for such a monument.

"Anything displayed at the Capitol should be a representation of the values of Oklahomans and this nation," Griffin said. "The left-hand path philosophies of this organization do not align with the values of Oklahomans nor the ideals this country or its laws are founded upon."

But Joseph Thai, a constitutional law professor at the University of Oklahoma, said the decision to place the Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol could put the state in a difficult position.

"The state can disown the Ten Commandments monument erected at the Capitol with private funds as private speech, but then it cannot reject other privately donated religious monuments — even a satanic one — on the basis of viewpoint," Thai said.

Or the state could decide to exclude other religious monuments by taking ownership of the Ten Commandments monument as official state speech, but Thai said that could become legally problematic because of the sectarian message on the granite statute.

"The Legislature has put the state between a rock and a hard place, constitutionally speaking," Thai said.

___

Sean Murphy can be reached at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy

Also on HuffPost:

Subscribe window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({mode:'autosized-1r-organic',container:'taboola-autosized-1r-organic'});_taboola.push({mode:'autosized-1r-sc',container:'taboola-autosized-1r-sc'});window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({flush:true});

At The Top Of The Washington Monument, Interior Secretary And Philanthropist Take In View Of Damage And History (VIDEO)

AppId is over the quota
Error in deserializing body of reply message for operation 'Translate'. The maximum string content length quota (8192) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 8862.
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, center, speaks at the 491-foot level of the scaffolding surrounding the Washington Monument, after climbing a ladder to the top of the monument's pyramidion, Sunday, June 2, 2013 in Washington. The monument has been closed since the 2011 earthquake and half of the needed repairs have been funded by a $7.5 million donation from philanthropist David Rubenstein. The Associated Press had a look at some of the worst damage and the preparations underway to begin

WASHINGTON — The towering marble symbol of the nation's capital is chipped, cracked and closed, though will soon be pieced back together by engineers working delicately across the Washington Monument's surface.

Some gashes in the 555-foot-tall monument are deep with stones cracked all the way through, while others have hairline cracks or had their corners chipped off in a 2011 earthquake that closed it to the public. Mortar is missing between some pieces, shaken loose by the worst vibrations at the top. And at least one massive stone shifted a thumb's length out of line with the piece below it.

The Associated Press had a look at some of the worst damage 500 feet above the ground and the preparations underway to begin making repairs. On the same day, a group of government officials and philanthropists clipped themselves into harnesses and climbed to the tip of the towering obelisk.

Stone by stone, engineers are reviewing cracks, missing pieces and broken mortar now that huge scaffolding has been built around what was once the world's tallest structure. Once each trouble spot is identified, repairs can begin.

Businessman David Rubenstein, who gave $7.5 million to fund half the monument's repairs, climbed to the top recently and said he prayed the ground wouldn't shake. At times, he held on tight to scaffolding rails. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell joined in reviewing the damage and gave Rubenstein a high-five at the top.

Jewell, in her second month as part of President Barack Obama's cabinet after stepping down as CEO of retailer Recreational Equipment Inc., climbed the scaffolding's stairwell while others rode an elevator. After examining the structure, she said the monument has withstood the test of time.

"You can't help but think, how did they do this?" Jewell said "How did they carve these stones so precisely that many years ago that it's really just sitting on a friction fit one on top of the other all the way to the top? It's extraordinary."

When the obelisk was completed in 1884, some 35 years after construction began, it was the world's tallest structure for five years until the Eiffel Tower was built in Paris. The monument remains the world's tallest freestanding stone structure and stands to honor the nation's first president.

The marble exterior has a distinct line marking the time when builders ran out of money and halted construction for 25 years during the Civil War era, later resuming work in 1876. The monument normally draws about 700,000 visitors a year but has been closed to tourists since the earthquake.

Rubenstein helped jumpstart repairs in a unique arrangement by donating millions early last year to cover half the cost. Congress allocated $7.5 million to cover the other half of the $15 million restoration. Delaying the repairs would have caused the monument to deteriorate and cost more to restore, Rubenstein said.

Jewell said the national parks belong to all Americans and must be maintained with taxpayer support, though private philanthropy makes a difference. Rubenstein said he hopes his gift could be an example for others.

Visiting the top, Rubenstein was amazed by the view and the monument's history.

"You see how beautiful it is, and the majesty of our city is really unrivaled," he said. "The top of the Eiffel Tower is nice, but not quite this beautiful."

The climbing group spent several hours on the monument June 2, walking around and examining the stone at several levels. Engineers explained how repairs will be completed from the top down.

Some stones shaken loose by the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Aug. 23, 2011, along the East Coast were removed to prevent them from falling to the ground. Other damaged pieces have been cut out with clean lines to allow for a new rectangular block of marble to be sealed into place.

The worst of the damage is from about 470 feet upward, where the monument shook most violently, said James Perry, the chief of resource management for the National Mall.

The most difficult part of the repair was gaining access to the exterior. A month after the quake, engineers rappelled from the top to get a first look at the damage. It took nearly 20 more months to plan and build scaffolding, completed May 15, to allow work to begin.

"The assessment is literally stone by stone," Perry said. "Every stone is catalogued and has a condition assessment."

There are 9,040 exterior-facing stones and 10,746 interior stones altogether, according to the National Park Service.

Engineers are looking to verify damage and develop a process for repairs that must be reviewed and approved before the stonework begins. There are essentially three types of repairs to be made: repointing damaged mortar, replacing stone pieces and sealing cracks. Metal tubing used to absorb lightning strikes also is being replaced.

To prevent water leakage, temporary weather stripping now seals some gaps between stones where mortar cracked loose. In one spot near 500 feet, engineers are testing new mortar to determine the right color to match the stone. They're also testing a process to seal a cracked stone by injecting epoxy, or glue, into the crack with plastic tubes.

Scaffolding also was built inside the monument near the top to help repair stones that cracked all the way through.

Some cracks are deeper than first thought and may require more complex repairs. Other missing pieces could have new stones cut and replaced with about a day's work in each spot.

National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis, who has been tracking repair plans since the quake, got his first close look and said the damage was more extensive than he expected, especially the many corners of stone that chipped off.

"There's nothing massive that has happened to it," he said. "But it's piece by piece by piece. All the little pieces have to be put back together in a way that meets the standards of this extraordinary monument."

The Park Service aims to complete the repairs and reopen the monument by spring of 2014. While it's closed to visitors, officials realize it remains an American icon.

Ahead of the July 4th holiday, the monument will be decorated and lit as it was during a restoration project in 1999 and 2000. The scaffolding will have an architectural scrim lit from behind in a stone-like grid.

"It's an icon in this country, so you don't want it just sort of sitting here with a big scaffolding around it for a year," Jarvis said. "Whether you can get into it or not, it is still incredibly important to the city and to the country."

___

Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at . https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

Also on HuffPost: