My Mom Was Involved in Something Like This 40 Years Ago

When my younger brother, Daniel, was in 5^th grade, an Evangelical Christian group set up in the principal's office, and made an announcement over the PA system that students were to pick up copies of the Christian Bible.

Dan, even at age 10, realized what it was, and so declined, and one of his classmates called him a "Heathen."

Needless to say, some people were upset by this. My mom was furious (not a good thing for the target of her fury) and she and some concerned parents had a colloquy with Bill Ellena, the then Superintendent of the Charlottesville, VA School District.

Mr. Ellena cited a recent supreme court decision allowing for this, and my mom noted that it meant that everyone had such access, so they wanted a time to hand out a Marxist tract on atheism.

The superintendent decided that no future theological literature would be handed out in such a manner.

Well, it looks like the state of Oklahoma has a similar Hobson's Choice (or Morton's Fork, your choice):

Remember the Satanic Temple, which performed a ritual to turn Fred Phelps’ dead mother gay? They are still at it, now in Oklahoma. The Satanic Temple has filed the papers to put up a memorial on statehouse grounds, next to the state’s display of the 10 Commandments. They are doing this by citing Okla.’s religious displays legislation, signed into law in 2009. And they are absolutely serious about it. According to their press release:

The Satanic Temple, an established New York City-based religious organization, has offered to donate a public monument to Oklahoma’s Capitol Preservation Commission for display upon Oklahoma City’s capitol grounds. Described as an “homage” to Satan, the purpose of the monument is to complement and contrast the Ten Commandments monument that already resides on the North side of the building. The donation offer has been submitted and is currently awaiting the commission’s reply.

The Satanic Temple Is Dead Serious About This.

When Patheos heard of this, they reached out to the temple, and had some questions answered. The statement boils down to the Satanic Temple’s willingness to embrace the new Republican-led insistence of religiously backed memorials, and they plan to take full advantage of it.

Let's be clear here, the Church of Satan is not being insincere here. 

This behavior is not just some sort of "Yes Man" style agitprop.  Causing discomfort is a part of their religious observance.