WANT FREEDOM OF RELIGION? HERE YA GO!

First up from the God Machine this week is a story out of Oklahoma, where state Republican officials were so eager to promote government-endorsed religious displays, they inadvertently opened the door to religious monuments they really won’t like. A New York-based Satanic group plans to submit designs this month for a monument it wants to erect on the grounds of the Oklahoma state capitol. The move comes after the state’s Republican legislature authorized a privately funded Ten Commandments monument to be placed on capitol grounds last year, according to the Associated Press. A spokesman for the New York-based Satanic Temple credited Oklahoma Rep. Mike Ritze (R) – who championed and helped to fund the Commandments monument – for clearing the path for his organization. “He’s helping a satanic agenda grow more than any of us possibly could,” the spokesman, Lucian Greaves, said. “You don’t walk around and see too many satanic temples around, but when you open the door to public spaces for us, that’s when you’re going to see us.” MORE: MSNBC