10 Commandments statue must be removed from OK State Capitol

[biostem]

I wonder - what if a town/city/whatever decided to build a park, and in that park they had a "cultural recognition walk" or something, and they then invited local religious/cultural organizations to donate an appropriately-sized statue or monument to be placed on said "walk". Would this still violate the separation clause? IMO, if the rules and peopel overseeing this walk didn't discriminate from among the applicants, and if there was perhaps some rotation of these monuments, (like your group's could only be there for 5 years, and your donation had to include the fee to have the monument removed after the display period), then it would be ok - thus even atheist, non-religious, or even satanic groups would be permitted.

[Raw Shark]

That'd be all fine and dandy with everybody, if the actual intent behind displaying religious propaganda on state property was to educate or entertain, rather than to mark territory like a dog pissing on it.

[Zeropoint]

I wonder - what if a town/city/whatever decided to build a park, and in that park they had a "cultural recognition walk" or something, and they then invited local religious/cultural organizations to donate an appropriately-sized statue or monument to be placed on said "walk". Would this still violate the separation clause? IMO, if the rules and peopel overseeing this walk didn't discriminate from among the applicants, and if there was perhaps some rotation of these monuments, (like your group's could only be there for 5 years, and your donation had to include the fee to have the monument removed after the display period), then it would be ok - thus even atheist, non-religious, or even satanic groups would be permitted.

By my understanding of the law, this would be perfectly legal, because the government would be deliberately and clearly NOT favoring any religion over any other. However, the actions of the Christian fundamentalists make it perfectly clear that they'd very much prefer to shut the whole thing down rather than let monuments from other religions exist on equal footing with their own. That's what the Satanic Temple has been using to get illegal Christian displays and activities out of government spaces.