Our View

Our View

Objections won’t deter plans for 10 Commandments monument

Good for you state Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, for standing up to the left-wing, self-interest Washington, D.C., based American Humanist Association wanting to ax your plan to place a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the State Capitol.

Rapert is forging ahead with his endeavors after he created an online fundraising account for the monument and has already raised over $6,000 in donations.

We’re confident that when all is said and done Rapert will easily collect the necessary $10,600 needed to complete the fundraising drive.

We’re told the account has already reported that $3,035 in donations were received through the GoFundMe account and the other $3,000 was made in direct donations from concerned Christian Arkansans who have had their belly full of being pushed around by these bully groups with self-serving and self-interest causes.

In a legal response to Rapert’s efforts from this radical group’s legal center, he was informed of the organizations strong objections on, listen to this, “behalf of Arkansas residents and others who see it as a blatant attempt to promote religion and a clear violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.’ Then came the threat of litigation, as if that was going to deter Rapert from pursuing his efforts. This radical Washington element, sticking its nose in the lives and beliefs of what we believe are the majority of Arkansans, told Rapert it has litigated cases involving church-state separation and the rights of humanists, other non-theists and non-Christians in state and federal courts across the nation and is biting at the bit to put him in his proper place.

The fact of this matter, and what is giving Rapert the encouragement to pursue his endeavors, is a Supreme Court ruling that approved a Ten Commandments monument on a state Capitol grounds in 2004, and the Eighth Circuit approval for a Ten Commandments monument in a public park in 2005.

“It is settled law that a Ten Commandments monument such as the one we intend in Arkansas is in full compliance with the Constitution. Act 1231 was passed by 99 out of 135 state legislators and signed into law by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2015 and will be fulfilled according to state law,” Rapert said.

Most of us should remember that in April, Hutchinson signed into law legislation requiring the secretary of state to arrange for a privately funded Ten Commandments monument to be placed on the Capitol grounds in Little Rock.

Act 1231 states that the “placing of a monument to the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol would help the people of the United States and of the state of Arkansas to know the Ten Commandments as the moral foundation of the law.” It requires the secretary of state to permit and arrange for the monument to be designed, constructed and paid for by private entities at no expense to the state. Similar monuments have been constructed in Oklahoma and Texas.

We say, Go For It! Sen. Rapert, and don’t let this radical group or any others hinder your efforts to not only collect the necessary donations but also have this important monument in a special place for all Arkansans to view and take very seriously.