The Tulsa Interfaith Alliance, the Tulsa-based Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice and several other organizations are urging the governor and the Legislature to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the state Capitol grounds.
A joint statement signed by TIA Executive Director Bob Lawrence, OCCJ President and CEO Jayme Cox and others says the monument on state property “violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
Cox said OCCJ supports the statement because “we don’t think any one religion should be represented above any other religion, and the Capitol is not the place to have a religious monument in the first place.”
“Government is supposed to be about separation of church and state, and we don’t approve of it being there,” she said.
Other signers represent the Oklahoma branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, state and national Interfaith Alliance leaders, two Oklahoma City Jewish congregations and the Respect Diversity Foundation............

Workers from a Kansas-based memorial company installed the new granite monument. Gary Mosier with Wilbert Memorials said the 2,400-pound monument is made from granite from a quarry in South Dakota. The design was added at the company's facility in Kansas.

Back in October, 2014, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said 29-year-old Michael Tate Reed Jr. from Roland drove his vehicle into the original Ten Commandments Monument, smashing it to pieces. ...Reed reportedly told authorities that he was told by the voices in his head to urinate on the monument, commit other acts upon it, and to "smash it."

Reed was never charged as he underwent treatment under a mental health order.

Civil libertarians have sued to have the monument removed, arguing it contains a religious message and violates the separation of church and state.....