Upon This Rock

The Christian state of Arkansas, which has previously attracted your correspondent's attention with its forgiving of enemies and its charity towards the coathanger trade, is once again battling the deadly forces of eternal un-Americanism. A monument to the Ten Commandments, doubtless clearly distinguishable from any kind of graven image, has been raised on the grounds of the State Capitol building in Little Rock; to which the local Satanists have responded by putting up a bronze image of Baphomet. The senator from Arkansas recognised the Satanists' right under the First Amendment to practise their religion, but denied their right to be offensive on the grounds of the State Capitol. Self-evidently, the statue of Baphomet was considerably less innocuous than Yahweh's injunction to forsake all gods save Himself, His wholly uncontroversial recognition of slavery and His entirely inoffensive listing of wives among the property which a man may not covet.