Panther Statue Promoting Paganism?

Evangelical Christians may think that it is OK for the government to promote their religion via the Ten Commandments, but it's obviously not OK for the government to promote any other religion via some other monument. Even when that "promotion" exists only in the mind of a single person.

That's apparently what is happening in Tarrant County, Texas, where a woman is protesting a statue of a panther, as the Star-Telegram explains:

[A] lone woman stood before Tarrant County commissioners on Tuesday, saying that the bronze statue of a panther represents "paganism" and should be removed from government grounds. ... "That pagan statue is an insult to Christians everywhere, and I respectfully request its removal from any local, state, county [or] federal property," the North Richland Hills woman read from a prepared statement. ... It could be replaced, she suggested, with a marble display of the Bill of Rights or the Constitution, or a "few choice law-abiding phrases such as ... thou shall not steal ... thou shall not kill ... thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife ..."

I honestly can't think of anything positive or mitigating to say about this poor woman. Either she really believes that an isolated statue of a panther (which is relevant to the county's history, as the above story explains) really does represent paganism, or she is just doing this to garner publicity for the Ten Commandments. Either way, she needs to find something productive to do with her time - something that will keep her out of trouble.

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Ten Commandments