Former Arkansas Republican State Sen. Jason Rapert said he’s faced intense persecution and backlash from liberal groups in the years after he helped erect a monument of the Ten Commandments at the State Capitol.
In an exclusive interview with The Western Journal, he recalled an epic saga in which the biblical monument was erected, destroyed, and replaced, setting off a firestorm of litigation.
Rapert, who is the founder and President of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, helped pass Act 1231 in 2015, after which a discussion began about placing the monument on Capitol grounds.
By 2017, he had helped form the American History and Heritage Foundation, which raised money for the display and obtained the necessary approvals for it to go up.
“Less than 24 hours after that monument was put in, and we took pictures and celebrated that it had finally been installed at the Arkansas Capitol, a man filmed himself running over the monument and destroying it,” he told The Western Journal.
“And so by the next day, the monument that had been put in, thousands of dollars raised to put in the Ten Commandments monument, the man, who ended up being mentally ill, stated that a voice told him to go destroy the monument.”
“We have had threats from many leftist organizations that said they wanted to oppose the monument,” he added. “As soon as we put the reinstalled monument back in April of 2018, immediately thereafter, we were sued.”
Rapert said the state attorney general informed him he would be subpoenaed and compelled to testify in a deposition initiated by various litigants that included the American Atheist Organization, the American Humanist Organization, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Satanic Temple.
“That was a form of what we now call ‘lawfare.’ They were trying to break me, to break my will, and to break us financially,” he explained. “They came at me because I carried the legislation, I was president of the foundation that raised the money to put in the monument, and… because I am a Christian legislator.”
“The state of Arkansas passed this to honor the historical and moral foundation of law,” Rapert stated. “And so our monument was an exact replica of the Texas Ten Commandments.”
The Ten Commandments monument at the Texas State Capitol was erected back in 1961 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and declared constitutional by the Supreme Court in the 2005 case of Van Orden v. Perry.
Former Chief Justice William Rehnquist authored the 5-4 majority opinion, which stated, “The District Court found that the State had a valid secular purpose in recognizing and commending the Eagles for their efforts to reduce juvenile delinquency, and that a reasonable observer, mindful of history, purpose, and context, would not conclude that this passive monument conveyed the message that the State endorsed religion.”
Rapert also cited similar monuments in states like Arizona and Colorado, but the battle over Christianity in the public square doesn’t stop at statues.
Back in June 2025, Texas Republicans scored a major victory by passing a law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms.
It was signed into law and later challenged in court.
A preliminary injunction was issued by a federal district judge in November 2025, who claimed it violated the First Amendment. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law last month in a 9-8 decision, overruling the injunction.
Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote for the majority, stating, “To Plaintiffs, merely exposing children to religious language is enough to make the displays engines of coercive indoctrination. We disagree.”
In April, Judge Kristine G. Baker for the Eastern District of Arkansas ruled the state’s Ten Commandments monument was unconstitutional, and violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, KARK-TV reported.
Moreover, Judge Baker found that the Ten Commandments Monument Display Act of 2015 — the one Rapert helped pass — and Act 274 of 2017, meant to require legislative approval for Capitol monuments, violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
“I believe they told [me] the decision is 142 pages long and [Baker] mentioned me by name 168 times in the decision personally,” Rapert said.
He believes Baker’s decision will ultimately be reversed on appeal, adding, “I’ve been told by many that it is one of the wildest decisions they’ve ever read.”
Republican State Attorney General Tim Griffin filed notice of intent to appeal with the 8th Circuit back in April. The case is still pending.
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