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He has told authorities, "Satan told me to do it."
He also said, "Satan told me to urinate on the monument" before he smashed it.
His family is telling local media that Michael has been a Christian all his adult life---he is not a Satanist.
Authorities have taken him in for mental evaluation.
However, it was the response by the ACLU and The Satanic Temple based in New York City, that caught my attention.
This is not merely a case of a man---Satanist or not, mentally strong or not, who ran his car into a monument. There is much more behind this story.
Associated Press reported Friday that authorities had taken into custody a man they said "admitted driving a car into the Oklahoma Capitol grounds over night and into a disputed granite monument of The Ten Commandments, smashing it to pieces."
AP says the driver claimed, "He got out of his car, urinated on the monument, and then ran over it and destroyed it. He said Satan told him to do it, and that he was a Satanist."
Crystal Tucker, Michael Reed's mother, is telling local KOCO TV, "He would never deface something that meant so much to him. He takes the Ten Commandments very seriously."
She says he has been "battling breakdowns" for the past 2 years that began after an injury at work nearly 4 years ago.
The mother says, "Now when he has these breakdowns, the one thing that is foremost in his mind, his religion, is the thing he takes it out on."
Tucker says her son "does not worship Satan, anyone who knows Michael, knows he loves God."
However, lets look at what's behind the story and how the ACLU and The Satanist Temple organization are responding.
In September, an Oklahoma court judge threw out a lawsuit that demanded the removal of The Ten Commandments monument at the state house steps.
The ACLU claimed in the suit what they always claim---church and state---in this case a violation of the state constitution's ban against using public property to support church or religion.
The Ten Commandments were deemed by the court to be "historical."
Private money built the first monument and private money will rebuild the now destroyed monument.
In the meantime, The Satanist Temple, with backing from the ACLU, is demanding permission to build a monument to Satan beside the Ten Commandments monument.
Last September, Catholics and Protestants alike were expressing deep concern that this same New York based Satanic Temple was planning a "Black Mass" in Oklahoma City.
Breitbart News reported that Archbishop Coakley was expressing fear of possible future consequences resulting from the "Black Mass" scheduled for September 21.
He and Monsignor Patrick Brankin expressed fear that because of the satanic rituals to be followed in the "Mass," "people could walk out of the Black Mass demon possessed."
Among other rituals, the Satanists called on Satan to exercise dominion over everything in the state---over people, places and even the land."
They promised Satanic exorcisms of people wanting to forsake Christianity.
Knowing Michael claims to be a Satanist, both the ACLU and The Satanist Temple quickly put out their own press release over the weekend.
The ACLU said, "While we have and continue to seek the removal of the Ten Commandments monument from the Capitol grounds through the judicial process, the Ten Commandments constitute a strong foundation in our clients’ deeply held religious beliefs. To see the Ten Commandments desecrated by vandals is highly offensive to them as people of faith. Our Oklahoma and Federal Constitutions seek to create a society in which people of all faiths and those of no faith at all can coexist as equals without fear of repressions from the government or their neighbors. Whether it is politicians using religion as a political tool or vandals desecrating religious symbols, neither are living up to the full promise of our founding documents.” – Ryan Kiesel, ACLU of Oklahoma Executive Director.
Kiesel also told the press his ACLU was outraged over the vandalism.
The Satanic Temple put out their own release expressing that they too are "appalled to learn of the act of destructive vandalism laid upon the 10 Commandments monument in Oklahoma today." They spoke of the "importance of religious freedom and tolerance" and that how when they are able to install their own 7-foot monument to Satan beside the 6-foot Ten Commandments monument, there would be a true expression of "coexistence."
Their press release ended with a threat, that if the 10 Commandments monument is "immediately reconstructed, our monument will be ready for unveiling quite soon."
While both the ACLU and The Satanist Temple, which is backed by the ACLU, claim they are calling for freedom and tolerance---coexistence and equality, one wonders what they feel is the basis for such virtue and freedom.
America was established on the Truth that God gives freedom and liberty. If God is deleted from the narrative, who then is the giver of freedom.
Note the phrase "coexist as equals" in relationship to monuments of the Ten Commandments and one honoring Satan.
Also note, "To see the Ten Commandments desecrated by vandals..."
The desecration of the Commandments is not found in a smashed monument, but in the daily attack on the sanctity of life, marriage, family and religious freedom by the ACLU and its clients and allies.
In their obsession to strip God from the culture and from the hearts and minds of people, their blindness is obvious.
Their war is not against a monument regardless of where it is located, it's against the message and the One who sent the message.
The ACLU's wish for "equality" is a wish to be "like God." To be the moral arbiter.
That didn't work in the Garden of Eden, and it won't work in America.
There is an abiding sense of God and righteousness and right and wrong, because "He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts..."
Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed.