Executive producers of the God’s Not Dead film series have donated $25,000 to the Arkansas State Legislature towards replacing a Ten Commandments monument that was destroyed the day after it was erected on state Capitol grounds.
Representatives who appeared on behalf of PureFlix Entertainment and GND Media Group presented Arkansas state Senator Jason Rapert with a $25,000 check at a ceremony in the Capitol rotunda last week.
Lawmakers installed the original six-foot-tall granite structure inscribed with the Ten Commandments on Capitol grounds near the Arkansas Supreme Court June 27. The structure was funded with $26,000 in private donations from Rapert’s non-profit organization, the American History and Heritage Foundation.
Less than 24 hours after the monument’s installation, a man rammed his Dodge Dart into the monument, which crashed into pieces upon hitting the ground.
Executive producers of the movie series, Bob Katz and Troy Duhon, reached out to Gov. Asa Hutchinson after the destruction of the monument to offer the donation.
Rapert announced at a press conference that like the original monument, the replacement would be funded entirely through private donations.
Capitol police arrested Michael Tate Reed at the scene and charged him with criminal trespass, defacing an object of public respect and a felony charge of first-degree criminal mischief. Reed allegedly destroyed another Ten Commandments monument in Oklahoma back in 2014.