Last week, the New York-based Satanic Temple garnered a lot of free publicity by releasing a drawing of a proposed statue of Satan at the Oklahoma state Capitol to be placed near a Ten Commandments monument.

They probably won’t get to actually install it, since most Oklahomans can still distinguish between good and evil, and wouldn’t put up with such an abomination.

Besides, the Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission has a moratorium on requests for additions to the Capitol grounds pending an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit over — what else? — the Ten Commandments. So the Satanic Temple probably has already gotten its maximum mileage out of this stunt.

It’s rare that the devil’s disciples come out of the closet so openly. Usually, they mask their real work of undermining the moral order by slyly distorting societal goods, such as freedom of speech or equal rights under the law. Or they twist Scripture, claiming that Jesus, who saved an adulterous woman from stoning and told her to sin no more, would be indifferent to the latest perversities or even endorse them.

The drawing, by the way, should send shivers down the backs of any unsuspecting parents who happen to view it. A horned, goat-headed figure that goes by the moniker “Baphomet” (is that his Facebook handle, too?) sits beneath a pentagram with two smiling children next to him. His lap functions as a chair “where people of all ages may sit — for inspiration and contemplation,” explains temple spokesman Lucien Greaves. Maybe on a hot day in August, when the weather conforms more closely to Baphomet’s usual haunts.

Somehow, “contemplation” doesn’t seem to fit the Satanists’ professed program of freeing humanity from all moral restraints so people can get on with trading their souls for momentary pleasures.

It’s a far cry from the scene in Mathew 19:14, in which Jesus rebukes his followers for trying to shoo away some youngsters whose parents had brought for Him to lay hands on and pray for them: “‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’ When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.”

So, who do you think that parents would rather have bless their children, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, by Whom “all things were made,” or the unspeakably evil goat-man?

The underlying premise behind the Satanic Temple’s request is a false claim of equality. In the name of this vastly abused concept that once fueled the righteous aims of the civil rights movement, America is awash in moral confusion.