Do people have a right to place their words on monuments in public parks?

I guess that most people would say No. Under the First Amendment, you are entitled to say what you like but nobody is obliged to help you to get your message across.

But what if the speech is religious? Is it abridging the freedom of religion for a city to prohibit you from putting up a record of your beliefs in its parks? Again I think most people would say No. You can practice whatever wacky religion you like but it has to be on your own dime. You have to pay to locate your billboards etc. where people will see them.

But a wacky religion in Utah claims it does have the right to put up its teachings in public parks and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed with them. So the matter is now going to SCOTUS. I am pretty sure SCOTUS will knock the idea on the head but if they don't, public parks will become very strange places, full of billboards with nutty messages. I might even insist on my right to put up a list of the five Australian commandments.

The religion behind the court case is called Summum and was founded by a guy whom I would diagnose as a paranoid schizophrenic. And I think that most of my fellow psychologists would agree. But judge for yourself. Below is the guff they eventually want to put up in the park nearest to you:

"The Seven Aphorisms of Summum

The Principle of Psychokinesis: Summum is mind, thought; the universe is a mental creation.

The Principle of Correspondence: As above, so below; as below, so above.

The Principle of Vibration: Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.

The Principle of Opposition: Everything is dual; everything has an opposing point; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes bond; all truths are but partial truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.

The Principle of Rhythm: Everything flows out and in; everything has its season; all things rise and fall; the pendulum swing expresses itself in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.

The Principle of Cause and Effect: Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is just a name for Law not recognized; there are many fields of causation, but nothing escapes the Law of Destiny.

The Principle of Gender: Everything has its masculine and feminine principles; Gender manifests on all levels

That is what psychologists call "Thought disorder". There is another comment on the matter here