Atheists want sign at Capitol
Seattle group’s request coincides with tree-lighting
OLYMPIA – A Seattle-based atheists group asked state officials Friday for permission to display a placard outdoors on the Capitol campus over the holidays.
Jerry Schiffelbein, the treasurer for Seattle Atheists and an activist in other “free-thought” groups that advocate separation between church and state, said the sign’s message is less provocative than those that the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation put up last year.
The proposed 18-by-30-inch sign says, “In this holiday season let us remember that kindness, charity and goodwill transcend belief, creed or religion.”
The request to put up the sign came the day that state officials lit up a 48-foot holiday tree inside the domed Capitol rotunda, a yearly tradition now entirely under state sponsorship. The evening event featured Gov. Chris Gregoire; Army Staff Sgt. Stephanie McDowell, who recently returned from Iraq; and a children’s chorale.
The atheists’ request – just like two requests to display a Jewish menorah Thursday through Dec. 19 – will be considered under the state policy adopted after last December’s ruckus over holiday displays inside the Capitol, Department of General Administration spokesman Steve Valandra said Friday. He expects a decision on the requests Monday.
“We thought we would get more requests. There is still time,” he said.
Last December, the GA declared a moratorium because it had about a dozen requests from groups wanting to put up displays, and a third-floor area for displays was getting crowded. The GA had approved a half-dozen of the requests, including a Nativity set, an atheist placard that mocked religion as superstition, Christian placards that mocked atheism, and a 9-foot menorah.
Requests halted by the moratorium included a “Festivus” pole from the mock holiday celebrated on the TV show “Seinfeld,” a “flying spaghetti monster,” and one from a Kansas church that assails homosexuality.
Before the controversy ended, someone stole the atheists’ placard. Thousands of complaints flooded the governor’s office and the GA after a national television commentator condemned the state for allowing the atheists’ display near the Nativity scene.
The GA has approved one display request so far this year. It was one of two submitted by Chabad Jewish Discovery Center in Olympia for a 9-foot menorah. The approved request is for Sylvester Park, a state-owned property in downtown Olympia; the other is for a menorah next to the Tivoli Fountain on the campus lawn.