Hey Keith, Chris

[phuloi]

Aren`t you just proud as punch and tickled all over to be a Washingtonian?


OLYMPIA, Wash. -- An atheistic sign is included in the state Capitol's holiday display that includes a holiday tree and a Christian nativity scene.

The sign, a new addition this year, is sponsored by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The sign reads, "Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

Annie Laurie Gaylor, foundation co-president, said in a prepared statement that the sign is a reminder of the "real reason for the season, the winter solstice." The solstice, on Dec. 21 this year, is the shortest day of the year.

The Capitol has had a holiday tree, provided by the Association of Washington Business, for 19 years.

In 2006, it was joined by a menorah sponsored by a Seattle Jewish group. A menorah is a candelabrum that recognizes Hanukkah.

That prompted a lawmaker from Spokane to stage a protest at the Capitol, demanding the holiday tree be called a "Christmas tree." It also led a local real estate agent to sue the state to allow the nativity display depicting the birth of Jesus.

There have been no requests for a menorah display this year.

The tree -- officially called the "Capitol Holiday Kids Tree" -- is part of a charity drive for rural fire departments.

A lighting ceremony for the tree -- up to 30 feet tall -- is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday.
Copyright 2008 by KIROTV.com

[Keith_Hixson]

PC gone way over board.

Keith

[revwardoc]

What!? Nothing for Kwanzaa!? Those racist bastards!

I agree with Keith in that we've somehow entirely lost the message of Christmas; that is, Peace on Earth, Goodwill to all mankind.

Now its just another highly commercial venture and the ever-GREEN represents the almight dollar.

It's sad, really. We've taken what once was a religious season, both Christian and pagan, and turned into from a season of giving to a season of getting.

Every Christmas since 1971, Nova Scotia has donated a large Christmas tree to the City of Boston in thanks and remembrance for the help the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee provided immediately after the disasterous explosion of a munitions ship in Halifax harbor on December 6th, 1917. The annual gift began with the Christmas tree grower's association and was later taken over by the Nova Scotia Government. The tree is Boston's official Christmas tree and is lit on Boston Common throughout the holiday season. A couple of years ago, Boston Mayor Tom Menino started calling it the "holiday tree". The government of Nova Scotia told him that it was a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree, and if he continued to call it that then the gift of the tree would stop. He did stop.

Ms Gaylor, though, is correct in that in that the original reason for the winter celebration is the solstice and the early Christian church annexed the holiday because they couldn't get Christians to stop solstice celebrations.

[darrels joy]

Winter Solstice Sign STOLEN!!!

OMG!!! Call the Police! Call the FBI!!! This is a hate crime for sure! Never mind all the yearly vandalizations of Nativity displays across America, or the theft of Baby Jesus’s by atheists; be on the lookout for a crappy sign!!!

Perhaps the Atheists might want to start protesting Ramadan. I’m sure the Muzzies would be much more polite about it all…
H/T - No Compromises

Atheist sign disappears from Washington state Capitol
By Mallory Simon
CNN
(CNN) — An atheist sign criticizing Christianity that was erected alongside a Nativity scene at the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington, has disappeared, the co-founder of the organization sponsoring it said Friday.

“I thought it would be safe,” Freedom From Religion Foundation co-founder Annie Laurie Gaylor told CNN. “It’s always a shock when your sign is censored or stolen or mutilated. It’s not something you get used to.”

The sign, which celebrated the winter solstice, had some residents and Christian organizations calling atheists Scrooges because they said it was attacking the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth.

“Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds,” the sign from the Freedom From Religion Foundation said in part.

The sign, which was at the Legislative Building at 6:30 a.m. PT, was gone by 7:30 a.m., Gaylor said.

The incident will not stifle the group’s message, Gaylor said, adding that a temporary sign with the same message would be placed in the building’s Rotunda. Gaylor said a note would be attached saying, “Thou shalt not steal.”

“I guess they don’t follow their own commandments,” Gaylor said. “There’s nothing out there with the atheist point of view, and now there is such a firestorm that we have the audacity to exist. And then [whoever took the sign] stifles our speech.”

[There's where you're wrong, mister smarty-pants. It's not stolen; it's "religiously relocated." And, WILL show up after the Christmas Season... BIG difference.]

Gaylor said that police are checking security cameras pointed at the building’s entrances and exits to see if they can see anyone stealing the sign.

“It’s probably about 50 pounds, ” Gaylor said. “My brother-in-law was huffing and puffing carrying it up the stairs. It’s definitely not something you can stick under your arm or conceal.”


The Washington State Patrol, which is handling the incident, could not be reached for comment.

Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher and co-founder of the group, said it was important for atheists to see their viewpoints validated alongside everyone else’s.

Barker said the display is especially important given that 25 percent of Washington state residents are unaffiliated with religion or do not believe in God. (A recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found 23 percent of Washingtonians said they were unaffiliated with a religion and 7 percent said they didn’t believe in God.)

“It’s not that we are trying to coerce anyone; in a way our sign is a signal of protest,” Barker said. “If there can be a Nativity scene saying that we are all going to hell if we don’t bow down to Jesus, we should be at the table to share our views.”

He said if anything, it’s the Nativity scene that is the intrusion.

“Most people think December is for Christians and view our signs as an intrusion, when actually it’s the other way around,” he said. “People have been celebrating the winter solstice long before Christmas. We see Christianity as the intruder, trying to steal the holiday from all of us humans.”

The scene in Washington state is not unfamiliar. Barker has had signs in Madison, Wisconsin, for 13 years. The placard is often turned around so the message can’t be seen, and one year, someone threw acid on it, forcing the group to encase it in Plexiglas.

In Washington, D.C., the American Humanist Association began a bus ad campaign this month questioning belief in God.

“Why believe in a God?” the advertisement asks. “Just be good for goodness sake.”

That ad has caused the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to field hundreds of complaints, the group said, but it has heard just as much positive feedback, said Fred Edwords, the association’s spokesman.

Edwords said the ad campaign, which features a shrugging Santa Claus, was not meant to attack Christmas but rather to reach out to an untapped audience.

Edwords maintains the campaign began in December mostly because the group had extra money left over for the year. The connection to Christmas is a coincidence, he said.

“There are a lot of people out there who don’t know there are organizations like ours to serve their needs,” Edwords said. “The thing is, to reach a minority group, in order to be heard, everyone in the room has to hear you, even when they don’t want to.”

The ad campaign, Edwords said, is to make people think. He said he doesn’t expect to “convert” anyone.

But the Christian Coalition of America is urging members to oppose the advertisements.

“Although a number of humanists and atheists continue to attempt to rid God and Christmas from the public square, the American people are overwhelmingly opposed to such efforts,” Roberta Combs, the group’s president said in a press release.

“We will ask our millions of supporters to call the city of Washington, D.C., and Congress to stop this un-Godly campaign.”

As far as the criticism goes, Edwords said there are far more controversial placards in Washington.

“That’s D.C. — this is a political center,” he said. “If I can see a placard with dead fetuses on it, I think someone can look at our question and just think about it.”

The anger over the display in Olympia began after it was assembled Monday. The sentiment grew after some national media personalities called upon viewers to flood the phone lines of the governor’s office.

The governor’s office told The Seattle Times it received more than 200 calls an hour afterward.

“I happen to be a Christian, and I don’t agree with the display that is up there,” Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire told The Olympian newspaper.
“But that doesn’t mean that as governor, I have the right to deny their ability to express their free speech.”

For some, the issue isn’t even that the atheists are putting their thoughts on display, but rather the way in which they are doing it.

“They are shooting themselves in the foot,” said iReport contributor Rich Phillips, who describes himself as an atheist. “Everyone’s out there for the holidays, trying to represent their religion, their beliefs, and it’s a time to be positive.”

The atheist message was never intended to attack anyone, Barker said.

“When people ask us, ‘Why are you hateful? Why are you putting up something critical of people’s holidays? — we respond that we kind of feel that the Christian message is the hate message,” he said. “On that Nativity scene, there is this threat of internal violence if we don’t submit to that master. Hate speech goes both ways.”

http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2...e-sign-stolen/

[darrels joy]

TED S. WARREN / AP

Washington State Patrol Detective Ruth Medeiros, left, talks with radio station KMPS employees Randy Scott, right, Stephen Kilbreath and "Scallops," who holds the purloined atheists' sign.

The state Capitol hosts a Nativity scene and a 25-foot "holiday tree." The nearby atheists' sign that sparked a nationwide furor was back in place Friday after being stolen and then dropped off at a country-music radio station.

And joining those displays soon could be a 5-foot aluminum pole in celebration of "Festivus for the Rest of Us." Not to mention a protest, a balloon display and even more signs, this time supporting religion.

"It's a circus and we're the center ring," said state Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, who wants the atheists' sign moved farther from the Nativity scene and the governor to establish firmer guidelines on displays.

Things in Olympia have taken a bizarre turn since Monday, when the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national group for atheists and agnostics, put up a sign that says, in part: "Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." The sign was partly a reaction to the Nativity scene.

The issue went national when FOX News personality Bill O'Reilly chastised the state during his show for allowing the sign.

On Friday, workers discovered the sign was missing shortly after the building opened at 7 a.m., said Steve Valandra, spokesman for the Department of General Administration, which maintains the Capitol grounds.

Later that morning, a man carrying the sign walked into country-music radio station KMPS in Seattle, saying "you know what it's for," said News Director Stephen Kilbreath. Radio-show host Ichabod Caine and others had been talking Friday morning about how disparaging the sign was.

Of the sign turning up at the station, Caine said: "First you think: No way this happened. ... That's sort of funny on one level."

But what happened was stealing, Caine said, and "certainly, because we know 'thou shalt not steal,' don't steal a sign."
The Washington State Patrol is investigating the theft. The State Patrol also is providing extra security in the Capitol for all the holiday displays, Sgt. Mark Arras said.

The Rev. Ken Hutcherson of Redmond's Antioch Bible Church put up his own sign at the Capitol on Friday that says, in part: "There is one God. ... Atheism is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

There are requests for other displays as well. Someone applied to put up a "Festivus" pole in honor of the invented holiday featured in the 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld." Another person wants to create a religious-themed "balloon display."

And a demonstration against the atheists' sign is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday on the Capitol steps.

Organizer Steve Wilson of Federal Way said he's for free speech but thinks the sign denigrates religious people. His rally is intended to be pro-faith, not anti-atheist. "We just want to go show our support for people of faith. We don't want any hate," he said.

O'Reilly, on his FOX News show earlier this week, urged viewers to call Gov. Christine Gregoire's office to protest the sign. Gregoire's office received more than 9,000 calls Thursday alone, said spokesman Pearse Edwards.

Both Hutcherson and Roach taped segments Friday for a follow-up segment on O'Reilly's show.

Gregoire, a Democrat, and state Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Republican, issued a statement after O'Reilly's first show, explaining the state's position.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has been consistent and clear that, under the Constitution's First Amendment, once government admits one religious display or viewpoint onto public property, it may not discriminate against the content of other displays, including the viewpoints of nonbelievers," the statement said.

On Friday, some nonbelievers said they had very mixed feelings about the sign.

Michael Amini, a University of Washington student and president of the Secular Student Union, says he's glad to see nonbelievers represented among the Capitol displays. But he doesn't like the sign's wording, saying it's inflammatory and divisive.

"Right now, the atheists are the least trusted minority in the United States," said Amini, who believes the foundation should spend its time and money trying to show people that atheists are "decent people, rational and sane, with legitimate world views. This sign does not send that message."

Dan Barker, Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president, said he intended the sign to be a little controversial — though he didn't expect this much.

"We thought our sign was pretty mild. But some people thought it was pretty hard-hitting," he said. "It's a criticism of religion. I think people like O'Reilly confuse criticism with hate speech."

All this hubbub threatened to overshadow what would otherwise be a big-deal wintertime moment in the Capitol: the annual lighting of the "Capitol Holiday Kids Tree" Friday. The tree, sponsored by the Association of Washington Business, is part of a charity drive.

There also will be a menorah in the Capitol this year, scheduled to go up on Dec. 21.

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...theist06m.html