In 2008, my every-other-Wednesday column came up on Christmas Eve. There had been a spat over a Christian nativity scene on state property, and some atheists insisted on their right to put up an anti-Christian sign. Though I agreed with them in metaphysics, I thought what they’d done was bad manners. My column ran in the Seattle Times on Dec. 24, 2008.
In Olympia, the atheists won. After Christmas 2008, there will be no Nativity scenes until further notice.
Here is one infidel not celebrating. My fellow rationalists, I think, are being unreasonable. Their anti-Christian sign is in poor taste. To denounce the festivities of other people’s religions is ill-mannered.
Christmas a holiday from work and strife, a day for tolerance and pardons. It is a day of family gathering and good food, of handing out presents and watching kids unwrap them, of carols and colored lights and decorated trees. At my house, a day for delicious Nürnberger Lebkuchen.
Much of my family is Christian, which gives them an extra reason to celebrate. That’s all right. If they want to say grace at my table, they can. It’s Christmas.
It was in a generous spirit that Gov. Christine Gregoire allowed a Nativity scene to be placed in the Capitol. Then came the atheists demanding equal time to put up a sign attacking belief in God.
The atheists wanted to pick a fight. But Christmas isn’t the time for a fight, and a Nativity scene is not a challenge.
So there was a fight. Fox Network’s Bill O’Reilly goaded some 15,000 listeners nationwide to phone our governor and pester her about it. Three groups of believers got the state’s permission to put up counterattacks. Jews asked for a menorah. Two nutball groups in Kansas asked to put up signs, one to warn Washingtonians that “Santa Claus will take you to hell” — thank you for that — and another to promote something called the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The state wisely let in the menorah and shut the door on the zanies from Kansas. A public-relations guy for the Department of General Administration explained the state could have no more displays because it had run out of room. More likely, someone had run out of patience.
The progressive thought about all this was that it was inevitable. The state cannot discriminate — so the progressive believes — therefore, it may declare
the walls of its buildings closed to public scrawl or fully open. If that’s the choice, the policy on displays is obvious. As countless Internet voices have said: “Take them all down.”
How liberal we are.
Government does not, however, follow a rule of nondiscrimination on other beliefs. It boldly promotes competitiveness, ethnic diversity, anti-homophobia, parental responsibility, riding the bus, biodiesel, local produce and cloth grocery bags, all without offering heretics a right of reply. It funds ethnic celebrations. Can it not have a temporary Nativity scene?
A certain kind of mind sees a Nativity display as a Christian recruitment poster. It misses that it is also a piece of art celebrating a festival that has existed in Western culture for nearly 2,000 years. If a government art museum has a painting of Mary and Jesus, is it obliged to have sign denouncing the Christian church? No. Art is protected — even anti-religious art. Especially that.
What of a Nativity scene?
America has separated church and state. That is from the First Amendment. It does not mandate, though, that the state shun the church. It proclaims only that religion shall be free of political control, and that government “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” That means no official religion.
Surely, to put up a Nativity display for a few weeks is not to declare Christianity the official religion, especially if there are displays for other religious festivals at other times or places.
Once you let in one religion, the progressive asks, where to draw the line? I think of the Post Office. It offers commemorative stamps for Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid, Kwanzaa and an unspecific holiday. Five choices.
We infidels don’t get a stamp. That is all right. We have Bette Davis stamps.
Merry Christmas to you all.
© 2008 The Seattle Times