Olympia Preparing for Christmas

R-71 UPDATE: More than 6,000 signatures have been counted since the Monday update, bringing the cumulative total to 110,288 checked signatures.

Of this total, 97,261 have been accepted and 13,027 rejected for one reason or another. The overall error rate is now 11.81 percent, up slightly from the 11.72 percent reported Monday.

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Olympia Preparing for Christmas

They are not actually calling it "Christmas," they're calling it "holiday," but the department that oversees the Capitol grounds is getting a jump on "holiday" this year. They have introduced what they are calling, "an interim policy." It went into effect this week---while you were getting your kids ready to go back to school.

The "policy" is to avoid the furor experienced last "holiday" when an atheist placed an anti-Christian sign beside a Nativity in the Capitol.

"We want to preserve everyone's right to free expression," they say. However, a closer look at their "interim policy" reminds me of some of the state government's interim type policies we have been experiencing over at the Elections office in regard to verifying signatures for R-71.

Let me explain.

The new interim policy essentially eliminates anyone from any expression of "holiday" on the Capitol grounds. Now we have free expression for everyone---which is no expression. Everyone is free to not express themselves.

Dan Barker, the guy who put the atheist, anti-Christian sign beside the Nativity last year, told The Seattle Times, the new policy was, "What we wanted all along---we were protesting the Nativity scene."

The government's policy is flawed because it eliminates free expression under the guise of protecting free expression. It is further flawed because it is based on a false premise.

Professor Hodge from Princeton University points out where this logic leads. In expressing his concern about the negative influence of atheism on public education, he wrote:

"If every party in the state has the right of excluding from the public schools whatever he does not believe to be true, then he that believes most must give way to him that believes least, and then he that believes least must give way to him that believes nothing, no matter in how small a minority the atheists or agnostics may be."

Professor Hodge expressed his concerns in 1887. We see the results in our present day public education system.

This logic allows those few who believe nothing, to silence Christians, a large majority, who see Christmas as the time when God became flesh and dwelt among us in order to restore broken lives.

However, it likely covers the back side of those looking after the Capitol grounds. It keeps the likes of Bill O'Reilly off the back of the Governor and it gives the "separation of church and state" folks an early "holiday" gift.

The Governor would point out it is a "win-win" policy.

Merry Christmas.

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Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom

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