State officials have authorized permits for two holiday-season displays this year.
One is a Nativity scene from Olympia-area realty agent Ron Wesselius, who sued last year over the issue and then won a legal settlement allowing his display.
The other is a 30-by-30 inch placard from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Coalition, which plans to offer a nonreligious perspective.
The placard will carry a message similar to one put up in the Wisconsin statehouse the past 12 years, AnnieLaurie Gaylor, co-president of the organization, said Monday
That placard said: “At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.
“There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
Gaylor said her group sought the permit after a Washington state member requested it. She said the coalition would not have gotten involved except that the Capitol was being opened to a religious display.
The permits were issued by the state Department of General Administration.
The two displays likely will be on the Capitol’s third floor, where Wesselius’ Nativity, or crche, was exhibited last year. Wesselius filed his lawsuit a day after Gregoire lit a menorah, a Jewish candelabrum, in the Capitol on Dec. 18.
State officials initially denied his request, based on advice from the Attorney General’s Office, saying they lacked time before Christmas to determine whether his proposal amounted to a government endorsement of religion. The legal settlement ended the dispute.
A Christmas tree, which the sponsoring Association of Washington Business called a “holiday tree,” also was displayed in the Rotunda last year.
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