Holiday: Secular Seattle

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - Departing the Pacific Northwest through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport ("Sea-Tac") last night, it was notable that there was no holiday display of any kind in the airport--just a winterscape. That wasn't because the Port of Seattle, which owns and operates Sea-Tac, is remarkably efficient in removing decorations after a holiday. There weren't any left yesterday because no holiday displays went up in 2008 at all (or in 2007 for that matter), a common occurrence on public property in the Pacific Northwest.

In 2006, Sea-Tac gained national attention when Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky asked for a menorah to be displayed at the airport. Bogomilsky intended it to supplement the Christmas Trees that were on display, but the Port removed all holiday decorations for a time to try to avoid a lawsuit over holiday displays. The situation was well-summarized in this 2007 Seattle Times article, and it caused the Pacific Northwest to become Ground Zero in pundit Bill O'Reilly's attempt to highlight the "War on Christmas."

O'Reilly targeted Washington state again this year over the displays at the Capitol Rotunda in Olympia, Washington. The state allowed any group to apply to place a display there during the holidays, and an especially fervent atheist group was one of the organizations whose message appeared. The resulting hullabaloo was again well-summarized in a Seattle Times article.

The apparently-secular nature of the Pacific Northwest really amounts to a high level of tolerance that dates back to before people of European origin entered the region. The Native American groups that lived here figured out how to get along between different tribes with different resources by establishing a regional culture of respect, cooperation, and conservation of resources that greatly influenced the region even after it became part of the United States. The slow, consensus-based political decision-making process of the Pacific Northwest also may be traced to the era before Lewis and Clark arrived.

It's not about avoiding religion, just about respecting all religions the way a Seattle native would say the US constitution intended. That's exactly why something like this year's flare-up over the holiday displays in the Capitol Rotunda could happen here. There was a nativity display there--Christianity was hardly being suppressed, it just wasn't given a dominant role.

I grew up in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, which many feel represents the core of the secular culture. In Bellevue's public schools, Christmas is almost never mentioned by name--except maybe in a high school class covering comparative religion. The district is scrupulously careful about avoiding religious symbols. In 2005, a "giving tree" at Medina Elementary school was turned into a "giving counter" because of a complaint that the "giving tree" was really a Christmas Tree by another name.

Despite that, even my Jewish, Bahá'í, and Atheist peers (admittedly, I cannot claim to have asked any Muslims) learned about all the Christmas traditions by osmosis of the culture anyway, and I don't recall any of my Christian peers expressing any concern about the lack of "official" Christmas activities. December was still a special month of the year, if for no other reason than it was time for Winter Break.

The fact that the rest of the United States doesn't seem to understand how religious freedom works in the Pacific Northwest reflects poorly on the rest of the nation, not the Pacific Northwest--the fact of the matter is that it does work.