Hundreds of children — baskets, buckets and bags in hands — rushed onto the Frances Anderson Center play field Saturday morning for the annual Edmonds Egg Hunt.
Children also had an opportunity to visit Fire District 1 vehicles and have their photo taken with the resident white bunny.
The presence of the bunny was noted by Dr. Chris Simmons, a long-time Edmonds resident, who said he has been bringing his grandchildren to the event for years, but just happened to hear news reports regarding the City of Edmonds’ decision several years ago to remove the word “Easter” from the annual event.
“I’ve never protested anything in my life,” he said, but added that the reports inspired him to create a sign that declared “Welcome to the Edmonds EASTER egg hunt. ALL are welcome.”
In a recent letter to My Edmonds News, City of Edmonds Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Carri Hite said that the city has not been using the word “Easter” as part of the Egg Hunt for 13 years, “in the spirit of being inclusive of all of our citizens.”
“The removal of specific religious references is common throughout many cities recreation departments, schools, and other government agencies,” Hite said. “We want to recognize and welcome all citizens to our events, regardless of faith.”
The removal of specific religious references is common throughout many cities recreation departments, schools, and other government agencies,” Hite said. “We want to recognize and welcome all citizens to our events, regardless of faith.”
Give me a break! This is politically correct hogwash. I have lived in several foreign countries that the majority of the population were Buddhist and Hindu, and through the years attended Jewish and Muslim celebrations. I never felt unwelcome, intimidated or otherwise abused when invited to celebrations of any of these faiths. It is in the mind of the attendee, if they feel unwelcome. We should not be giving up our religious or cultural heritage for those of other faiths, and they should not be expecting it. This is a Christian country, where we respect the faith of others, who are not, and that it a wonderful attribute. Let’s expect them to respect our traditions. As for the atheists, just do what ever is comfortable for you. A few people should not be allowed to demolish Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter. Where is the tolerance of those who oppose our traditions. Is this tolerance suppose to be just one sided?
“As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion”
From the Treaty of Tripoli – Originally agreed by George Washington, Ratified by Congress 1797 and signed by President John Adams (himself a devout christian)
We should respect faith. No one should interrupt your Easter service at church. What you are talking about is NOT church. It is a public event on public property paid for with the taxes of jews and hindus and atheists and christians. I’ll ask again – can I host a Satanic egg roll on public property? What if I want to mark the Equinox with the Nowrouz celebration of the Zoroastrians and Persian Muslims, can we call it the Edmonds Nowrouz egg hunt? That tradition is older than christian Easter. I bet you’d be first in line to protest it. It is Christian tolerance that is one-sided and it is why your churches are emptying out anywhere that people are educated.
Bette, Do you know how something becomes “Politically Correct?” It’s because the old way alienated a sufficiently large number of people to make it possible to lose an election if you don’t change. No one is demolishing Christmas, Easter or Ramadan. You are free to build a church or mosque with private funds and worship however you want with whoever you want whenever you want. You are free to proclaim your faith in public too. But you are not free to use public funds or property for an establishment of religion. If you prefer to live in a theocracy may I suggest a move to Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Israel…. Places where the religious tendency to peace and harmony is in full bloom.
Bette, I totally agree with your comments.
Eric, your comments are interesting but you should be expressing them to the federal gov, which still has the Easter egg roll not the egg roll at the white house and still lights the national Christmas tree.
Christmas is a federal holiday and The White House, though owned by the government, includes a private residence. It is similar to having a christmas tree in a public housing project – OK in your own apartment but not in the lobby with a big angel on top and a nativity at the bottom. If you’d like to invite the community to your home or church for Easter, I would think that was wonderful for all attending and I would not be there. I haven’t said I would personally ask to change the name of the event; I wouldn’t. But it changed many years ago and changing it back now at the behest of a particular religious community would be an “establishment of religion.”
If you’re ok with that then you either have a one-sided tolerance or you will let me host a Satanic event on Edmonds city property next year. Is that ok? I’m thinking of something for the kids… Maybe instead of Halloween this year we can call it Satans fun day. Or how about, since you get to celebrate capital punishment and the fairytale of resurrection (defaming Jews and Romans in the storytelling) maybe I could use the senior center to put on a holiday show to glorify a Jewish or Muslim victim of the inquisition and tell everyone he was the true savior and he was brutally killed by the horrible Spaniard Christians. I could give everyone the good news that it doesn’t matter if you lie, steal, rape or murder or otherwise violate basic ethical principles, if you just believe in my large tortoise god and not any other gods and click your heals three times everything will be forgiven and you can live in paradise, and don’t worry about atheists, even if they were wonderful upright people they’ll burn in hell for eternity.
I know Christians think they are loving and peaceful and joyous and helpful…….. some are, but many are not. I grew up in christian schools and churches and they robbed my mother of wealth and opportunity and they wanted me not to think. But I did, and I left. The reason your religion doesn’t belong in the public realm is because it is a fairytale, a myth, just like greek mythology, indian mythology, chinese dragons and the many stories of virgin birth messiahs that have been documented from other cultures https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081227133417AAs84oB
It is a powerful set of myths, advantageous in many ways, but also quite deadly and detrimental to human relations in other ways.
If I suggested we have an equinox egg roll event christians would think I was trying to impose wiccan or naturalist beliefs, and depending on what the celebration consists of they may be right, but the equinox is a real event, directly observable and it happens every year, twice. There is a difference in government sanctioning a holiday for something that we know really happens, versus something that is written in one particular groups book,
If you succeed in changing the name to Easter, then perhaps I’ll adopt your tactic and arrive with signs renaming it Satans egg hunt, or maybe I could bring pictures for the kids — of the corpses of the inquisition, the bloody battlefields of the crusades, the witch burnings, the massacres in africa and south america perpetrated by christian missionaries, the KKK carrying crosses, the young boys who were raped by priests and of course, the holocaust gas chambers intended to make Germany a pure Christian nation. Oh yes, Let’s celebrate the wondrous accomplishments of your faith, please. Don’t worry about the carnage behind you, Your Saved! Happy Easter.
I want to apologize for the tone and graphic of that last post, but I find many Christians have never listened to an alternate view and don’t understand why their faith is offensive to many people. Easter is particularly offensive for 3 reasons.
1) It allows Christians to assume a mantle of victimhood through Christ’s suffering, even though they dominate the world.
2) There is rarely any acknowledgement of the suffering caused by Christianity.
3) Beyond failing to acknowledge the suffering caused, Forgiveness is offered to those who caused it, so long as they belong to the group.
That tells me that the Christian guy who throws me in the gas chamber thinks that I, as a descendant of Jews, somehow have injured him. He thinks he has done nothing wrong to deserve this injury caused by my ancestors, and after I die I will go to hell and he who pushed me to my death will eventually go to heaven. How can I not take offense to that?
Hell, BTW is a concept that emerged contemporaneously with metallurgy, when miners dug into the earth for ore and found the depths were hot and full of bones. An explanation was needed and the scientific method was still a few thousand years away… So I’m offended, but not scared. I know exactly what will happen when I die. My loved ones will mourn, my body will be cremated, my ashes spread and with luck the atoms and molecules that have assembled to be me will become part of some other living thing on the Earth. My spirit (used as: my enthusiasm and passion – not a vapor soul / energy entity thing) and creations will live on in the vastness of life to which I have contributed during my time and my children will carry forward some of my DNA lineage. I as I will cease to exist. Hard to fathom, but not scary. Until then, since I do not believe in mystical forgiveness after death, I will lead as good a life as I can and ask forgiveness directly from those I injure, not from a God they may not believe in.
So if I offended you, Will you forgive me?
Eric, before I can wish you peace, love and joy during this season I must express my deep concern for anyone who identifies religion as a “fairytale, a myth.”
It would be so easy for me to get angry at your attack on my beliefs but I strive each day to overcome those kinds of attacks. Yes, when I look at past history there were shameful things done by many in the name of righteousness, hatred and loathing for the opposition. Maybe now we are seeing the same philosophy become the “norm.” If someone is angry, pick up a gun and shot the opposite. Has past history taught us any lessons? Or have we just become more sophisticated in our mission?
In response to your ending question — of course I forgive you (assuming you are not being factitious) and pray you will look within for your own forgiveness from the anger lashing out at the world! Peace and joy to you.
Again, why is it ok for our government (not talking private citizen, not talking a church) to sponsor a particular religions event?
Jane, Thank you. As I’ve said on this or the other article, I have many Christian friends that I love dearly and who are really good people. It is quite a difficult thing for me to express my offense at a particular group of Christians, their strict theology and their desire to be eternally acknowledged with public resources, without catching in the net a whole lot of great people and wonderful churches that are not truly the subject of my criticism. I do distinguish, respect and appreciate those that live their faith humbly and respect others.
I know it is hard to hear your beliefs called a fairytale and I’m sorry for the harshness of that. I almost always avoid that kind of language, and the Satan stuff too – that is not at all serious, just a thought exercise. When I hear evolution or entropy derided for being just theories (with vast observation and experimentation failing to disprove them, and actually improving them to the point that most modern medicine depends on understanding them), it hurts me too. It’s unfortunate, but taken literally almost every religion including Christianity proclaims that the others are not true (myths). Greek mythology and Roman mythology were religions in their time but now we hear of Apollo and Venus as myths and we say so openly and if someone still prays to them, then? Many traditional cultures have held beliefs that were labeled as mythology, paganism or witchcraft by Christians. It is indeed shameful that the penalty for holding on to those beliefs when Christians arrived was usually much more than a tongue lashing, but that is true of other faiths and cultures as well. I hope and sense that we are making progress away from that past. A good many people understand that the stories we all tell are meant to teach and to comfort and to give strength rather than be accepted as actual historical accounts. For me, the Judeo-Christian stories and traditions have been important in life, as have the stories of other traditions and my own experience of cosmic mystery.
Faith and belief hold a wonderful, purposeful space beyond knowledge, as the foundation of cooperation in large non-familial groups. It is an incredible human adaptation not yet witnessed in any other species on Earth. But I have seen the damage of belief holding people back from understanding what we can directly and through the scientific method. I’ve witnessed too much of the conflict they cause unnecessarily because cooperation is limited to the in-group with hostility toward the other. When people seek to have their faith sanctioned and endorsed by government, then I see a danger, of my country becoming like Iran or Pakistan or somewhere less tolerant, and it boils me over. I’m human. I get the sense that some of those people rarely encounter a different view and I have a desire to give them that experience. It’s not really meant to change their minds because I’m too cynical to think many will. Perhaps we are only feeding each others desire for battle. Honestly, I do it more for people who hold the same feelings of offense but choose not to speak up. Our view deserves equal respect and the Christian majority needs to know that any attempt to impose themselves over government or the minority that believes differently will not be a cakewalk, it will be painful and hard fought. I’ve said I personally wouldn’t ask for a name change in holiday events but I think once it’s done we can’t go back. Traditions do deserve some respect. I understand that making our society more open and tolerant can seem like a loss when we have always done something a certain way. We practiced slavery for 400 years (and both the pro and anti used the bible for justification) and it wasn’t given up easily, but few would now say that was a bad change.
I’m not an angry person, I’m a very happy person, but some things do make me feel anger. I’m sorry to throw up challenges and be so honest in saying that your stories and the particular people proselytizing in a rather aggressive and confrontational way are occasionally the thing that tips me off. Other religious/philosophical stories, practices and histories are equally offensive when literal believers use them to persecute, discriminate and assert dominance. Sometimes that is why I write – to let it go into the ether and out of my head. At these times I’m fond of a buddhist saying: Anger is like a hot coal: The longer you hold it, the more it burns you.
So Jane and all the rest. I hope you enjoyed this glorious day as I did (planting in the backyard with my kids after they found all the “Easter” eggs hidden there), and I hope you have love, joy, peace and harmony in all your days.
P.S. If you wonder what my kids think of Easter – they know about the equinox and have heard some of the Bible stories, but I don’t tell them it is factual history. We attend religious services sometimes because we do believe in certain moral and ethical principles that need to be retaught and relearned continually through gathering, sharing and acting together with a community. I ask them to discuss with me what the meaning and importance of such activities and stories is and how it can help or hurt society and individuals. They’re 2 and 4, so they just look at me with a glazed expression and ask if it’s time to eat the candy…