Senate Bill 6085 passed its first committee vote on Thursday. Republican Sen. Dan Swecker of Rochester proposed the bill after the state Department of General Administration denied a permit to Reality Church for the baptism portion of a picnic and barbecue planned for last August.
“I’m fairly confident I can keep enough of a majority to get it through and get it passed” in the Legislature, Swecker said after the unanimous voice vote in the Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee.
Some Democrats voting for the bill said they had concerns and were voting to keep the measure moving ahead of next Tuesday’s bill cutoff. But one, Sen. Sharon Nelson of Vashon Island, said she was reserving judgment until she had finished reading new legal briefings on the topic.
Swecker and Pastor Paul Jones of Reality Church both testified in favor of the bill earlier this month. Jones said in an telephone interview Thursday that he did not ask for the bill. He also said his church did not want to get into a big political fight over the issue, but he was glad to see legislation that might clarify the matter for any group that seeks a similar event.
“I think it would help to have some direction,” Jones said, adding that if the answer ends up being “no, then it’s no. But it’s helpful not to leave it to a church or a legal group to file a lawsuit to get clarification on it.’’
Sen. Craig Pridemore, a Vancouver Democrat who chairs the committee, said the bill would give the state’s landlord agency, now called the Department of Enterprise Services, legislative guidance to allow an event like the baptism in question. But he cautioned there is a debate in the courts over the separation of state and church that also comes into play.
A report to the committee from its staff attorney, Sam Thompson, outlined a complicated legal history on allowing the exercise of religion in state- or government-owned properties. But as Thompson told the committee before its vote, there are supportive precedents including a 1979 federal appeals court ruling that rejected efforts to stop a pope-led Mass on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The bill says Enterprise Services “shall not prohibit the use of Capitol grounds for religious purposes, provided that the particular portion of the Capitol grounds to be used is open to the public for events of a similar size and nature and the impact to the state as a result of the use is no greater than the impact by other allowed uses.”
Swecker has testified that impacts of the Reality Church event would have been small.
“Interestingly they were going to bring in their own baptismal,’’ Swecker explained. “They were denied this because it was a religious service. I felt that was a selective (decision) ... My own daughter was married in the park, and it was a Jewish service. What about a prayer to open our legislative sessions?”
After the state denied Reality Church’s permit for the baptism portion, the church moved its entire event to another location.
Brad Shannon: 360-753-1688
bshannon@theolympian.com
www.theolympian.com/politicsblog
