On Sunday, Washington State bureaucrats forbade a local church from holding a baptism in a public lake near the state capitol.<\/p>\n
Saying that she interprets the state constitution to bar religious use of any state property, the acting director of the state Dapartment of General Administration, Jane Rushford, declined to issue\u00a0Olympia’s Reality Church\u00a0a permit\u00a0to use Heritage Park’s lake\u00a0for\u00a0outdoor immersion of new converts\u00a0during\u00a0the church’s\u00a0annual picnic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are approving their use of Heritage Park for the purpose of a picnic, a barbecue. We are denying their permit for the purpose of holding a baptism,\u201d said Rushford’s spokesman Jim Erskine.<\/p>\n
The church held picnics two previous years\u00a0at Heritage Park without incident.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0a written appeal, the American Center for Law & Justice asserted that prohibiting baptism in a public lake violates church members’ rights protected by the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.<\/p>\n
Rushford’s decision came after consultations with lawyers in the Attorney General\u2019s Office and with the Governor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Not answered was\u00a0why the church asked for the state’s permission. Beliefnet calls to church officials have not been returned.<\/p>\n
Outdoor baptisms have been conducted throughout history without government involvement. There is no record that John the Baptist\u00a0sought any permits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Sunday, Washington State bureaucrats forbade a local church from holding a baptism in a public lake near the state capitol. Saying that she interprets the state constitution to bar religious use of any state property, the acting director of the state Dapartment of General Administration, Jane Rushford, declined to issue\u00a0Olympia’s Reality Church\u00a0a permit\u00a0to use…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,8],"tags":[436,1408,1409],"class_list":["post-5945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-news","tag-baptism","tag-reality-church","tag-washington-state"],"yoast_head":"\n