Was it the Grinch? Atheists' holiday sign stolen

An anti-religion placard posted alongside Christmas displays drew a thief, a preacher, a part-time elf and a security detail to the state Capitol on Friday, as a weeklong uproar over religious speech hit a bizarre peak.

It all started Monday, when the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation unveiled a winter solstice sign in the grand marble hallways around the Capitol Rotunda.

The sign's atheistic message - reading in part that "religion is but myth and superstition" - drew top billing on conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly's TV show.

Several days of angry messages to Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire followed, and on Friday morning, someone removed the atheists' sign and apparently hustled it out of the Capitol.

A radio station in Seattle, about 60 miles north, soon reported that an unidentified man had dropped off the pilfered placard, and the Washington State Patrol dispatched someone to pick it up.

Meanwhile, people flocked to the Capitol to check out the crime scene, set up their own protest signs and speak to a bank of TV news cameras jamming the hallway.

Among the crowd was James Pritchard of Seattle, who wore a pointy green hat and passed out candy-striped business cards proclaiming him "J. Elfus, Special Assistant to the Claus."

Despite his obvious preference for Christmas, Pritchard said he wants everyone to celebrate any holiday they like. But he was offended by the atheists' message, which he felt was designed mostly to mock religion.

"I heard about what was going on down here, and we had to order a truckload of coal," he said.

And that was just the start.

Pastor Ken Hutcherson, a Christian preacher well-known here for his commentary on social issues, also arrived to put up a sign that flipped the atheists' message into an affirmation of religion. Another small group put up a handmade poster reading, "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.'"

Several other parties submitted applications to state groundskeepers, seeking to display everything from a set of Nativity balloons to an aluminum Festivus pole - an homage to the invented "holiday for the rest of us" coined by the long-running comedy show "Seinfeld."

Burly State Patrol troopers paced the hallway the whole time, presumably guarding against any other shenanigans. Statues of the Holy Family remained undisturbed in their cedar stable.

Annie Laurie Gaylor of Madison, Wis., a co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said the group planned to install a replacement solstice poster until the proper sign could be recovered.

The group has displayed a similar sign in the Wisconsin Capitol for more than a decade, and has gotten used to this sort of response. For the first few years, opponents of the anti-religious message have turned the sign to face the wall, stolen it, and even showered it with acid, she said.

"It is interesting that our views are so threatening that they have to be stolen and stifled completely," Gaylor said.

Gregoire and Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna have defended the atheists' right to display their sign in the Capitol.

The state began granting broader access to religious displays a few years back, after a Jewish group added a Hanukkah menorah to the long-standing display of a massive evergreen Christmas tree - these days called a "holiday tree" - sponsored by the Association of Washington Business.

A local real estate agent sued after his subsequent request for a Nativity scene was denied, but the case was settled and the creche installed. This year is the first time the Freedom From Religion Foundation added its holiday message to the mix.

State carpenter Jim Buenzli, who first noticed the missing atheist sign Friday morning, said he was fed up by the whole furor. That's why he applied for permission to place the Festivus pole, which he planned to purchase and install next week.

"I got sick of the way these things were going, so I wanted to put some humor into it," Buenzli said. "They're making a big mockery out of our state on the news."

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AP Writers Doug Esser, Manuel Valdes and Rachel La Corte contributed to this report.