By Joshua Rosenstein, Assistant Editor, JTNews
A few weeks before Christmas, Bellevue chiropractor Sidney Stock received a phone call from an acquaintance at City Hall. During the conversation, the acquaintance told him that the Christmas tree in city hall made her feel uncomfortable in her workplace.
The tree, known as a “giving tree,” is meant to be a non-religious symbol of charity. Nonetheless, she said that for six weeks out of the year she felt she did not belong at her workplace, and asked Sydney to speak on her behalf at the upcoming city council meeting. She said she was afraid for her job if she were to speak up.
So Stock and his wife Jennifer attended the Bellevue council meeting on December 13 and addressed the community, asking that the tree be removed. Stock defines himself as culturally Jewish, but not religious. Jennifer, who is not Jewish, said the tree was not a Jewish/Christian issue.
“This is purely an issue of civil rights, and separation of church and state,” she said. “Taxpayers’ money should not be spent on religious symbols of any kind. Nor should tax-supported space be used for religious symbols.”
At the meeting they pointed out that it would be impossible to represent all of the religious symbols of all of the ethnic and religious groups that support public space with their tax money, and therefore there should be none.
“There are many Christians that have issues with public display of religion, and certainly Muslims, Indians, Native Americans—there are so many people in our community who don’t share this symbol.”
Sidney Stock said he was frustrated that people listened politely and thanked them for their input, but that he was confidant that nothing would come of it.
The next morning, however, a reporter from the King County Journal called the Stocks asking for an interview. Jennifer was reluctant to speak to him, but eventually decided it would be better to speak to the reporter and clarify their concerns. During the interview, Stock defined himself as an atheist and a Jew. That’s when hell began to break loose.
The couple received three hate calls that morning. Then KIRO and KOMO called asking for interviews. Stock says the reporters were respectful, but they were not prepared for the outcome of those interviews.
He says they were depicted as scrooges who hated the concept of charity and holiday cheer. It was then that the hate calls started to pour in. The Stocks received 41 hate calls to their residence—three of them were threats serious enough to make the Stocks call for police protection. Then the hate cards started coming in. The hate mail spanned the range of sentiment, from “Merry Christmas, scumbags,” to “We’re going to get you!”
“The worst one was ‘Soy Milk Drinkers,’” said Stock. “That one really hit home. I mean, it’s true!”
Soon Fox News called with an offer to fly them to New York to “tell their side of the story.” They refused.
This is not the first time Stock has been in the public eye. Eleven years ago he protested the East Side Catholic High School’s choice of mascot, the Crusaders. He was protesting in front of the St. James Cathedral with a sign that said “Crusaders are rapists, pillagers and murderers” when he was physically assaulted.
Twenty-five years ago, he was involved in changing the policy of the Bellevue School district. According to him, it was the first school district in the country that eliminated religious celebrations in schools.
“There is a difference between religious education and religious celebrations. I am proud that my kids didn’t have to go through what I had to go through when I was growing up,” said Stock. “Every morning, when I was a boy, the class day started with 15 minutes of New Testament reading.”
Stock has written many articles and letters over the years about religious identity, and he has been active on issues he finds important, such as progressive Judaism and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
“I don’t write to make trouble,” Stock said, “I just say what I think needs to be said.”
The Supreme Court ruled that Christmas trees are cultural and not religious symbols, which “makes about as much sense to us as the [Constitutional passage] that established blacks as three-fifths of a human being,” said Stock, referring to the founding of the United States, when slaves were defined as less than a full person for the purpose of apportioning the population. The Constitutional clause was overridden by the 13th Amendment.
The Stocks believe that mixing religion and state power is a sure-fire recipe for trouble.
“If I lived in Israel, I would oppose Judaism being the state religion,” said Stock. “No state should be involved in religion because of the history of persecution. Whenever a state has been involved in religion, the worst kinds of atrocities have occurred.”
“This is our opinion,” said Jennifer, “We put it forward for debate, not expecting it to be held up for insult and threat and harangued and harassed.”
From independent Web logs to prime-time broadcast, the Stocks were held up as if they were violating the core of nationally shared values. On December 16, KOMO-TV commentator Ken Schramm said, “My Christmas wish for Mr. Stock is that one of his colleagues can fix his back problem—the one resulting from his head being so far up his butt.”
A Web site referred to him as “rabid liberal Sydney Stock, and his other intolerant friends.”
“I think we hit a raw nerve with the Christian Right,” Stock said. “They are currently fighting to bring Christmas trees and prayer back into public schools.”
The tree was not removed from the Bellevue City Hall, but the Stocks knew it would not be when they went to battle. But they believed in the founding principles of this country strongly enough to raise the issue.