The US military is increasingly sensitive to associations with events that might be perceived as religious.  While it strives to protect the free exercise rights of its members, it is also cognizant of criticisms of inappropriate interactions between a government institution and religion.

Few times is this more evident than near the end of the year, when the military struggles to support the religious celebrations of its members of varying religions.  In general, there is little chance of offense between the varying religions that share holy days during this season.  The greater possibility, in fact, is that critics of religion will be offended by the military’s support of military members’ religious celebrations.

The military’s handling of these events is not uniform, and there are no official policies on the support of public religious celebrations by military members.  This has led to some interesting contrasts.

For example, military bases traditionally have displays during the “holiday” season, not unlike the White House’s National Christmas tree and Menorah.  Searches for “Air Force Base” and “Christmas tree” show that, in the Air Force at least, there are still a great many military bases that do, in fact, light “Christmas” trees.  However, expanding the search to “holiday tree” reveals that there are also a significant number of bases that have abandoned the “Christmas” tree in favor of a “holiday” tree.

This is greatly ironic for two reasons:  First, at least one liberal organization that normally opposes such incidents has specifically said that it has “no problem” with a Christmas tree being called what it is:  a Christmas tree.

Second, at least some of the military bases that chose the “non-offensive” holiday tree moniker also had base Menorahs.  One wonders why the bases felt the need to “neutralize” a Christmas tree while not requiring a “holiday candelabrum.”

Unfortunately, it is easy to criticize those who are trying to do what they believe to be the right thing in difficult circumstances.  Base and unit commanders are in an awkward position given unpredictable accusations and seemingly contradictory judicial opinions.  In the end, however, there is no military regulation, law, or judicial requirement that military bases neutralize Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, or any other belief system’s celebrations.  (In fact, over-neutralizing religious celebrations can be offensive itself, as the White House found out when it sent out invitations for a Hanukkah celebration that was billed as a “holiday reception.”)

While military commanders may choose to self-censor, there is no direction that they do so.  In fact, one could argue that proudly supporting military members’ free exercise without restriction would be a better means to demonstrate the religious freedom characteristic of the American nation.  Religious freedom in the United States–in which contradictory religions can co-exist without censorship or restriction–is unmatched in any other country in the world.  Such liberties should be celebrated, not stifled in the hopes of preventing offense.