US Army Buddhists Celebrate Vesak at Fort Lewis
An announcement recently circulated for Fort Lewis about the upcoming Vesak day, which
encompasses the birth, the Enlightenment, and the passing away of Gautama Buddha.
The announcement notes the invitation by US Army Chaplain Somya Malasri, who was the Army’s second Buddhist Chaplain.
There are a variety of faiths represented in the US military. Not every one has a Chaplain at every installation, but they are all given the support of the military and its Chaplains to ensure the free exercise of their faith. Likewise, Chaplain Malasri is entitled to advertise and promote his faith’s services, just as Christians can use official channels and materials to announce Easter services or Muslims can Ramadan.
Even that, though, won’t be enough to convince some conspiracy theorists that Christians get special treatment and are trying to take over the world…
Via the Buddhist Military Sangha.
And you know that this flyer was distributed through official command channels to mass distribution mailing lists or something? A commander or someone else OTHER THAN the chaplain’s office sent this out to all their subordinates and “encouraged” them to attend? That’s been the complaint about promotions of Christian events. So I guess you have an email with this flyer showing that it came from the command or something, right? That’s what would make it the same as the Christian event promotions that service members have complained about. So let’s see what you got.
You’re protesting an awful lot for someone unrelated to the article above…unless you’re laying claim to the “conspiracy theorist” title.
Your attempt to discriminate between “command” and “Chaplain” is naïve, given that Department of Defense Instructions say commanders, not Chaplains, are responsible for the protection of free exercise and other “religious affairs.” You’re putting the cart before the horse.
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