Man complains about Buddhas at Kansas City Zoo
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Zoo gets a complaint about Buddha statues in an Asian-themed area.
David Engle, of the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kan., complained after visiting the zoo on Sunday. He says it’s “phenomenal to me” that the zoo would put up two smiling statues of Buddha when “We can’t have a cross or a nativity scene on public property.”
Engle, who says he is Christian, called the statues idolatry and “infuriating to God.”
Buddha is the name ascribed to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism.
Zoo Director Randy Wisthoff says he has never heard complaints about the statues before.
He said they were bought a few years ago, along with concrete pagodas and a terra cotta warrior, to provide an Asian theme for the zoo’s Tiger Trail.
He plans to discuss the complaint with the zoo’s board.
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Information from: The Kansas City Star,
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