Christian Rifles and Crusaders
My list of the dumbest things I’ve heard of has gotten quite long over the years, and I’ve just made a new entry. As I was making my daily scan of the Drudge Report, I came across a headline that I couldn’t pass up. The Drudge link leads to an ABC News report, U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes.
Seems that Trijicon, Inc. makes a specialized sight for military assault rifles. The problem is that on each sight they inscribe a notation for a Bible verse. It’s added to the end of the model number on the sight. The notation on one sight is “2COR4:6,” which means Second Corinthians, Chapter 4, Verse 6. It reads (KJV),
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Trijicon makes no secret of its corporate religious orientation. One of the company’s published values is:
Morality: We believe that America is great when its people are good. This goodness has been based on biblical standards throughout our history and we will strive to follow those morals.
Military spokesmen say the military hadn’t been aware of the markings on the sights. But apparently soldiers knew about it (naturally), and our enemies now know about it if they didn’t before. The Islamist terrorists we’re fighting against, along with millions of other Muslims, have long maintained that what we’re doing is nothing less than a new crusade against Islam, and this revelation will reinforce that wacky view.
To make things worse, the Muslims we’re training and equipping in Iraq and Afghanistan with this piece of equipment now know about it, too. We might do well to look back at the Sepoy Rebellion in India in 1857, where local troops engaged in a bloody revolt against the British because they believed that the cartridges they were issued were greased with fat from cows or pigs. The former possibility offended Hindu troops, the latter Muslims. How are the Muslim police and military we’re training going to react to using “Christian rifles” against other Muslims?
I don’t know what the government is going to do about this, but it would seem logical that they’ll have to stop using this equipment, along with any other items Trijicon may have marked with Bible notations, and replace it with clean equipment. Since the company maintains, probably correctly, that there isn’t anything illegal about what they’ve done and it doesn’t violate their contracts, us taxpayers will probably have to pay. And the cost will be in the high millions.
I don’t have anything against people who choose to believe in one form of religion or another. However, I don’t want religion and government mixed together. Under present circumstances, if we were to continue using equipment marked with Christian references, we might as well just have our soldiers wear white tunics with red crusaders’ crosses on front and back.
(This article was also published at Opinion Forum.)
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Its a weird game to assess in some ways. Theres definitely some good old fashioned fun to be had in it, but poor design choices are prevalent in so many areas of it that it can slightly hard to recommend as such. Maybe the sequel will iron out some of the flaws in Wet in many cases, small tweaks would really improve the overall experience.
Note to Frank, you talk of criticising others, what exactly do you think christianity has been doing for all these centuries.
It doesn’t matter what the message is, it’s wrong to force your beliefs, comments onto someone in such a way that they are made to put up with it, look at it this way, say you were in the military and you were just about to go into battle when someone says hey guys did you know that etched inside every rifle stock there is a quote from the q’ran, how would you like it being forced to have a vital item inscribed with something from a religion different to yours?
By the way, yes I would feel the same regarding “sex, drugs and rock n roll”, or anything else for that matter. Tolerance does not mean force upon, how would you like it if someone carved say “pedophilia rules” on your house would you put that under the same heading? There is a fairly clear line between what is and is not tolerable, ramming down peoples throats or forcing it on them is not.
Thanks for your reply Tom. My intent was to challenge all the anti-Christian commenters to put forth their views on the meaning and purpose of life. Its so easy to criticize others . . .
As for your article, where is the tolerance? Would you feel the same if Trijicon had printed “Sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll” on those weapons?
Thanks for the link, in and of itself it was an interesting article, however what I was trying (albeit badly) to suggest was how religious freedom as guaranteed by the constitution has and is being ignored or stamped upon or altered by todays society in america since 9/11. I know i’m not expressing myself terribly well but I hope that explains it a little better
You might want to read an earlier post, Freedom and Religion.
To Tom Carter, i’m glad to see you write that because ever since 9/11 it seems that most of america has forgotten that right especially when it comes to muslims, I as you can see in the post just above yours have a particular view regarding religions in general, but as I say to see you express the right to religious freedom is refreshing. I think perhaps one of the greatest tragedies of 9/11 is that most people seem to have forgotten that terrorism has existed outside of the usa for a long time, I personally live in the uk and what drove me crazy was the whole ireland situation where you had 2 christian terrorist groups fighting each other over who got ireland, it’s ironically the situation that has prevented the uk from either getting out of ireland or stamping out the problem, mind you since 9/11 most of them have been keeping a low profile. I apologise for my digression here, I am not a talented writer but I wonder if you are perehaps considering an article regarding religious freedom in the usa, I would be most interested to read it, plus I suspect that it would be quite a commented upon article, it makes you wonder which would end up being the most informative, the article or peoples response to it.
Frank, the article does not “dismiss” religion, and it does not take the view that Christianity is “contemptible.” I come from a family of Christians and was raised in that belief system, and I can assure you that I don’t hold my family in contempt or dismiss their beliefs.
The U.S. is not a Christian nation in a formal sense, notwithstanding the fact that most of its citizens profess to be Christians. The Founders were mostly Christian, and that was their moral framework. However, some of the leading Founders were Deists or were heavily influenced by Deist thinking, which is not Christian. These include Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Thomas Paine, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Ethan Allen. The nation they created is supposed to be tolerant and accepting of all religious belief, or none. It does not field armies armed with weapons that carry religious inscriptions, Christian or otherwise. To do so violates the letter and the spirit of the Constitution that our mostly Christian Founders created.
Every statement I made was false, so there was no inquisition? No meeting in the 3rd century to sort out what was and wasn’t in the bible? The 25th of december is christ’s birthday? The earliest writings in the bible regarding jesus aren’t from 40 years after his death? The church doesn’t refuse to release the other writings?
Wow, not only myself, but every single person who has even remotely studied this is wrong, that means innumerable scholars, historians, religious people up to and including many, many popes are all wrong, why, because Frank said so. In regards to freedoms, you mean what exactly, to illustrate this I say look at the differences between california(it’s not wrong to have an affair there) and lets say utah were they’ll go nuts if you support the governent(yes i’m being sarcastic). You talk about the wonderful things that have been done, blah, blah, but tell me is that how you justify for example the hunting down, torturing, mass murder, digging up and burning of the people who were of the cathar religion? you do, how noble, I suppose you also support the decision by the church to ignore the nazi atrocities in exchange for the gold bars that came from the mouths of innocent jews, gypsies, disabled, etc, not to mention of course all that lovely art they got as well. So much of todays societies improvements came about through war ironically not through the church which if it still had it’s way would still be sayingg the world is flat, the earth is the centre of the universe and wouldn’t allow you to learn to read or think for yourself, so frankly don’t talk until you actually educate yourself in regards to the religion you kiss the ring of.
You ask of my views of the meaning of life, o.k son i’ll tell you some of it, first jesus’s view(note, not that of the church) is that we should all get along(something religions will never allow), by this he mean’t that you should always try to help if you can, to treat others the way you want to be treated, to be considerate of the views and practices of others, to look out for your family, to give them what they need(which isn’t necessarily what they want), my list and views go on so i’m not going to do it all, one of the things you clearly don’t get is that a lot of it dates from centuries before you religion came into being not as you seem to think, which appears to be from the moment the bible appeared. Your probably wondering do I beleive in god, the answer is this, I believe that there is some kind of being, deity, power(call it what you will) that is above, around us(whatever), but I don’t have the arrogance that is shown by most if not all religions to presume, A, that I know what it looks like, B, to know what it wants, C, to know what it’s thinking nor do I have the absolute faintest idea whether it’s male, female other or non of them or for that matter what it’s name is(P.S. god is the anglicised word, not the one in the original arameic), I don’t even know whether i’m right or wrong, I do know that i’ll never kneel before any religion that has lied, murdered, distorted, stolen(this list goes on) which basically includes most of them, what I will do is love, protect and care for my family and friends to the best that I can, I allow my family to make their own chioce in regards to religion, when they ask questions I answer fairly, if there are 2(or even 3,4,5,etc) versions or sides I tell them, if I don’t know I tell them I don’t(although I usually find out the answer/s and tell them whatI have learned), whatever “being” created us gave us a brain to use, the blinkers are man made.
Anon. every statement you have made is false including those which you falsely attribute to me! The fact is that you live in a country founded and shaped by Christian beliefs. Your very freedoms are the result of our great Constitution which was written by Christians! Name one civilization that has produced so much freedom and wealth. Name just one that has excelled in the Arts and Sciences or the improvement of life as we know it. You can’t! All you can do is type furiously away at your keyboard–insulting those who disagree with you. I challenged you to produce your views on the meaning of life but all you do is rant. I’m still waiting!?
Certainly, where would you like us to start?
The theft of and incorporation of other, older myths and beliefs, or perhaps the mass murders, maybe the falsification of information. How about the fact that there is hardly any information about jesus that doesn’t start more than 40 years after his death, perhaps the fact that the church has suppressed all other documents from around that time citing them to be heathen, etc, yet refuse to allow anyone outside of the church to see them, would you like me to continue? or perhaps you know better because to “believe” is better than to learn.
Whilst people may have differing views on the meaning of life, it doesn’t mean that we are wrong as it doesn’t mean you are either, however to state that your view is right because it is based on a censored collection of writings is arrogant and insulting both to our intelligence and our freedom to believe and think for ourselves. Get the church to release “ALL” the writings that they have kept hidden from the light of day and allow people to decide for themselves, not just obey what the men of the church hundreds of years ago said they must obey. Simple obedience caused the inquisition, the rise of the nazis, the prevelance of what we call the taliban.
If there is a god, he gave you a brain, use it.
P.S. Have a nice day. :)
May I ask a favor of those critics who airily dismiss a religion that has created and shaped all of Western Civilization for the last 2,000 years. Please tell us your views on the meaning of life so that we contemptible Christians can put aside our silly beliefs. I am holding my breath in anticipation!
Thanks for the info, Tom. I saw this on Yahoo News, but I have such a contempt with how Christianity is practiced these days that I ignore anything related to it, but I was still wondering about that. The separation of church and state is a fundamental concept of our country, even more so than our Bill of Rights because the founders of our nation founded this nation in the first place to escape religious persecution. By allowing our government to mandate all things regarding religion the way they are, we’re negating much of what they fought for.
It was a joke, sorry but I just couldn’t resist
Update: Trijicon has announced that they will stop putting Bible references on military equipment, and they are going to provide the military, free of charge, kits to remove the markings from equipment already in the field.
Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of Central Command, called the practice “disturbing.” He said, “This is a serious concern to me and the other commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012102637.html
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that stupidity is a fundamental part of all religions, although some might deserve the label more than others. What people choose to believe doesn’t bother me, as long as they don’t impose their beliefs on me or try to inject it into government. Marking military equipment with Bible references is wrong on many levels. It shouldn’t have happened, and the company should pay the cost of removing the markings or replacing the equipment. But I won’t hold my breath until they do, whether it’s voluntary or forced.
Stupidity has been a “!fundamental” part of all religions since their beginnings. :)