Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.
At the end of the serial number on Trijicon's ACOG gun sight, you can read "JN8:12", a reference to...
(ABC News)
The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.
U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.
One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: "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."
Other references include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as "the light of the world." John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions "have always been there" and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is "not Christian." The company has said the practice began under its founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian from South Africa who was killed in a 2003 plane crash.
The company's vision is described on its Web site: "Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom."
"We believe that America is great when its people are good," says the Web site. "This goodness has been based on Biblical standards throughout our history, and we will strive to follow those morals."
Spokespeople for the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps both said their services were unaware of the biblical markings. They said officials were discussing what steps, if any, to take in the wake of the ABCNews.com report. It is not known how many Trijicon sights are currently in use by the U.S. military.
The biblical references appear in the same type font and size as the model numbers on the company's Advanced Combat Optical Guides, called the ACOG.
A photo on a Department of Defense Web site shows Iraqi soldiers being trained by U.S. troops with a rifle equipped with the bible-coded sights.
"It's wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws," said Michael "Mikey" Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group that seeks to preserve the separation of church and state in the military.
"It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they're being shot by Jesus rifles," he said.
Weinstein, an attorney and former Air Force officer, said many members of his group who currently serve in the military have complained about the markings on the sights. He also claims they've told him that commanders have referred to weapons with the sights as "spiritually transformed firearm[s] of Jesus Christ."
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He said coded biblical inscriptions play into the hands of "those who are calling this a Crusade."
According to a government contracting watchdog group, fedspending.org, Trijicon had more than $100 million in government contracts in fiscal year 2008. The Michigan company won a $33 million Pentagon contract in July, 2009 for a new machine gun optic, according to Defense Industry Daily. The company's earnings from the U.S. military jumped significantly after 2005, when it won a $660 million long-term contract to supply the Marine Corps with sights.
"This is probably the best example of violation of the separation of church and state in this country," said Weinstein. "It's literally pushing fundamentalist Christianity at the point of a gun against the people that we're fighting. We're emboldening an enemy."
Wrinkles Graduate Thinker
Joined: Mar 03, 2004
Posts: 862
Location: Canada eh!
Evangelical christianity is were most of these quacks come from, The apocalypticists who believe in some upcoming anti Christ and have been now identifying Islam as the agency of Satan's vicar ever since the soviet union went kaput.
Wrinkles Graduate Thinker
Joined: Mar 03, 2004
Posts: 862
Location: Canada eh!
Posted:
Thu Jan 21, 2010 7:44 pm
apparently the company that makes these scopes has now said that they will no longer put the codes on the sights and are offering the military a means of removing the offensive inscriptions.
This is good...... but I would like to see some sort of apology
Joined: Nov 14, 2002
Posts: 5693
Location: Planet Earth
Posted:
Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:04 am
Wrinkles quote wrote:
The company's vision is described on its Web site: "Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom."
Holy shit... I could have some fun with this. Something like this...
"Guided by our values, we endeavor to produce products specifically designed to completely fuck up a large percentage of the people who disagree with us. "
Given its latest trend at preemptivism, this seems like the new American crusades to me.
Wrinkles Graduate Thinker
Joined: Mar 03, 2004
Posts: 862
Location: Canada eh!
"So... now that it's not only "not Christian" groups that are raising the point, Trijicon seems to be willing to compromise on their company's vision and values. Does this mean that the people at the Pentagon are not "good", or that they (Trijicon) no longer "strive to follow [their] morals"? And if they are no longer doing that, then should we be purchasing from them?
Or can we say that - just like a corporation that see their path to filthy lucre about to be closes - suddenly realize that their values are just silly little things that they can always just throw aside? Of course, tying your morals to the supposedly eternal and supposedly inerrant morals and TROOFs in the Bible means that this 180 turn-around is just another hilarious example of hubris brought down.
Now, a smart person in the company has probably already realized that the company can sell (for a premium) these Bible-verse scopes to anti-government Christian-crazy gun owners."
_________________ Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. - Cardinal Wolsey
tibre Newbie
Joined: Jan 05, 2010
Posts: 18
Posted:
Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:05 pm
Its shocking how religion gets used by all sides to kill people.
At first I thought this report about Jesus on guns was fake. I had only read a few blogs...eg
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