HIGH-powered rifle sights, provided to the US military by a Michigan company, are supplied complete with biblical references, an ABC News investigation has found.
Trijicon has won awards for its Jesus sights
The inscribed scopes, made by “Christian values” company Trijicon – motto: Brilliant Aiming Solutions – are used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers.
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 US Army.
US military rules specifically prohibit the proselytising of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the US was embarked on a religious “crusade” in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.
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’s wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws. It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they’re being shot by Jesus rifles.
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.
Weinstein added:
This is probably the best example of violation of the separation of church and state in this country. It’s literally pushing fundamentalist Christianity at the point of a gun against the people that we’re fighting. We’re emboldening an enemy.
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 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. This goodness has been based on Biblical standards throughout our history, and we will strive to follow those morals.
Spokespeople for the US 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 US military.
Hat Tip: Alan H
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
January 19th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
So, Trijicon is striving to uphold the moral standards of the bible by giving people ever-more sophisticated ways to kill and maim others who don’t agree with their beliefs. What a loving, caring, heart-warming religion christianity is.
January 19th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Ha ha! Jesus Rifles. Awesome – As long as they are accurate – you could always file the bullshit writing off them.
January 19th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
I wonder how this news will go down in the Muslim world and what kind of reactions will follow. I wouldn’t like to be in the shoes of any Western soldier in Iraq of Afghanistan.
January 19th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Did others see Jane Corbin’s postponed Panorama report on the “settlements” in East Jerusalem last night? The reason I ask is that the settler organization has been given responsibility for the archaeological sites in the area (and just how the archaeologist managed to keep a straight face when telling her that “No Arab remains from the past 2,000 years have been found” I shall never know!), and Israeli soldiers are being given conducted tours of these “Jewish” sites to “show them what they are fighting for” (those were his precise words!). But – surprise, surprise – it turns out that this organization, which is turning Palestinians out of their legally owned homes on the idiotic premise that they once belonged to Jewish families, is funded annually with tens of millions of dollars from American Jews and fundamentalist Christians!!
January 19th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.....59082.html
January 19th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
I think I may have posted this several months ago, but it goes with my comment which has now disappeared!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/pro.....232340.stm
January 19th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this one!
http://www.clothing4christ.com/products.asp?cat=53
January 19th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Or this – but you can all click onto links for yourselves, can’t you?
http://www.clothing4christ.com/products.asp?cat=31
January 19th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
BTW The Panorama report is repeated on Thursday night at 12.25 am.
January 19th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
They always go on about the islamic killers and bombers.
Sorry read history-I know what the xtians are just as capable of if they gain power. This article just shows how the ‘violent’ nature is just submerged a little and hidden.
Beware of the JHIX (jews-hindu-xtian-islam) they are ALL capable of extreme violence and will gladly aid in it.
January 19th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Divine ordinance has been around for some time
… And the Lord spake, saying, “First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceedest on to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.
Amen.
January 19th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Nice one, rog.
I note that none of these holy rifle sites refer to hippy liberal Jesus saying things like ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’.
Though of course he may have been referring to mass production of the Colt Peacemaker…
January 19th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
@valdemar If the meek are really going to inherit the earth, it stands to reason, that they need all of the high-tech destructive weaponry that they can muster…
January 19th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
@barriejohn You can’t possibly be suggesting that the Israelis are not gods chosen people & might possibly have no divine right to those lands…
January 19th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
I think this is the clearest example that the current wars are really just about Christians against the Muslims. These are Modern day crusades and I want nothing to do with it.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Thanks for putting me right there, Rog, I didn’t know that! But I’m really worried now that that odious little creep from the settlement agency is going to discover that my present property was once owned by a Jewish family!! (Anyone got a spare bedroom?)
January 19th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Trijicon has been supplying these scopes to U.S. law enforcement agencies and military, long before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’d even wager that the Taliban has more than few of these in their hands, to kill Christian soldiers with Jesus-grade precision! To link some crazy markings by a Bible-freak to U.S. foreign and military policy, bone-headed as they might have been, however, is a non-sequitor. Why should we care if some thugs in Wazirstan were to think so?
Look, church-state relationship in the U.S. is not separated by the idealized Jefferson’s Wall – hardly. At best, it’s a chain link fence, with plenty of holes for the Bible blabber to flow back and forth from both sides. Having said that, I’d prefer that any day to the totalitarian regimes of the mullahs, by the mullahs, for the mullahs. If the Jesus-scopes that serve the purpose of keeping Islam and Shariah at bay [and a few terrorist planes from exploding through my office building as a bonus] turn out to be unconstitutional, I am perfectly willing to pay that cost.
January 19th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Hmmm…but it IS rather symbolic, isn’t it “Rational Fool”? I mean, if the American military really do believe that they are on a “Crusade” to wipe out Islam then we’re all in the shit much deeper than we thought we were!
January 19th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Well said rational fool. Too many atheists buy into the whole equality myth, cultural relativism etc… About time these left wingers grew some balls and fight for your rights rather than expect nu liebour to save their chickenshit yellow arses( aint gonna happen, there aint no divine justice, there’s just us)! Grow some balls, other than your left wing bullshit your ok people.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Five Steps To Tyranny: http://video.google.com/videop.....551858132#
Be careful what you wish for
January 19th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Re: equivalence between Taliban and Xian fundies – it’s a good parallel to draw. I hope Americans don’t learn this the hard way – via, say, a bloody coup attempt against Obama, which some wingnuts have been mulling over.
Remember, US officers are referring to:
Spiritually transformed firearm[s] of Jesus Christ.
Gosh, whose crazy rhetoric does that remind us of?
January 19th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Read what Mikey Weinstein has to say about Fort Hood on this page:
http://www.truthout.org/topstories/110509vh09
(It’s at 9:05 p.m.)
January 19th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
@barriejohn
Much has transpired since Weinstein made those remarks on the Fort Hood massacre. For example, “… the effects that religious persecution has on members of the US military, particularly those of minority faiths like Islam. It would absolutely strain credulity to presume that this clearly sick perpetrator’s actions had nothing at all to do with the fact that his faith may possibly have been Islamic.” Weinstein was right. Today, we know that Maj. Hasan’s Islamic faith had much to do with his killing spree. Regrettably, not in the sense Weinstein had meant, though!
None of this, or what I wrote earlier, doubts the existence of Christian fundamentalists and proselytizers in the American military. I am sure that there are some soldiers and officers in the front who really believe that they are on a “Crusade” and are motivated as such. And, I have nothing but scorn for them. Let it not obscure the fact, though, that only in a liberal democracy, such as mine and probably yours, we’ll not only find a Nidal Hasan in the army, but also promoted to a Major despite all his shortcomings. Can you point to me one Bahai or Zoroastrian Major in the Iranian Army, leave alone a Christian or a Jewish one?
Btw, wiping out Islam – the religion, not its followers – cannot be such a bad thing, can it? We’ll have one fewer religions to wipe out
January 20th, 2010 at 1:20 am
@The Rational Fool: “wiping out Islam – the religion, not its followers – cannot be such a bad thing, can it? We’ll have one fewer religions to wipe out”
I’ve heard it said that a lot of people are quite attached to Islam; it might be overreaching to expect all of them to give it up any time soon.
January 20th, 2010 at 2:27 am
@rog
If not, what’s point of writing and commenting on the free thinker, eh?
“Imagine there’s no religion… they say I’m a dreamer…”. Besides, it didn’t take too long for Apartheid, Nazism, and Stalinism to be wiped out, and I remain hopeful
January 20th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
“I note that none of these holy rifle sites refer to hippy liberal Jesus saying things like ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’.”
Nah, rog, it was blessed are the cheesemakers.
January 20th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
@Rational Fool – I think you’re a bit premature about writing off Stalinism, given what Putin’s up to.
January 20th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
@Rational Fool; “Wipe out”, that wouldn’t be like ‘liquidate’ would it ? You know as in Kulaks, class enemies that sort of thing. If you can come up with a way of wiping out ideas without wiping out a large number of the people who hold them I will be very surprised.
January 21st, 2010 at 1:00 am
@The Rational Fool
“If not, what’s point of writing and commenting on the free thinker, eh?”
Freethought and liberalism are fragile things that should be cherished; there is a battle going on, one of ideas & ideals. Of course I would prefer a world without religion, however, it is impossible to force a person to think in a way that will always coincide with one’s own point of view – for this I am grateful as it gives humanity hope.
I think that the best efforts of secularism are when it works towards removing religion’s dubious place in public life, thereby giving the next generation the chance to grow without the impedance of individuals empowered by the state who give more credibility to the supernatural than observed reality.
If slow and steady progress is the best that we can hope for in our own country, it strains the imagination to think that Islamic nations will cease to follow their current ideologies in our lifetimes; only after many years of struggle and after the spilling of much blood of the people who reside there are they likely to see a change.
From my own perspective I believe that our government should treat organised religions with an even hand, even if that hand winds up as a slap in the face; but, as for demonising one section of society who, on the whole, are non-violent: I do not hold with it – it goes against the hard fought liberties that I [and I sincerely hope, you] hold dear.
January 21st, 2010 at 3:38 am
@Thornavis
]
Do you think that the only way of wiping out the idea of creationism, and supplanting it with evolution, is to kill everyone who believed in the former? If humanity had thought so about every crazy idea that was held dearly by one and all, we’d still be burning witches at the stake! [I know, I know, some still do in Uganda
@rog
“… as for demonising one section of society who, on the whole, are non-violent…”
I am mostly in agreement with the sentiments that you have expressed in your comment. Believe me, I am not for demonizing Muslims, who, I know quite well, come in all different hues — refuseniks to moderates to fundamentalists. Let us not conflate repudiation of ideas with “demonizing” people, though. As Johan Hari wrote here, “All people deserve respect, but not all ideas do.”
The idea of punishment by death to the non-believers, the blasphemers, and the apostates; the idea that women are inferior to men, forever to be oppressed and subjugated; the idea that stoning 13-year olds to death is okay in the name of “honor”; and above all, the idea that these arcane ideas are the laws of Allah, and therefore unchallengeable, are demonic. Not the people who voluntarily, are brainwashed, or are forced into buying these ideas. The religion that holds these ideas in the highest reverence deserves the utmost scorn, and belongs to the “ash heap of history”, to borrow Ronald Reagan’s phrase. Not the pedestal of special protection and immunity that the politically correct are wont to accord them.
January 21st, 2010 at 4:25 pm
The Rational Fool: No I don’t think anything of the sort, I was suggesting that talk of ‘wiping out’ is dangerous. It’s questionable enough when the battle is, so far, only one of words as with ceationism but when you talk of wiping out Islam as an idea whilst we are already in armed conflict with parts of the Muslim world it becomes positively hair raising, I think rog has it right. Stop killing Bin Laden with your mouth before you get carried away would be my advice.
January 21st, 2010 at 6:49 pm
@Thornavis
… dangerous … we are already in armed conflict with parts of the Muslim world… positively hair rising … Stop killing Bin Laden with your mouth before you get carried away would be my advice.
Sane advice. Thanks, I’ll tone down the rhetoric. Sadly, though, such fears led to the silencing of free speech at Index on Censorship, Yale University …