Shoot Straight! Get a Bead on a Muslim With a Jesus Rifle Scope!
Washington » ABC News is reporting that some U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are using high-powered rifle sights containing coded references to New Testament passages, including these words attributed to Jesus in John 8:12: “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
G.I. Jesus? Imagine the uproar in Congress if it was reported that U.S. soldiers were using rifles encoded with references to the Koran. The Joint Chiefs would be falling over themselves to rid the military of the rifle sights and the Michigan contractor who produced them. Rush Limbaugh would be apoplectic. Glenn Beck would be weeping.
U.S. soldiers can scratch or paint whatever scripture references they like on their own weapons, but these U.S.-issue, Bible-cite sights (cleverly added to the serial numbers) would seem to violate U.S. military rules against proselytizing. Don’t they also violate the unconditionally loving spirit of the New Testament? I don’t think weapons of war were what the Prince of Peace had in mind when he talked about giving sight to the blind.
So what was DOD’s reaction to this clear violation of separation of church and state? “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.”
Not good enough, says Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance: “The company [Trijicon] should be ashamed of its actions, which do no favor either to the United States military or to Christianity; just the opposite. Messages of life and peace should not be prostituted by placing their imprint on instruments designed for death and war,” Gaddy said in a statement Tuesday. “I call on the Department of Defense to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation of this incident.”
Trijicon, which according to ABC has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, isn’t apologizing for its actions. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, told ABC that the inscriptions “have always been there” and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. 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.
This isn’t the first time the U.S. military has enlisted the help of Jesus and his disciples. As Harper’s magazine’s Jeff Sharlet reported last year, in the early days of the Iraq war, covers of the Pentagon’s “Worldwide Intelligence Updates” contained New Testament quotes, including “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (Ephesians 6:10)”
Another cover from the 2003 “Intelligence Updates,” produced for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and senior Pentagon officials, showed a photo of Saddam Hussein with this quote from the First Epistle of St. Peter: “It is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.”
Are the rifle sights more evidence of the influence of evangelical Christians in the U.S. military? Sharlet reported that there is a “small but powerful movement of Christian soldiers concentrated in the officers corps” who see themselves not as subversives or radicals, but as “spiritual warriors” and “government paid missionaries.”
Regardless of whether the U.S. military knew about the coded Bible references on the gun sights, someone surely knew about Trijicon’s mission, clearly described on its Web site: “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.”
If that’s true, maybe Trijicon’s next batch of rifle sights will include encoded references to these Biblical standards:
“Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44).
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Matthew 5:38-39).
David Waters contributes to the On Faith blog at washingtonpost.com, from which this is adapted.