Here is an interesting e-mail I just received. Apparently ABC News just “discovered” super secret Jesus Bible code on some of our military equipment. From the article:
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.
The Michigan company, as you can guess, is Trijicon. Trijicon has been putting Bible verse references on their equipment from day one as far as I know. But of course according ABC News this is some great pushing of Christianity. Oh but this is classic:
“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.”
I call bullshit.
This entire thing is stupid. First of all this isn’t some mysterious “Bible code” it’s printed in plain sight. It’s always been there and Trijicon has never been shy about it. Second I doubt any enemy combatants can see that tiny print while they’re being shot at and hence aren’t going to know they were shot by a “Jesus gun.” Those of us big into guns have known about this for a long time meanwhile ABC News reports this as if they discovered it and it’s some kind of grand conspiracy.
Don’t like the fact that Bible versus are printed on your optic equipment? Here are two options. First file it off. Second buy something else. I understand military personnel generally don’t have a choice in the equipment they are issued but for us private citizens it’s a right we enjoy, voting with our dollar. If you’re in the military and it offends you so dearly that your equipment has a Bible verse printed on it realize you probably have other equipment with similar “secret” markings.
This isn’t a separation of church and state issue. This is an issue of a private company making a product. It’s not military officials making soldiers pray to a Christian god, or forcing soldiers to carry a copy of the Catholic Bible. It’s some markings on a gun put there by the manufacturer because the founder believes in Christianity. Quite a few companies do things like this.
Being too poor to afford one, I never noticed, and not being Christian, I likely would never have cared.
In light of those, I had to look it up. I saw “JN8:12” a bit of googling brought up this:
“I am the light of this world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life”
The way I take that, in a military sense, is a rather inspiring way to remind our servicemen and women to take care of their comrades and those who rely upon them.
ABC hate mongering, that’s all it is.
Chris,
You are absolutely right about this.
My two (3) cents
1. Trijicon’s founder decided to engrave his product with neat little references to scripture, most of which refer to light. This to me is clever because we informed gun enthusiasts know that Trijicon’s ACOG uses a fiber-optic sunlight reticle illuminator. One may see a bit of symbolism here. Also, this inscription, for example would read “ACOG4X32JN8:12” in black, raised lettering on the under-inside portion of the scope shell. Who in the heck reading that would think that it refers to the bible? How can it be proselytizing when the message is basically invisible? There are two other locations on the scope that indicate the model number. This inscription looks like a factory cast reference system of some kind. Something that the factory uses, not the end user. It’s meaning is nowhere clearly explained, not even in the product manual.
2. Trijicon now produces some of the highest grade weapon optics in the world. They have been awarded numerous government contracts BECAUSE OF THE MERIT OF THEIR PRODUCT! The ACOG is simply the best optic in its class for the role it plays in our armed forces. Would ABC rather the Army and Marines to have gone with an inferior product, resulting in even more risk to our soldiers? They must be also aware that the US doesn’t manufacture it’s own military optics or guns, right?
3. The inscription that “encodes” the references is so discrete that it went unnoticed throughout the acquisition process within multiple government agencies. If there is any kind of conspiracy, wouldn’t some government big-wig first have to gain knowledge over it’s existence and then decide to create a conspiracy? The military spokespeople have already said the first time they became aware of the inscription was the same time as their inquiry.
For the record, I’m an atheist and firearm enthusiast.