U.S. Military on Christian Crusade?

The U.S. Military uses products from many different contractors, foreign and domestic; but a few products from a Michigan contractor, Trijicon, are raising interest. Trijicon supplies our military with telescopic sights; inscribed with Bible verses! The sights, which use radioactive tritium to allow the shooter to see in the dark, are standard issue to U.S. special operations forces.

The inscriptions are included at the end of the stock number; one model carries the inscription "JN8:12" referencing John Chapter 8, Verse 12

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'"

Another model carries the inscription "2COR4:6" (2nd Corinthians Chapter 4, Verse 6)

"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."



Weapons carrying the inscriptions are even being given to Iraqi forces; our military can't even respect the religious freedom of other countries, let alone their own members! In the United States Military, there are laws against proselytizing; not to mention the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution expressly forbids favoritism towards any religion by the government. The military is a part of the government; and equipping our soldiers with weapons bearing religious inscriptions is a blatant violation of the Establishment clause.

Military officials, however, have said that the inscriptions do not violate any laws and they will not stop using the sights. Air Force Maj. John Redfield, the spokesman for the U.S. Central Command said "This situation is not unlike the situation with U.S. currency...Are we going to stop using money because the bills have 'In God We Trust' on them? As long as the sights meet the combat needs of troops, they'll continue to be used."

Yes, this situation is just like the situation with religious mottoes on our currency. Does it favor one religion over another? Yes! Does it violate the Constitution? Yes! Will the sights (and our religion-favoring currency) continue to be used? Yes! Do you know why? Because there's no one to fight it. The military officials don't see any violation, because they're Christian. The government doesn't see any violation, because they're Christian. Our country no longer possesses the ability to enforce its most sacred tenets, because the overwhelming majority of the people, and the government itself doesn't WANT them enforced.

To paraphrase another point from the article, made by Mikey Weinstein from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, what would the reaction be if verses from the Koran were inscribed on our weapons? There would be an uproar. When seen from that perspective, it should become painfully obvious to our government how wrong this is.

What can I do? What can any atheist, secularist, humanist, and 1st Amendment supporter do? Make noise. We are a tiny minority, standing in the face of a Christian populace that wants a theocracy, and a government that isn't far from it. So make noise, my friends. Make noise.

U.S. Military on Christian Crusade?