It seems that with the onset of the post-9-11 era, and Muslims in American Christians' sights – a near Crusade mentality has taken hold. A lot of this can be traced to reckless policies and wanton war mongering, as well as defense department infiltrations by extremist Christians - that occurred in the Dubya administration.
Five years ago even, atheists and free thinkers at the Air Force Academy – talking about the first year "hoolies"- were almost totally isolated and forced to regularly run a gauntlet called “the Heathen’s Run”. In that gauntlet the atheist cadets were forced to race between two lines of twenty bible-toting zealots who banged the hapless victims into submission with their “good Books”. By the end of it many had been clobbered on the head, and suffered black eyes and bruises. In addition, to add insult to injury, the Christian Fundie cadets were allowed to go off campus to attend events next door at Focus on the Family, while atheists were denied similar freedoms.
This nonsense stopped once former cadet Mickey Weinstein filed suit against the AFA, as his (Jewish) son also had to endure this abuse meted out by the goodly “loving Christians”. A prolonged court battle ensued and the AFA promised to change its ways, and leaders. At least now, AFA members can not only go off campus to free thought meetings, but also have special guests (such as Christopher Hitchens) give guest appearances.
Most recently, the latest outrage that has come to light is that a defense contractor, Trijicon of Wixom, Michigan- has been manufacturing rifle sights with Bible quotatons inscripted on them! Has no one ever taught these ignorant yahoos about the separation of Church and state? Seems not.
ABC News first broke the news that Trijicon, a weapons manufacturer with a $660 million contract for 800,000 sights for the Marine Corps, inscribes all of its sights with codes, such as “JN8:12,” that refer to scriptures in the books of Revelation, Matthew and John.
In the above example, JN8:12 refers to John 8:12:
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”.
This offal was actually imprinted on the Advanced Combat Optical gunsight- which is standard issue to most U.S. operations forces.
Meanwhile, the Trijicon Reflex sight was imprinted with “2COR4:6”
A reference to the second part of a letter by Paul to the Corinthians:
“For God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”
Even more inflammatory than the manufacturer’s transgressions is that the Defense dept. actually features photos on its web site showing Iraqi forces training with the inscribed sights.
Make no mistake that this is an abomination. Not only should those DoD photos come down forthwith, but all the rifles bearing the inscriptions need to have them burnt off in place. Thousands of directed, mini-blow torches could do the job and it shouldn’t take overly long. One thing for sure, we can’t have any rifles bearing these inscriptions anywhere in the field. Once they fall into the wrong hand they will certainly be used as recruitment fodder to gather millions into a new “Crusade” – since the inscriptions would clearly show a crusade of Christian U.S. vs. Islamic world is what it’s all about. As Dumbya once asserted”
“Y’er either with us or agin’ us”
Mikey Weinstein, President of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation who also took on the AFA's abuses against non-Christians- correctly opined that any of these sights would give the Taliban or other enemy forces a perfect propaganda tool. That “American Christian troops are invading Muslm countries”
Meanwhile, even the most conservative newspaper in Colorado – The Colorado Springs Gazette – has come out against the inscriptions in its latest editorial. As they put it:
“To protect the integrity of any religion, the First Amendment precludes government from establishing one as more important than others.. That’s why United States Marines should not be issued rifle scopes inscribed with Bible verses…. . American warriors with high powered rifles are government force in its purest form. They should be defending religious freedom, not the scriptures of one religion…”
I couldn’t agree more, and do hope this national travesty and outrage is soon corrected, as it slurs and slanders (even indirectly) all non-Christians who trust their government is not conducting a hidden crusade and imperiling our long term security.
1 comment:
Jeez, copernicus where do you pick up these folks who make comments no on one can read?
Anyway, I just saw on the news today that the New Zealand Defence Forces have ordered all their rifles (which they got from the U.S.) purged of these incriptions and no more to be sent. The Brits are considering the same as well as other allies in Afghanistan.
It was a stupid thing to do. Even worse because the inscriptions violate the manufacturing contract which clearly state NO other information is to be applied except the serial number.
This country is really getting out of control with these Xtians - just look at your brother who's going ape shit with his anti-atheist screeds because he knows he can't combat the simplest logical arguments!
Pathetic!
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