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 sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers.
"We believe that America is great when its people are good," says the [Trijicon] Web site. "This goodness has been based on Biblical standards throughout our history, and we will strive to follow those morals."
32 comments
Those biblical standards include slaughtering Native Americans at every opportunity, instituting wars of aggression against Mexico and Spain, cheerfully maintaining slavery, fighting against women's right to vote, and supporting Prohibition, the greatest failed social experiment in world history.
Um...considering that many of the Founders were deists and Freemasons, it's probably better to say that it's been based on a syncretic set of ideals, including Christian and Hellenic ones. But not exclusively those.
If Trijicon really believed in that kind of proclamation, they would have "JESUS IS LORD!" stamped in giant bright day-glo letters on all their products.
Instead, they append an abbreviated citation to a Bible verse to the end of a tiny serial number, e.g. "76T483RHH821JN3:16".
Talk about hiding your light under a bushel!
But when Muslims do similar things it's a sure sign of their fanatical delusions, am I right?
Although I do want to meet the person who was anal enough to figure out what the SN was referring to.
Don't do that anymore. You can stamp those things to your consumer products, but not on the ones going to the military. It's just bad PR for everyone involved. Next time, stamp "555-BOOMHEADSHOT" on them.
"We believe that America is great when its people are good," says the [Trijicon] Web site. "This goodness has been based on Biblical standards throughout our history, and we will strive to follow those morals."
Unless that was immediately followed by a statement that Trijicon was switching over exclusively to the manufacture of ploughshares, you're a hypocrite.
Goodness based on Biblical standards:
-Slavery is A-OK.
a) If the USA is trying to avoid giving creedence to allegations of a 'Christian Crusade' against Islam this is a spectacularly dumb thing to do.
b) My understanding was that these sights were also on rifles being supplied to Iraqi and Afghan soldiers, who are predominately Muslim.
One of the triggers for the Indian Mutiny of 1857 was the rumor that ammunition for rifles was greased with beef or pork fat, this was a major issue for Muslim or Hindu troops when the cartridges had to be bitten open.
Which ever way you look at this it is sheer stupidity.
It's good to murder innocent women and children in order to protect America's interests in oil way of life? o_O
@1112236: They may be a private company (and they can stamp whatever they want on their stuff for the general public) but they're fulfilling government contracts and supplying rifles which are being used in a government war. Therefore: keep jebus out of the Middle East.
@#1112236
I think the first amendment problem is that the government are buying from this private company.
Like, its fine for a company to make christian cross tombstones only but not for the government to buy them and make all soldiers have them.
I don't have a problem with gun manufacturers putting bible verses on rifle sights, as long as they inform consumers ahead of time. The U.S. government, since it is supposed to be secular, should refrain from buying these sights. The company can then either kiss their profits good-bye, or start manufacturing sights without bible verses on them for sale to the U.S. government.
I do have a problem, however, with the hypocrisy of using Jesus' words (ie, the Prince of Peace) on tools who's sole purpose is murder.
New Zealand has now banned those sights, especially for their own armed forces' armaments. No doubt others will follow their example.
Can you say 'P.R. disaster', Trijicon?
Unless you're prepared to 'turn your swords into ploughshares', and obey the 6th Commandment, I suggest you remove all references to religion from not just your products, but your company as a whole.
You cannot worship God and Mammon both after all. Now what's it to be, profits or God, profits or God...?
Within the first year of the war, news of atrocities by U.S. forces, the torching of villages, the killing of prisoners began to appear in American newspapers. Soldiers, in their letters home, wrote about extreme violence against Filipinos, alongside complaints about the weather, the food, and their officers; and some of these letters were published in home-town newspapers. A letter by A. F. Miller, of the 32nd Volunteer Infantry Regiment, published in the Omaha World-Herald in May, 1900, told of how Miller's unit uncovered hidden weapons by subjecting a prisoner to what he and others called the "water cure." "Now, this is the way we give them the water cure," he explained. "Lay them on their backs, a man standing on each hand and each foot, then put a round stick in the mouth and pour a pail of water in the mouth and nose, and if they don't give up pour in another pail. They swell up like toads. I'll tell you it is a terrible torture."
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/25/080225fa_fact_kramer
These actions were taken against an ally who helped the U.S. fight the Spanish and then elected a democratic government, which America then wiped out.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
To post a comment, you'll need to Sign in or Register . Making an account also allows you to claim credit for submitting quotes, and to vote on quotes and comments. You don't even need to give us your email address.
