On Friday, a Michigan-based supplier of advanced optical gun sights for use on military weapons announced that it was discontinuing its practice of engraving the side of the sights with references to the chapter and verse of scriptures from the New Testament.

Given the timing of the decision, it stands to reason that the primary impetus for this policy shift began with the backlash brought on after reports of the sights thus engraved were published by abcnews.com earlier in the week. 

According to the series of reports, Trijicon was recently awarded a $660 million multi-year contract to provide the United States armed forces with the high-tech sights and to date had delivered hundreds of thousands of them. The Bible-verse quoting sights were being used by soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not only American soldiers and Marines were issued the sights, however, for Trijicon had delivered thousands of its Advanced Combat Optical Gunsights (ACOG) to the armed forces of the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. 

In the days following the first abcnews.com article, complaints from predictable corners began bellowing. First there was the Muslim Public Affairs Council, followed by the Council on Islamic-American Relations. Both groups expressed outrage that guns engraved with messages about Jesus were being used to kill Muslims. Such a practice, they claimed, would encourage the view shared by many Muslims that the armies of the West were no more than modern-day crusaders and not the liberators they claim to be. Apparently, even the passive buttressing of this opinion by the inclusion of coded references to verses of the bible engraved in tiny script on the side of a scope on a high-powered weapon that would be unlikely to ever be seen much less understood by an enemy combatant would so enrage and embolden the foe, so as to greatly increase the danger faced by the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

A familiar gadfly buzzing around anything with even a whiff of religion mixed with military is the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Although a spokesman for the group, Michael Weinstein, claims that many of its active-duty members have complained to commanders about the inclusion of the bible verses on its materiel, there is nothing in the news archives on the organization’s website that would reveal any such outcry. 

In a statement that is so melodramatic that it comes across as farcical, Weinstein calls Trijicon’s scripture engravings unconstitutional and warns that use of the engraved sights “allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they're being shot by Jesus rifles.” Curiously, Weinstein doesn’t similarly decry the undeniable fact that all of the rifles (and probably the very computer he used to compose the press release) were purchased with money inscribed with the words “In God We Trust.” 

Beyond the band of usual suspects, on Monday an influential voice joined the chorus of condemnation — General David Petraeus, the commanding general of United States Central Command, the unit in charge of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Friday morning, General Petraeus addressed the Institute for the Study of War, a D.C.-based think-tank wherein he described Trijicon’s policy of engraving weapons with bible verses as “disturbing” and “a serious concern.” He assured the audience that the bigwigs at the Department of Defense had “considerable discussions” with the sight makers. 

Within hours of Petraeus’s public denouncement, Trijicon’s President and CEO, Stephen Bindon, released a statement announcing the removal of the references from all future sights and the delivery of hundreds of kits for the removal of engraved sights already in use in the field. "Trijicon has proudly served the U.S. military for more than two decades, and our decision to offer to voluntarily remove these references is both prudent and appropriate," reads the press release. Bindon goes on in the letter to thank the Department of Defense for its patience and reassures its biggest benefactor that the removal kits are being sent out posthaste. 

For its part, the Pentagon predictably praised Trijicon for its timely and “voluntary” capitulation that thus quelled the controversy. Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell reminded the world that it was not the “policy of the Department of Defense to put religious references of any kind on its equipment.” 

However, it is still the policy of the Treasury Department to put religious references on our money. Thank heaven.

Photo: AP Images

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Lohman said:

... I’m not sure if any of you know, but Trijicon doesn’t just make regular rifle scopes or weapon sights. They make lighted scopes and sights. Trijicon uses Tritium (a radioactive isotope of hydrogen) and phosphorus to generate light so that the crosshairs or sighting points are illuminated. No batteries to go dead, no switches to turn on, or get jammed, or forget to turn off. The illumination is always on, always there, always ready. Did you read the bible passages that are coded onto the weapon sights? They all speak to “the light”, or “lighting the path”. Tritium has a half life of 12.32 years. Over 12 years the light inside the scope gets half as bright as it was at the start, but if you understand that cutting something in half means you will never actually run out, the light inside the scope will last forever… I think it must be some kind of inside joke at Trijicon… Their sights and scopes contain “eternal light”. Be careful assuming that the reason for the inscription is some kind of establishment of religion, sounds like the engineers are just attempting to be clever.

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January 22, 2010 | url
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mike kobit said:

	... to the weinstiens of the world.. until you experience combat and the fear that it brings or the fact that at "that" moment you will pray to any god to keep you alive... shut the f*&^% up and try to find something useful to do with your lifes
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January 22, 2010
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Chip Herman said:

	Izzie Flak There is undoubtedly some Izzie gunsight manufacturer that Weinstein is flakking for, hoping Congress will set them up with a thick hot slice of $130,000,000,000 a year GW0T pie.
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January 22, 2010
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The Griggs said:

	Taking the Lord's Name in vain The real obscenity here, of course, is the use to which those rifles are put -- armed aggression by the government ruling us in an illegal, undeclared war against people who never harmed or threatened us. The New American consistently omits mention of such facts, a curious oversight for a publication purportedly devoted to defending the Constitution.
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January 22, 2010 | url
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Flu-Bird said:

	Just as long Just as long as some liberal hack dont want stupid laws or CHINA and RUSSIA dont decide it should be part of some idiotic treaty
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January 22, 2010
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Forklift Cherry said:

	Another move toward Gaia Another carefully planned media fragment to help convince the massess that religion is deceitful and problematic, so that all religions may be blended into one and replaced with the new repressive religion of world government -- the Gaia eco-green religion. Find the details with the UN's Agenda 21 plan.
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January 25, 2010
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