ABC has a truly bizarre and disturbing story. Brian Ross reports that a military contractor has encoded hidden New Testament Bible passages on high-powered rifle sites. The contractor is Trijicon, which apparently confirmed the practice.
The biblical references appear as, in one case, 2COR4:6 — an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
The company received $660 million under a contract to supply 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps. It has other contracts with the Army.
U.S. regulations prohibits proselytizing of any religion. Moreover, such additions to military equipment should violate the contract which presumably did not ask for biblical citations with gun sights.
The use of biblical citations will only reaffirm the view of many that the U.S. went into Iraq and Afghanistan on a “crusade.” This view was magnified by Bush calling its a crusade and later citing Biblical passages to convince other leaders that this was a worthy, if not divinely ordained, effort. His subordinates appeared to keep Bush in a Biblical mindset by adding prominent quotations from the Bible in reports on the war, here.
In my view, this raises serious legal questions that should result in a review of this contract. As a minimum, the contractor should have to pay for the removal of the citations. We have to able to trust contractors not to carry out their hidden or religious agenda as part of a contract with the American people. Just imagine if these were citation to the Koran. If the company wishes to proselytize it should do so with theocratic governments. Perhaps the Swiss Guards that the Vatican need a few sights and citations.
For the full story, click here.
But thank you for that fine example of the difference between criticizing a specific group of people within a group, and criticizing all of them for the actions of a few.
Its a fine example of how the mocking, ridiculing and condemning of Christianity and Christians in general is different from singling out the corrupt Neoconservative Evangelical Christians who corrupt the gospels and are deserving of our condemnation.
Byron I think 30%er is using one of those high-powered rifle sites with Bible passages. The cross hairs right in the middle of your back.
Byron, you lied.
I said Neoconservatives were bigots and we’ve seen that in their treatment of the Muslim people.
That’s a fact.
I said nothing about conservatives in general.
You lied about that.
And you just got caught.
Hmmm, lets repost the comments and see how “honest” Byron is being.
I write about “NEOCONS”.
Byron then responds by saying this;
“Byron 1, January 21, 2010 at 1:56 pm
30%<:
that was interesting. so as a conservative I am automatically a racist and a bigot? I think it sounds like you are doing what you accuse of others of engaging in."
So we see that Byron took the word "Neoconservative" which defines a radical right wing faction of Conservatism.
Byron however proceeds to replace the word "NEOCON" with "Conservative", which does not mean Neoconservative.
Thus we see Byron lying, using a tactic known as a straw argument (replacing my words with his own to distort my position) to change what I said.
When caught on his dishonest and morally bankrupt tactic, Byron proceeds to try to engage me in a meaning of the two words, implying that what I plainly said must now be interpreted by his dictates.
Its a common tactic used by those without moral integrity throughout blogs across the web.
And we see it is common here.
30%<:
neo-conservative is a red herring as well. Bush and Chenney are not "neo-conservatives" as far as I know they have been republicans all of their lives. David Horowitz is a "neo-conservative" having once been a radical leftist.
I figure you are smearing all of us and make no distinction between war mongering, big spending, big government "conservatives" such as Bush and small government, freemarket, peaceful conservatives such as Goldwater. To you we are all the same.
Go peddle your half truths to someone else.
By the way you guys are in the wrong thread.
I believe the current thread for insulting and slurring the faith of millions is in the “Joan of Arc Relic” thread.
Feel free to go over and add your voices to demonstrate to the world how incredibly tolerant and non prejudiced you people are.
Wow, bdaman. That hurts.
Stop.
**OFF TOPIC
I just had a Big Mac Wrap. It wasn’t bad.
I think 30%er must be Bi-Polar
By leveraging their own lack of moral character.
Or maybe send in another pilot fish from the school like mespo.
They can help conceal your lack of moral character.
Hurry now Byron.
Its time to change the subject by barraging me with more red herrings and diversions.
You need to bury the fact that you just got caught lying.
Unless of course you’d like to present yourself as a NEOconservative.
If not, then you just got caught lying.
I believe the word was “NEOCONSERVATIVE”.
Thanks for once again confirming that you distort and lie.
30%<:
that was interesting. so as a conservative I am automatically a racist and a bigot? I think it sounds like you are doing what you accuse of others of engaging in.
Don’t worry I know the score.
Talk to 30percenter. Lie about him.
Change his words. Change what was said.
Accuse him of “playing the victim” for simply standing up to you.
And then when he offers to leave , come back and lie about him to try to get him to refute it.
So you can then mock him for responding.
Either he allows you to lie and distort his position and paint him as a neocon, or he is criticized for responding.
Its the most dishonest tactic there is.
Well I was leaving Mike. Forgive me to responding to the “last parting shots” tossed my way by people like mespo, who’s low moral character allows him to edit scripture to suit his attacks on the Christian faith.
And forgive me for responding to your last comment. Seems people in here enjoy speaking to someone who has indicated that if there are no further questions or comments that he is leaving, in a clear attempt to elicit a response for the sole purpose that they may then deride them for not leaving. I of course am not accusing you of this but your timing leaves much to be desired.
I did check the blog this afternoon. Of course I did to see the barrage of twists, distortions and outright lies.
I made a comment early on that the words of Jesus were found in the gospels. For that I was jumped on immediately by several of your friends here in an ugly, sarcastic mocking fashion.
Mespo barraged me with a dozen questions. In those questions he edited passages, removing key parts of them in order to make them fit his insults of my faith. Instead of reacting to this, I answered each one of his questions clearly and in great detail.
And his response?
Why to arbitrarily dismiss all of my answers in a single, insulting paragraph calling me names and ignoring all of my detailed answers to his nonsense.
And when I called him on his removal of parts of scriptures to fit his insults on my religion?
He disappeared.
For days.
Only to reappear like a little pilot fish. A parasite looking for scraps of some one elses attacks on me to try to get in one last “kick” and conceal his own moral turpitude in editing passages to insult peoples faith.
He is typical of the knuckle dragging bigots anyone daring to defend their religion from the ignorant and bigoted attacks in these blogs.
You claim its the minority? I beg to differ. This blog alone proves that the majority of bloggers here either condemn people’s faith like bigots, or stand idly by uttering nary a word in defense.
The right wings corrupted our faith you say?
No kidding.
What do you think I’ve spent my time trying to correct people.
I’m not trying to convert anyone. I’m not trying to paint my religion in any favorable light, other than to dismiss the OUTRIGHT LIES people like Mespo, Pitts, Duh and the rest in here who judge us all on the actions of a few.
Do I actually need to once more go back and repost the barrage of insults my one comment about Jesus’s words being in the gospel’s elicited?
Do we really need to come in the day after like this and rewrite the events to make the bigotry in here more palatable?
Mespo is a knuckledragger. A man of extremely low moral character. I stood by while this bigot insulted me and tried to be reasonable. In response I received nothing but more insults to my character, my beliefs and the beliefs of millions.
Look at Pitt and his ugly foul words.
He associates Christians with HITLER.
HITLER!!!
I thought that the argument was over once Hitler was dragged out.
But not in Jonathan Turley’s blog, no sir.
Hitler comparisons to Christians are AOK.
And then he tries to whitewash it later by adding the minor qualification “well not all but many”.
As if that makes likening my parents, my family, the people of my local church and myself to supporters of Adolf Hitler any better.
It does not.
Story books. Fables. A Pox. People who start wars.
Totalitarians.
And this is just the recent comments. I could go back to that first day and provide much more. But apparently you’re content as are the rest to sweep them under the rug with your after the fact revision of the events. I imagine being Jewish, slurs to Christians don’t hit so hard.
Now. Here’s the rub.
I’m not the victim. You are. All of you are. Because you are driving off moderates and independents of the Christian faith in droves. You think I’m making this up? Watch and learn Mike. Watch and learn. Head over to think Progress, or HuffPost, or Daily Kos and watch as anyone expressing any sort of defense against the lambasting of their beliefs is driven out by the mob. Not me. EVERYONE.
If you sit idly back and do not defend your beliefs and merely utter an occasional “nope” then you’re fine. Put some facts out there however, like the only words of Christ are in the 4 gospels, and out come the claws of the screeching gaggle of goons. And none come to defend.
And I ain’t talking about defending my faith Mike. And I ain’t talking about defending me. There isn’t anyone in here I need defense from. The moral wretch calling himself mespo is trying to twist my defense of the FACTS about Christians and the faith, into my “playing the victim”.
I’m not.
Here. Let me say that again.
I”M NOT A VICTIM.
No one has done anything to me other than insult my faith which based on the intellectual level in here thus far means little more than my 5 year old saying “daddy I hate you” when I punish him.
Their taunts and insults don’t hurt me, although I am offended by their hypocritical bigotry. On one hand insulting neoconservatives as bigots (and rightfully so) while ignoring the beam in their own eyes as it were.
You people are supposed to be better.
You people are supposed to be the enlightened.
You people are supposed to be tolerant of other races, creeds, colors and RELIGION.
You are not.
No Christian other than the most timid and submissive would ever find a home here. No Christian other than the one who sits idly by while his faith is mocked, twisted, distorted and dragged through the mud by ignorant bigots who don’t even know anything about the religion they are mocking.
So here I am. Stuck between either allowing the parasites like Mespo who RUN AND HIDE when they get caught editing scripture for their own arguments, to come in and warp everything that was said and twist and distort my positions, …or respond to their late hour lies and allow them to say “SEE, WE THOUGHT YOU WERE LEAVING”.
So given the two I imagine its better to set the record straight and refute the lies of Mespo and his friends Pitt and company, and accept the juvenile 4th grader taunts about my not leaving.
I am leaving.
Just as soon as the liars like mespo and pitt stop distorting what I said, and lying about me as if I’m trying to play the victim and worse, calling me a NEOCON.
I said one thing about the gospels and the words of Christ being in them. For that Mespo and others attacked and insulted me, my character, my beliefs and the beliefs of millions.
Those are the facts.
And I’ll leave when these lying bigots stop distorting my words and rewriting the events.
30% er,
I understood that you were leaving when I wrote my last comment. As a child of the 60’s among my heroes were MLK, a Baptist Minister, The Berrigan Brothers, Catholic Priests and William Sloane coffin and Episcopal Priest. As a Jew, aware of history, I am knowledgeable in the more than 1,700 years of Christian persecution Jews had to deal with, but then I am also aware of the Muslim persecution, the Hellenic persecution and of course the Roman persecution. Knowledge though gives perspective and all of these persecutions either represented Fundamental beliefs unbound, simply expediency on the part of State leaders, or both.
People need to be measured by their actions and beliefs. The problem with people like Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins is that they are as prejudiced as those they decry. They also, having nothing but ridicule for religion, tend to take from it exactly what they expect they’ll find without the moderation that understanding would bring. They indeed are a vocal bunch, but in truth their anxiety has been ramped up by the ugly return of Fundamentalism as a force in all major religions. They unfortunately conflate fundamentalism with the more normative aspects of religion, when in fact fundamentalism in its’ current iterations is a very recent development.
Where you and I disagree is that I think you make too much of those in the progressive/liberal movement who are contemptuous of religion. They are a minority of outspoken people, but by no means represent the movement in its’ entirety. Fundamentalists these days have been so vocal and disruptive to the political system that they make it appear as if they speak for all Christianity/Islam/Hinduism. This causes a counter reaction. I, as a disinterested party as I’ve mentioned, don’t quite see your take on how widespread a thing this is, nor do I see it as a problem for progressivism/liberalism. The problem is that this movement, of which I’m a proud part, has people in it that are every bit as intolerant as their right wing counterparts. This intolerance is not only religious in some cases, but in others is to measure people by one’s personal standard of party line. Those who do that represent a minority of the movement and you’re giving them too much power.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – Biblical citations inscribed on U.S.-manufactured weapon sights used by New Zealand’s troops in Afghanistan will be removed because they are inappropriate and could stoke religious tensions, New Zealand said Thursday.
The inscriptions on products from defense contractor Trijicon of Wixom, Michigan, came to light this week in the U.S. where Army officials said Tuesday they would investigate whether the gun sights—also used by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq—violate U.S. procurement laws.
Australia also said Thursday its military used the sights and was now assessing what to do.
Trijicon said it has had such inscriptions on its products for three decades and has never received complaints about them before. The inscriptions, which don’t include actual text from the Bible, refer numerically to passages from the book.
New Zealand defense force spokesman Maj. Kristian Dunne said Trijicon would be instructed to remove the inscriptions from further orders of the gun sights for New Zealand and the letters would be removed from gun sights already in use by troops.
Stephen Pitt
He gave you the old “burying the posts” treatment I see.