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Jesus in Afghanistan?
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February 8, 2010 • Andrew Locklair
Filed under Perspectives, The World at Large
It has recently been discovered that U.S. Military weapons have a mark of Christ. Well, not the weapons. Just the scopes. And it’s not really a mark it’s just a clever little reference on a sight. The company that provides these particular sights is known as Trijicon. The company uses little references to the Bible printed onto the equipment such as JN8:12. This refers to John 8:12 which reads “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,’” from the King James version of the Bible. Another reference is 2COR4:6, or Second Corinthians 4:6, “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.”
Certain Muslims feel that this is an attack against their faith and that this strongly supports the idea that America is more interested in fighting a religious “crusade” instead of a war against terrorism. Muslims have refered to these as “Jesus Rifles,” and Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, fears these gun sights could give terrorist oganizations a tool for propaganda. The propaganda would insinuate that America’s entire purpose for fighting is to abolish the Muslim way of life and replace the culture with Christian ideals. On January 20, the Muslim Public Affairs Council commented that the references, “feed into the violent extremists’ narrative that the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are a ‘crusade against Islam,’” on their website.
Air Force Maj. John Redfield says, “This situation is not unlike the situation with U.S. currency. Are we foing 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.” This is an excellent point. Many pieces of American culture involve religious references. Our own currency is just one example of many. There’s also the fact that every school day begins by uttering “One Nation Under God,” or that most political opinions are solely based on whether or not something is religiously acceptable. It’s hard for Christians to understand how it feels to be actually persecuted when 78.4% of Americans are, in fact, Christains (according to a U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum). But this doesn’t appear to be an attack on any particular religion. If the military is trying to attack religion then they are doing a terrible job at it. Plus, the American Military has a policy that requires them from attacking any religious monument or anyone inside a religious monument.
Part of the issue is that these scopes are already in use. They are even used to train the Iraqi and Afghani Military. Some consider this a slap in the face to have an almost unanimous Muslim population use equipment with a reference to Jesus. ABC News documentary filmmaker Brian Hughes went over to Afghanistan two years ago and feels that the military has motives to promote Christianity in the middle east. He reports that he has seen boxes of New testament Bibles printed in the Afghan language. This is an excellent point. General Order Number 1 restricts an “Proselytizing of any religion, faith, or practice,” (General Order Number 1, 3.l).
However, one of his arguments that the military is pushing Christianity is a recording of LTC Gary Hensley, a U.S. Army Chaplain, giving a sermon to troops. The sermon sounds fairly provocative, saying things like, “You know those special forces guys – they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, too. We hunt people for Jesus. We hunt them down. We get the hound of heaven after them. So we get them in the kingdom. Right? Thats’s what we do right? That’s our business.” ABC News shows this segment of the Chaplain’s sermon with the implication that it is a rally for Christians. What ABC News fails to mention is that it is The LTV Gary Hensley’s job to perform sermons for soldiers and that none of the troops are at all forced to attend these sermons. OR that most sermons involve Christians reaching out to other people with a religious intent.
The U.S. Marine Corps purchased a multiple year contract that costs 660 million dollars and provides 800,000 sights. In addition to the U.S. Military these scopes have also been purchased by the Australian, New Zealand, and British Militaries. The scopes use a radioactive form of hydrogen called tritium to create more light to help the shooter find targets. In light of this, the references to the Bible don’t seem so harmful. The quotes all mention something about light. That’s the whole point. The scope makes light and the references all have something to do with light. It’s something the company does on their own accord as a tradition set up by its founder Glyn Bindon 30 years ago and is continued by his son This doesn’t seem like a military attack on the Islamic faith, just a tradition of a company the military happened to make a purchase from.
Trijicon issued a statement on January 21, that the company will stop adding references to the Bible on their sights. The statement mentions the company will “Remove the inscription reference on all U.S. Military products that are in the company’s factory that have already been produced, but have yet to be shipped” and the company will also “Provide 100 modification kits to forces in the field to remove the reference on the already forward deployed optical sights.” The Trijicon President and CEO, Stephen Bindon, commented. “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,” and added “We want to thank the Department of Defense for the opportunity to work with them and will move as quickly as possible to provide the modification kits for deployment overseas.”
This decision has made a lot of people happy. Haris Tarin, the director of the Washington D.C. office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, says, “We must ensure that incidents like these are not repeated, so as not to give the impression that our country is involved in a religious crusade, which hurts America’s image abroad and puts our soldiers in harms way.” Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, believes this is a “responsible move … that will help reduce or eliminate a potential danger to our nation’s military.”
This next passage is opinionated. This opinion is not the opinion of the site or any of its affiliates.
I personally believe that this is no big deal. None of the verses mention anything against any specifically against any religion, just for Christianity. If the references had anything to do with any offensive material to any religion or faith then that would be a different story. It’s not like the scopes burnt anyones’ skin. Suppose the situation had been reversed? Suppose a dominantly Islamic force put equipment in the U.S. Military’s hands that had references to the Koran and the United States had been offended. If America were to request the references to be removed, the country would be labeled as a nation of bigotry for trying to remove something Islamic. There’s another issue with this. An American company, Trijicon, was pressured into abandoning their own beliefs by the Government. Does this also go against the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The issue is the prohibition of the free exercise thereof. The company’s right to add the references was trampled. But to be fair the company was not exactly forced to change their tradition. They were pressured to.
-Andrew Locklair
I, on the other hand, believe that these religious references are making this war on terrorism seem more like a religious crusade. Because these religious references are on the weapons it makes it seem as if the soldiers are killing people for God. If some Muslims are taking offense to the references then they should be removed so it does not escalate the war because the Muslims feel like their beliefs are being attacked. The sermon by Gary Hensley is, in fact, an attack on the Islamic faith. Hunting people down for Jesus is not what America went into the middle east to do, and I can see exactly why Muslims are taking offense to such beliefs being preached to soldiers. Since the military is a branch of the government the separation of church and state also applies to it. So putting religious references on weapons would be a violation of that idea. In order to keep a war against terrorism from turning into a war against Islam these weapons with religious references.
-Alison Kanski
This link goes to the ABC News Article and video referred to in this article.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jesus-rifles/story?id=9618791
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