I am ashamed at the reaction the military ‘PC police’ is having towards this. So I guess the dollars that we spent on purchasing these scopes should have the ‘In God We Trust’ part removed as well? Also, get rid of all of those chaplains and the thousands of bibles that are handed out to the military too. The political correctness in our military and society is killing me. This same political correctness is what allowed Major Hasan to get as far as he did in our military, and do his deed at Ft. Hood, and there comes a point where someone in charge needs to make a stand.
From a collector’s point of view, I think this is pretty cool, and now I am glad I have an ACOG with that little JN 8:12 on it. Not because I am a religious guy, but because the value of my scope just doubled. It will probably triple in value, and in twenty or thirty years from now, collectors will be drooling over these things. So with that, I will gladly keep using my ACOG for work, just in spite of this ridiculous reaction to ‘bible versus on scopes’. Ridiculous. That is my take on the whole thing, and I guarantee that I am not alone in that thinking.
The really frustrating part about all of this, is that soldiers will have to turn in scopes so the little inscription could be removed. Thousands of scopes with armorers dedicating valuable time to this idiotic task, when instead they could be working on more important tasks like changing out barrels or tuning up weapons. Ridiculous. –Matt
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Company offers to stop putting biblical references on military scopes
January 21, 2010
(CNN) — A manufacturer that has been inscribing Bible references on rifle sights used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan announced Thursday that it will stop putting scripture references on products the U.S. military uses.
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of United States Central Command, said Wednesday — apparently before learning of the company’s announcement — that the references were a “big concern” to the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps, which have contracts for the scopes.
“I hope you can sense … this is of serious concern to me and the other commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan because it can indeed create a perception that is absolutely contrary to what it is that we have sought to do,” he said.
He said U.S. troops are much more sensitive “about this kind of thing,” apparently, than is the contractor involved.
On its Web site Wednesday, the Muslim Public Affairs Council said the references “feed into the violent extremists’ narrative that the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are a ‘crusade against Islam.’ “
Trijicon Inc., the manufacturer, said in a written statement that it has “offered to voluntarily stop putting references to scripture on all products manufactured for the U.S. military — and will provide, free of charge, 100 modification kits to the Pentagon to enable the removal of the references that are already on products that are currently deployed.”
There was no immediate reaction from the Pentagon in response to the announcement, but a response was being prepared, Maj. Shawn Turner in the Department of Defense’s public affairs office told CNN.
The Marine Corps said it was “concerned” when it learned about the biblical references.
“We are making every effort to remove these markings from all of our scopes and will ensure that all future procurement of these scopes will not have these types of markings,” it said in a written statement.
“We will remove the markings from the scopes currently delivered. Trijicon will also remove the markings from all scopes that have not been delivered.”
Earlier, after it emerged that the Michigan-based manufacturer was putting codes for scriptures on the scopes, Trijicon issued a statement saying that it has put scripture references on its products for more than two decades.
“As long as we have men and women in danger, we will continue to do everything we can to provide them with both state-of-the-art technology and the never-ending support and prayers of a grateful nation,” it said Wednesday.
ABC first reported the story on Monday, saying that some of the citations on the sights included “2COR4:6,” an apparent reference to 2 Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
Another, according to ABC, included JN8:12, apparently referring to John 8:12. That reads, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ “
Trijicon has a $660 million contract for the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army, according to Turner. He said slightly more than 300,000 scopes have been delivered so far, with most going to the Marines.
After the initial news report, the Muslim Public Affairs Council called on Defense Secretary Robert Gates to withdraw from combat use weapons that have sights with the biblical references.
“Allowing religious references to be placed on U.S. weaponry, which are bought and paid for by U.S. taxpayers, is unacceptable,” MPAC Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati wrote in a letter to Gates, according to the council’s Web site.
“Such inscriptions not only run afoul of the Constitution and U.S. military rules, but they also feed into the violent extremists’ narrative that the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are a ‘crusade against Islam.’ “
Story here.
Although I don't personally care if there are obscure references to biblical passages on these scopes I can understand that people are offended by it and if that is the case then there is good reason to remove the offensive material. I'm sure that if a manufacturer were to write (in really tiny lettering that you would need a magnifying glass to read it) stuff like "All American soldiers are gay" or "Osama Rulz", and someone were to find out about that then people would be offended! Possibly best to keep to just putting serial numbers on weapons components. 🙂
Comment by Gregg — Friday, January 22, 2010 @ 3:06 PM
Gregg,
Yes, ideally everything should have been neutral in a perfect world, and no one should be offended by anything. Unfortunately though, I could go through any military supply and PX, and find things that are offensive to all sorts of people.
For example, we serve pork in the dining facilities in the US military. Pork is offensive to muslims, and because it is meat, it is offensive to the PETA folks. That Pork might have come from some farm in Utah, and the animal was raised by some Mormon who has three wives who are underage.
And of course, the US dollars used to buy that pork, has the words "In God We Trust" plastered all over it. Ah ha! Religious inscriptions on money…..I guess we will have to blacken out all of those inscriptions with a sharpee so we don't offend anyone? That would be dumb, and I think scrapping off bible versus the size of an ant, off of quality scopes, is dumb. Of course, that is just my opinion. Take care. -matt
Comment by headjundi — Friday, January 22, 2010 @ 4:04 PM
Show me in the Constitution where it says anybody has the right not to be offended.
JN8:12 is just letters and numbers, unless somebody chooses to dig out a Bible and see what the Book of John, Chapter 8, Verse 12, actually says.
Trijicon has been stamping products with such references for over a quarter of a century. Was never a a big deal before. Why is it a big deal now?
Because it was in the interests of Mikey Weinstein to raise a stink. It fit the agenda of ABC to fan the stench until it wafted to the nostrils of CAIR, who then added their aroma to the miasma.
Comment by Cannoneer No. 4 — Friday, January 22, 2010 @ 6:21 PM
Cannoneer,
Yeah, religion and politics as usual. And like I said, I am not a religious guy and I could care less about spreading the word of god. (Forgive me, I am Lutheran. lol) The point of the matter is this ridiculous dedication we have to political correctness.
All that I care about is that a hard charger out there has a scope that works, so he can kill oodles of booger eaters.
Comment by headjundi — Friday, January 22, 2010 @ 7:10 PM
Matt,
Thanks for the repost. If I were to play devil's advocate here, I would merely remark that it is rather fallacious to argue it is unreasonable for people to be offended by these markings on the scope because some could be (hypothetically) offended by having pork or meat in a base cafeteria. Soldiers and civilians alike can choose what to eat, but they don't always get to choose how to aim their weapons, nor who their government purchases such technology from.
The simply test is the flip-around: Would you be comfortable if the scope was made by a Muslim-owned business who implicitly engraved scripture passages from the Koran on a gun you and your colleagues had to use? In my view, the what's truly ridiculous about this story is not that there are Christian biblical scripture engravings on these scopes, but that there is anything religious engraved on these devices in the first place.
Comment by Jody — Monday, January 25, 2010 @ 1:19 AM
Jody,
Thanks for playing devil's advocate on this, and you bring up some good points, but it really has no impact on my personal opinion on the whole thing. I despise political correctness, and I could care less about the few people that the scope would actually offend in the military. I could probably count them on my hand.
And where as I agree that the scopes should not have had the inscriptions on them in the first place, my point is that this is a non-issue. Who cares.
If anything, the only ones that really fired this up, were the ones who were looking for something politically expedient to bash the US military and the war effort with. What's next? Are we going to remove products out of the PX that are not American made? Or outlaw cigarettes or booze for the soldiers? Are we going to stop celebrating Christmas in the military, or Easter? Or my favorite one would be to take a sharpee pen to the US Constitution and our money, and block out any reference to God. Or we could swear in the President with a stack of comic books, instead of the Bible? Where does it stop?
I abhor political correctness is all. But that is just my opinion on the matter, and I am sure I will not be able to change the minds of those dorks who want to scrape tiny little inscriptions that say JN 8:12 from thousands of Trijicon scopes. -Matt
Comment by headjundi — Monday, January 25, 2010 @ 3:12 AM
Matt,
Interesting story nevertheless. Not trying to change your personal opinion on the matter; I'd just remind all the readers to stay sharp and remember than when people cite an irritation with "political correctness", they do so in the name of their own interests. To demonstrate, see 'contractor' vs. 'mercenary labels'. I don't think Uncle Sam is getting rid of the scopes to appease some folks who were offended, but rather because it's retarded to have anything religious on scopes to begin with, especially when they are used in a region where perceptions of US power is intrinsic to the mission.
Perception is at least half the battle in anything, and you and I both know this, especially regarding the perception of the PSC industry throughout much of the world.
Anyway, it's the last I'll say about it. Keep these great posts and discussions going!
JRB
Comment by Jody — Monday, January 25, 2010 @ 5:02 AM
Jody,
Thanks and point well taken. Have a good one. -Matt
Comment by headjundi — Monday, January 25, 2010 @ 5:14 AM