Jesus rifles

GENERAL ORDER NUMBER 1B (GO -1B) lists the prohibited activities for US Department of Defense personnel present within the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) Area of Responsibility (AOR). Item 2.k states

Proselytizing of any religion, faith or practise.

From (US) ABC News Nightline


Rachel Maddow on MSNBC


The (US) Military Religious Freedom Foundation was, understandably, furious - statement

Albuquerque – Mikey Weinstein, the President and Founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the first organization to bring the now infamous “Jesus Rifles” to light publically, made the following statement after learning gun manufacturer Trijicon will stop imprinting bible verse citations on the sides of rifle scopes intended for the U.S. military:

“Its about time! Trijicon’s outrageous practice of placing bible verse citations on military-issued gunsights for weapons was an unconstitutional disgrace of the highest magnitude to our military and an action that clearly gave additional incentive and emboldenment to recruiters for our nation’s enemies. It is nothing short of a vile national security threat that, despite our nation’s efforts to convince the Muslim world we are not pursuing a holy war against them, our military and its contractors time again resort to unlawful fundamentalist evangelical Christian practices, even on the battlefield. It has been said that ‘civilization is a race between education and catastrophe.’ We can now only hope that the United States Congress and The Pentagon will comprehensively investigate how this catastrophe and countless other examples of military religious extremism infiltrates every branch of our honorable armed services. But for now, at least we can take solace in Trijicon's affirmation that it will expeditiously remove the bible verse citations from its scopes. We only hope that the damage from their actions is not yet beyond repair.”

Unfortunately, allies of the United States have also become embroiled in this controversy - Canada and Australia, both of which are also secular.

It is fair enough for the founder of a company that manufactures parts for weapons to be a devout Christian, but there is something disturbing about associating an instrument of killing (preferably only in self defence) with Christian teachings. It is also a disturbing trend that there are so many so called Christians who are hate-mongers.

Absolutely disgraceful.