Company removing biblical markings from gun sights
WASHINGTON – A Michigan defense contractor will voluntarily stop stamping references to Bible verses on combat rifle sights made for the U.S. military, a major buyer of the company’s gear.
In a statement released Thursday, Trijicon of Wixom, Mich., says it is also providing to the armed forces free of charge modification kits to remove the Scripture citations from the telescoping sights already in use. Through multimillion-dollar contracts, the Marine Corps and Army have bought more than 300,000 Trijicon sights.
The references to Bible passages raised concerns that the citations break a government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A spokesman for U.S. Central Command initially said the Trijicon sights didn’t violate the ban and compared the citations on the sights to the “In God We Trust” inscription printed on U.S. currency.
On Thursday, however, Army Gen. David Petraeus, Central Command’s top officer, called the practice “disturbing.”
“This is a serious concern to me and the other commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Petraeus told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
The inscriptions are not obvious and appear in raised lettering at the end of the stock number. Trijicon’s rifle sights use tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, to create light and help shooters hit what they’re aiming for.
Markings on the Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, which is standard issue to U.S. special operations forces, include “JN8:12,” a reference to John 8:12: “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,’ ” according to the King James version of the Bible.
The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said in a letter sent Thursday to President Barack Obama that the gun sights “clearly violate” the rule against proselytizing. Gaddy added that “images of American soldiers as Christian crusaders come to mind when they are carrying weaponry bearing such verses.”