Fanatics Everywhere

When my brother sent me a news clip (from a source I was not familiar with) claiming that US military weapons had scripture inscribed into them, I said "no way, that is just some crazed person's fantasy".

But ABC News now confirms this bizarre fact:

U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret 'Jesus' Bible Codes

Pentagon Supplier for Rifle Sights Says It Has 'Always' Added New Testament References

By JOSEPH RHEE, TAHMAN BRADLEY and BRIAN ROSS
Jan. 18, 2010 —

Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the U.S. military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.

The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.

U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

In a pluralistic society this is just utterly, utterly disgusting. What if the Hindu Krishna sect had the contract for weapons and decided to inscribe Sanskrit text into US military weapons? Bizarre. But sinister because it means a fanatic group thinks its values rise about the pluralistic values of the larger society and they can secretly impose their views on others. This is outrageous.

Personally, I've been confronted a few times in legal settings where they haul out a Bible and expect you to hop on one foot and rub you head in the presence of "religious text" because that will make your testimony pure and true and uncorrupted. Nuts! A liar will lie and no mumbo jumbo will stop it. So in a pluralistic society you put away the Bibles and ask people to "solemnly affirm" instead of "swearing on the Bible".

I think the solution in this case is simple. Have the company repay every penny for all arms purchased from them. That will bankrupt the company. (Oh, I guess the Board, the managers, and the work force can get on their knees and pray for a miracle from Jesus. But I'm pretty sure no manna money will float down from heaven. The company will be bankrupted.) That kind of punishment will ensure that no other company will decide it is above the law.