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Military: It Could Take A Year To Fix 'Jesus Rifles'


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Military: It Could Take A Year To Fix 'Jesus Rifles'
U.S. Troops in Afghanistan Still Carrying Guns With Secret Bible Codes

By JOSEPH RHEE and MARK SCHONE
March 30, 2010
More than two months after an ABC News report that rifle scopes used by U.S. soldiers are inscribed with secret Biblical references, troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are still carrying the so-called Jesus rifles – and the U.S. military says it could take a year to remove the Bible codes from all its weapons.

"Shame on them forever for their impossibly slow, plodding and utterly backwards plan for correction of this national and international disgrace," said Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). Weinstein, whose advocacy group promotes the separation of church and state in the military, said the MRFF has received numerous messages from troops deployed in Afghanistan complaining that the Gospel inscriptions on Trijicon rifle scopes place them at added risk.

A military spokesperson also told ABC News that Biblical references had been removed from just over a third of the military's Trijicon scopes, but that most of the scopes that had been altered were being used by troops in training situations and on bases, not by troops in war zones.

Trijicon has sold an estimated 250,000 rifle scopes to the U.S. armed services, and the sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers.

The biblical references on Trijicon's Advance Combat Optical Guides, commonly known as ACOG sights, appear next to the model numbers in the same type font and size. References include citations from the New Testament books of Revelation, Matthew and John.


One of the citations on the ACOG is "JN8:12", a reference to John 8:12, which reads, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. "2COR4:6" is a reference to Second Corinthians 4:6, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Under what is known as "General Order Number One" U.S. military rules specifically prohibit "proselytizing of any faith, religion, or practice." The rules were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It's wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws," said Weinstein, an attorney and former Air Force officer. "It allows the Mujahadeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they're being shot by Jesus rifles."

A worldwide furor erupted in January after the existence of the Bible codes was reported by ABC News. Countries around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Israel and Great Britain, announced plans to remove the Bible codes from their Trijicon-supplied scopes.

At the time, the U.S. military said it had been unaware of the markings until notified of them by ABC News.

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he was "very concerned" to learn of the Biblical markings on the Trijicon scopes. "Our mission is to protect the population we're serving and establish conditions for security, stability, and development, and we strive to do that while remaining sensitive to the cultural and religious norms of the populace we are supporting."

Within a week of the initial ABC News report in January, the Department of Defense announced that Trijicon had agreed to stop printing the verses on new scopes intended for military use. The U.S. military also said it would modify the scopes already in use, and Trijicon agreed to provide 100 modification kits for the removal of the codes.

But in March, Weinstein contacted ABC News to say that service members in Afghanistan were sending his group messages claiming that the military was dragging its feet on modifying the scopes.

Weinstein said the service members complained that they felt uncomfortable with the unaltered scopes because many of the Afghan civilians and military forces being trained by the U.S. were aware of the controversy over the Bible markings.

"In one case, a village elder refused to let one of our young soldiers into his house to look because he had a Jesus rifle," said Weinstein. "He went to his immediate superior [who] told him if you continue to complain, we'll take your rifle away and replace it with something less lethal."

"It's not just embarrassing to have these "Jesus rifles" with us but it's also a serious security threat to all of us," reads one e-mail that Weinstein said MRFF received from a service member in Afghanistan . "When we walk into an Afghan village trying to determine whether it's 'friend or foe' regarding the Taliban etc. and they ask us right off the bat if we are using the 'Jesus rifles' it is a VERY BAD way to start out considering our combat mission."

When first contacted by ABC News about Weinstein's allegations in March, the U.S. military told ABC News that it had received no complaints from service members about the Trijicon inscriptions.

However, the military gave conflicting explanations on how it was modifying the scopes used by soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A military spokesperson, Capt. Geraldine Carey of the Marine Corps, initially told ABC News that "deployed units will not begin the modification until they return to their home stations." Carey's statement echoed a March 15th article in the Army Times, in which Col. Doug Tamilio, a weapons administrator for the Army, said that ACOGs in war zones would not be modified until the soldiers carrying them had returned home to the U.S.

"We've got soldiers engaged in combat; I don't want to disrupt what the soldiers are doing over there," Tamilio told the Army Times.

When ABC contacted Capt. Carey for clarification, however, she gave a different answer. She said that an unspecified number of the Trijicon modification kits had been sent to deployed locations – meaning to Afghanistan and Iraq -- for units to perform the scope modifications themselves.

Carey also said the military is augmenting the Trijicon kits with common rotary tools and paint pens that can remove the inscriptions. Carey said the alterations to the scopes have to be performed by a technician "trained to perform preventive and corrective maintenance on the equipment," and "though the deployed troops are capable of performing the modification, conducting their combat operations is their first priority."

Capt. Carey told ABC News that 35 percent of the scopes issued have already been altered. Most of these, however, were used by "training units at bases, posts, and stations" or "units in the deployment pipeline."

She also confirmed something Tamilio had told the Army Times – that the military had allotted a full year to modify the scopes. The military 's "modification instruction" allows for one year for all the scopes to be altered, said Carey. That time frame provides "operating forces with the flexibility to perform the modification without interfering with scheduled training and operations."

Weinstein said he recently heard from a father of a service member in Afghanistan who was not willing to wait. The father, said Weinstein, was "fuming mad that his son is being placed in harm's way by something that could be fixed in less than 30 seconds." According to Weinstein, the father said he went to a Home Depot and bought thin black duct tape for his son and his battalion so that they could stick the tape over the scripture passages themselves. "The father said he just sent the 101st fix kit over," said Weinstein.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/military-year-fix-jesus-rifles/story?id=10106096&page=1

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This is very interesting and too bad General McChrystal doesn't understand that the only way this old world is ever going to have peace, security and the like is by reading the Gospel. Amazing that quote from "Mikey Weinstein" who supposedly is an advocate for military religious freedom. Just another none-denominational, watered down, no morales, who compromises his faith until that faith is non-existent.

Also, I had never even heard of that General Order 1 concerning faith. Won't stop me from sharing the good news, good night that's terrible.

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Sad to hear some proclaiming that having these Bible references are "embarrassing".

Our troops can take their lives into harms way but they can't take their Christian faith fully with them? Who would know of these "Bible verse codes" had such not become a big deal in the press?

As we see here, not only is the Christian faith being publiclly restricted more and more, but even when aspects of Christianity are hidden, as soon as it becomes known it must be eliminated.

Very sad to see so many willingly going along with this and so little protest against it.

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It's very rare to see a Christian stand up for Jesus anymore, I know I'm not 100% perfect in that regard. It's hard for me to tell a General that he shouldn't take the Lord's name in vain or at least mention that I don't appreciate it. I know I should do it but I don't because I'm weak.

It's prOBably even more rare to see a Christian stand up for the scriptures. I see so called Christians all the time making excuses to believe that homosexuality is ok or evolution or old world. Or how about the one where they completely throw out the Old Testament. Oh, that's foolishness from days past...we don't have to believe those things anymore. I guess when our almighty, never changing God hates something in the Old Testament he'll change in the NT.

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I went into the Air Force after high school so didn't get around to college until later in my 20s and finished in my early 30s. Even back then (early, mid-80s) real Christianity wasn't appreciated and many who professed to be Christian kept very quiet about it.

In university I found things even worse. It was horrible to see these young professing Christians coming into class and as soon as they faced opposition to Christianity they began to backpedal, make excuses and often deny much of the faith.

One thing I also noticed was that even if I and maybe one or two others would stand on the solid rock in a classroom discussion the rest of the professing Christians would either become silent or most often they would side with those attacking Christianity as they claimed to be Christian! They would deny that homosexuality is a sin, that women are not to be pastors, that men are to be the head of a family, that Jesus is the only way. They would argue that other religions are valid, the Bible isn't meant to be taken literally, that much of the Bible was for "back then" and not for us today, that we have to separate out the bigotted stuff written by those rotten men back then, especially some of Pauls stuff.

OBviously there are many young professing Christians who were never actually brought up in the Word and don't even know or believe the basics of the faith and they don't have even a basic understanding of Scripture. It's little wonder surveys show that well over half of youth leave the church after they leave home.

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I carried Trijicon sights in the Sheriff's office for years. Ill have to get my old service weapon out and look. I think its great and hope some continue to fight for what is right.


Personally, I would find a bit of comfort knowing such were there! It still amazes me that anyone could actually be embarrassed about having those there. :smilie_loco:4
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Just wondering how it places soldiers at risk... Are they really letting Iraqis / Afghans get that close to their weapons that they see these tiny serial numbers? How will etching them out make a difference? Also, if things are that delicate over there that the decision to shoot and kill a soldier boils down to whether or not they have a code on a serial number on a scope- then having Trijicon scopes is prOBably not the biggest issue.

I have a solution. Instead of etching out these verse references, why don't we just pack up and leave? It's going to happen anyway whether we like it or not. We are bankrupt.

BTW: Trijicon rules.

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During this church age this world will never see peace, our Bible assured us of this. Peace will only come when Jesus rules during the 1000 years.

Remember to, this earth has already been judged, the sentence has been handed down, its a fallen world, its just a matter of when the sentence will be carried out. Our outlook would only be doom and gloom if it were not for our Savior Christ, and the "blessed hope He gives us.

That is if we believe what the Bible tells us, as for me, I feel the Bible is 100% accurate.

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During this church age this world will never see peace, our Bible assured us of this. Peace will only come when Jesus rules during the 1000 years.

Remember to, this earth has already been judged, the sentence has been handed down, its a fallen world, its just a matter of when the sentence will be carried out. Our outlook would only be doom and gloom if it were not for our Savior Christ, and the "blessed hope He gives us.

That is if we believe what the Bible tells us, as for me, I feel the Bible is 100% accurate.


You're right, I said that wrong. This world will just get worse and worse and there is no stopping it. I was just imagining that if people actually read the Gospel and became saved it would bring peace into their life and if everyone got saved that would be the only way peace would follow. I realize it won't happen, just trying to make a point that others believe by their own works they can make peace in a land like Afghanistan.
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Just wondering how it places soldiers at risk... Are they really letting Iraqis / Afghans get that close to their weapons that they see these tiny serial numbers? How will etching them out make a difference? Also, if things are that delicate over there that the decision to shoot and kill a soldier boils down to whether or not they have a code on a serial number on a scope- then having Trijicon scopes is prOBably not the biggest issue.

I have a solution. Instead of etching out these verse references, why don't we just pack up and leave? It's going to happen anyway whether we like it or not. We are bankrupt.

BTW: Trijicon rules.


The only reason locals in Afghanistan would know about this is because of overexposure by the media and the lunacy of the PC military leadership going public apologizing.

Indeed, we must eventually leave Afghanistan, why not now? History shows that Afghanistan is one of those areas which can't be truly controlled. Even the mighty British empire failed there as did the Soviets and all others.

The Afghan president himself has stated basically that if OBama doesn't get off his back he's going to resign and join the Taliban!

We are willing to forsake God in order to be able to hang around there? Does anyone believe Muslims would care if they had such on their rifles/sights and it became news? Muslims would rejoice! America cowers and bows to false gods quickly and even most professing Christians either agree or remain silent.

Bring 'em home. Let them fight it out among themselves.
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You're right, I said that wrong. This world will just get worse and worse and there is no stopping it. I was just imagining that if people actually read the Gospel and became saved it would bring peace into their life and if everyone got saved that would be the only way peace would follow. I realize it won't happen, just trying to make a point that others believe by their own works they can make peace in a land like Afghanistan.


Yes, we Christians would love to see peace in this world. Of course we Christians know the course that could take us to peace, if only everyone would accept Jesus as Savior, them truly follow Him.

For us, at times, its so hard to understand how so many can and will reject what Jesus has to offer. I've told several if only they would accept Jesus as Savior, He would change your heart, at the same time He would change their wants, and they would have a new way of looking at things.

I wonder, how many of the lost people really want peace that are crying for peace? Is there a place in their hearts of such people for peace?

Jas 4:1 ¶ From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Jas 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot OBtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

As President Cater once proclaimed in a speech, we have come to worship self-indulgence & consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns.

Yes, there be few who have discovered that Jesus can satisfy them and give them true meaning for life. Most just keep wanting, the more they get the more they want, they do not want Jesus to get between them and their wants.
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Sadly there are some professing Christians out there who believe Christians must make the world better until it's perfect before Christ will come.

The woman that wrote that wicked song "Battle Hymn of the Republic" believed in that and that's what the song is about.

Is it the Amillinialists who believe the world is getting better and that's the Christians jOB to make it better?

Universalists or Unitarians or something like that hold this belief too. I think the woman who wrote the above song was one of these.

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Sadly there are some professing Christians out there who believe Christians must make the world better until it's perfect before Christ will come.

The woman that wrote that wicked song "Battle Hymn of the Republic" believed in that and that's what the song is about.

Is it the Amillinialists who believe the world is getting better and that's the Christians jOB to make it better?

Universalists or Unitarians or something like that hold this belief too. I think the woman who wrote the above song was one of these.


John, I just read through the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and I don't see it in there about making this world a better place. Maybe I'm missing something.



Battle Hymn of the Republic
by: Julin Ward Howe

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.


I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.


He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.


In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
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There used to be a website which showed the notes she wrote with the song which really made it clear. In the song, in most places where folks think they are singing about God, Julia was writing about Lincoln. The song is about how Lincoln and the "good folks" will pour vengence upon "the wicked" and bring about Paradise on earth so Jesus can return.

Julia was a universalist or unitarian which believed/believes Christians must cleanse the earth themselves and establish Paradise and after they did this on their own Christ would return to establish His kingdom. Julia viewed Lincoln as the leader of this, thus the reason for him being the one she places in what most think is the God position in the song.

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