Bible verses on gunsights used by U.S. military in Iraq...
"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." 2 Cor. 4.6
"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."
What do you think about that?
This deeply saddens me. As one who has spent time in several Muslim countries, I think things like this confirm suspicions in minds of many in the Middle East that America has a religious agenda in the wars. Another thought I had was, what if they used verses that were related to war and violence, such as "love your enemy". That might make things pretty confusing for the soldiers. I doubt the military would have allowed those verses printed on the guns.
Posted by: Jim M. | January 21, 2010 at 04:57 AM
Bizarre and seems to work against our (US) interest in a few ways:
1. Can't imagine this meets the approval of all soldiers in our diverse military.
2. Strikes me as good "bulletin board" material for the other side as the commenter noted above.
3. Private company selling guns to public enterprise with biblical verses may raise constitutional establishment issues.
Also, using Jesus as a sort of a silent partner in military operations seems to fly in the face of clear Christian teaching. There is an easy and quick fix: erase the verses and continue to buy the sites.
Posted by: Marc Walters | January 21, 2010 at 06:56 AM
Wow. My first thought is: wouldn't I want the soldier looking down that sight to have a clear and discerning view of what he is shooting at? I would hope that he would be equipped with the wisdom and the extra visual acuity of a supreme power, the Almighty God, particularly in a war where the enemy at times is so ill-defined. The church and state issues, to me, are culturally defined - meaning in our post-modern culture we live in fear of ever offending anyone anywhere ever so that we are rendered speechless and completely unequipped to spread the gospel anywhere. We submit to the state rule arguement. It covers our lack of faith in that we have God who rules over everything, everywhere, even war, even in the Middle East. I thank Him that in many military situations, from the beginning of this nation through to this war, He has used His divine intervention on many occasions to ensure our victory over our enemies. I hope that in this small way, protection and strength is offered to the soldier that uses the weapon equipped with this device. No, every soldier and every American is not a Christian, but neither will they be damaged by being exposed to a verse of scripture. As to the arguement of capture by enemy hands - like it's going to change their opinion one way or the other of us!?! When will people wake up and understand that those bent on destroying us really don't care if we are Christian or not - we are from the West. We are the enemy. Is any soldier really going to use as his defense, "I'm not a Christian! I'm not a Christian!"?
Posted by: Colleen J | January 21, 2010 at 12:59 PM
Looks like they're doing the smart thing: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/01/21/rifles.bibles/index.html?hpt=T2
Posted by: Marc Walters | January 21, 2010 at 05:53 PM