An arms manufacturer has been coding references to New Testament verses on the sights of the rifles it supplies to the Pentagon for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the coded passages from John is:
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
The discovery has provoked the usual criticism that such references will be offensive to Muslims and will fuel the belief that the U.S. is carrying out a religious crusade, a reaction that in the present instance strikes me as not wholly irrational, if not actually true. But what I find most striking in this episode is the notion that Jesus’ message should be seen as inspiration for, or compatible with, blasting someone away with a high-tech rifle. This notion is almost as quixotic as the idea that the exponent of the Sermon on the Mount, who asked:
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin
is invoked to justify the capitalist acquisition of wealth. People’s capacity to read into the Bible what they want to find is as creative as their capacity to read into God what comforts them. After another non-Islamic-terrorist (and thus largely ignored) mass killing in Virginia last week, a neighbor of the victims told the New York Times:
“We’re not going out in the dark not knowing what’s out there. But we trust in the Lord to take care of us.”
Now why would the Lord take care of the neighbors, but not the eight victims, I wonder?
It’s always puzzled, me, too–how religious people can rationalize random disasters to find some manifestation of the Lord’s goodness and mercy in them. The latest explanation I’ve heard is that disasters are inflicted on us to test us. I’ve also heard that God DOES answer all prayers, but just not the way we want them answered. Believers in the fulfillment of the divine plan see it as that. However you look at it, though, it does seem to undercut the utility of petitionary prayer. Why bother, if the outcome is predetermined?
Heather, while I’d agree that the evidence for Jesus as an advocate for capitalism is, well, somewhat on the scanty side, the Sermon on the Mount is not the place to find what little there is. The Parable of the Talents on the other hand…
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
@Jonathan
And God is on the side of the strongest battalion.
“But what I find most striking in this episode is the notion that Jesus’ message should be seen as inspiration for, or compatible with, blasting someone away with a high-tech rifle.”
I think you’re missing the point. Quoting bible verse while killing people is badass. Witness Boondock Saints, the sniper in Saving Private Ryan, Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction, etc…
“the U.S. is carrying out a religious crusade, a reaction that in the present instance strikes me as not wholly irrational, if not actually true”
I wish. But let’s face it – just like with every domestic education, crime, and poverty initiative, political correctness keeps us from even trying to identify the real problem. The only things our government is capable of these days are randomly killing people and wasting enormous sums of money.
Susan:
I think it was Bismark who said it: “God is on the side of the big, well-equipped battalions.”
Sounds reasonable to me.
As a purely literary matter, the verses chosen are richly evocative as inscriptions on *low light* battlefield scopes. Not that they’re a good idea in the present, but if I were reading about something like this in a long-dead culture I’d be delighted by the colorfulness of it.
@gene berman
Tell that to the Spanish Armada, and the Revolutionary era colonists. Two name but two.
Mike and Ethan got it just right: quoting the Bible while blasting away the enemies of God is badass, and putting biblical verses about light shining out of darkness on a low-light scope is super-badass. Maybe Heather missed that because she’s a girl, I don’t know. About Jesus and killing, well, there’s a centuries-long just war tradition in Christian theology to iron out those wrinkles.
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@gene berman
The phrase as I quoted it I’ve seen attributed to Napoleon. I’m sure Napoleon had plenty of opportunity reevaluate the proposition, however, while crawling back from Moscow.
“… the belief that the U.S. is carrying out a religious crusade, a reaction that in the present instance strikes me as not wholly irrational, if not actually true.
The “coded references” have been put on the sights for more than 30 years, long before the current conflict:
Munson, Trijicon’s sales director, said the practice of putting Bible references on the sites began nearly 30 years ago by Trijicon’s founder, Glyn Bindon …
WWJ News
The only “crusade” I’m aware of is the one you’ve launched to make the world safe for shallow Biblical analyses.
People’s capacity to read into the Bible what they want to find is as creative as their capacity to read into God what comforts them.
This is certainly true in your case.
Now why would the Lord take care of the neighbors, but not the eight victims, I wonder?
How is it that you know that the eight victims are not in the Lord’s care? Matthew 22:32.
1. Technical point: the religious material objected to is on rifle sights supplied by the company. They do not make or sell rifles.
2. It is not hard to find in the bible support for the idea that Jesus would have been packing something, to use under the right circumstances. See, for example, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag, and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” Luke 22:36. Couple this with Christ’s admonition that “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” John 15:14 and one can claim that clearly, under the proper circumstances, even Jesus Christ recognized a right to the use of weapons in defense of self and friends.
3. We ignore here the questions whether there was a historical Jesus, that he said any or all of the things attributed to him in the Bible, and whether his opinions even if real are relevant to anything at all.
In response to the statement of a neighbor of 8 murder victims in Virginia that “we trust in the Lord to take care of us,” Art asks:
How is it that you know that the eight victims are not in the Lord’s care?
I somehow doubt that the neighbor was hoping that God would take care of him *after* he is fatally gunned down. The devout have been known on occasion to insist on rather extraordinary measures to defer as long as possible the moment when their loved ones are “in the Lord’s care” in the sense that Art means it.
I think people not familiar with rifle sights are missing the sly punning here. All the verses refer to light, if metaphorically, and Trijicon makes sights noted for their night abilities. The ACOG really is a seeing aid.
I think it’s more of an “inside baseball” joke from some Christian firearms enthusiasts more than it is some devious attempt at evangelism.
The question I keep asking myself is… ‘What kind of gun would Jesus use’?