By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist

A Michigan manufacturer is under fire for inscribing coded references to Gospel passages in the high-powered rifle sights they provide to the U.S. military.

ABCNews is reporting that Trijicon, which has a $660 million multi-year contract with the Marine Corps, says it has always inscribed the citations on their product.

For instance, some sights are inscribed with “2COR4:6” which reads: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Others include “JN8:12” which states: “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, confirmed the practice to ABCNews, but made no apologies. He said the practice began under the company’s founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian who died in a plane crash in 2003. He said it was not illegal to put the inscriptions on the gun and said the issue was being raised by a group that is “not Christian.”

Current military rules prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan, a policy enacted to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarking on a holy war against Muslim terrorists.
Groups advocating for the separation of church and state argue that the practice violates the Constitution.

“It’s wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws,” said Michael “Mikey” Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group that seeks to preserve the separation of church and state in the military.

“It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they’re being shot by Jesus rifles,” he said.

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