The American government, despite George Dubya's personal chats with the Almighty, has been at pains to make it clear to the Muslim world that we the US is not at war with Islam, but with terrorism. President Obama made this very clear once more while speaking in Turkey.
Enter Trijicon.
This Michigan based defense contractor produces--among other things--scopes for American military rifles. They make $660 million dollars a year doing so. In a turn that is positively medieval, it turns out that Trijicon has been encoding Bible verses on these scopes in the serial numbers. For example, 2COR4:6, or 2 Corinthians 4:6, ""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 bear JN8:12 (John 8:12) "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." These are are the scopes of rifles designed to kill people. Sorry, wasn't there a commandment against that? It's been awhile since I was studying the Bible, but I do seem to remember that.
Sitting here outside the States, I admit my perspective may be skewed. You see, I have been defending my country for years against European and Asian infidels who think we are a nation of religious fanatics. The image of the United States outside the United States is a bit like the Taliban with nuclear capabilities. I keep trying to convince people American is not a land of religious crusaders, the last bastion of the Puritanism the Brits freed themselves during the Restoration (and screw the English for shipping all the overthrown Cromwellites to our shores). But when people put it to me that--for example--we are the ONLY major nation to deny gay marriage (an issue that so far as I see it has absolutely not impact on those outside such marriages, and who deny it only because it offends their own personal religiousity), it gets very hard to employ logic. When we have people like Robertson, a man with freaking followers, claiming the Haitians got just what they deserved for siding with the Devil, it is hard to make an excuse.
And just when I think I am making headway, I find that like knights of the Crusades hell-bent on retaking the Holy Land, we are blessing our weapons with religious invocations.
Yes, my fellow Americans, I hear you. Land of the Free. Home of the Brave. But as Dylan might say, "let us not talk falsely now...the hour is getting late."
We have had the luxury of being oh-so-smug since the Second World War. Problem is, we've had the hardest time winning wars ever since, and now our economy is slipping. It's easy to have God on your side when you are an economic titan, and indeed, the Protestant ethic has always been that material wealth was a sign of God's favor. But I wonder, when that is gone, what happens then? Islam is the second largest religion on the planet, and we are shooting at it with rifles Christened to Jesus.
Yes, America. Love it or leave it. Well, I did. But there are times when I wonder if that was a terrible mistake. The pious are so vocal, so sure of themselves. The agnostic too careful not to offend. maybe voices like mine are needed, voices that see religion as the medieval poison it is.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blot
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