Firm to Remove Bible References From Gun SightsBy ERIK ECKHOLMThursday, January 21, 2010A Michigan arms company said Thursday that it would immediately stop embossing references to New Testament scriptures on rifle sights it sells the military after news accounts caused an international outcry. The company, Trijicon Inc., has multimillion-dollar contracts with the Pentagon for advanced sights that are widely used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trijicon also said it would provide the Pentagon, free of charge, 100 kits to use for removing the lettering on existing weapons. For years, the company acknowledged, it has put small scriptural references near the model numbers on some products, a practice started by its deceased founder, who was a devout Christian. The references, like “JN8:12 and 2COR4:6, referring to passages in the Gospel of John and in Second Corinthians, had not been widely noticed or debated until a report on ABC television this week. Sights including the biblical references were also sold to the Australian, New Zealand and British militaries. As word of the practice spread it was loudly condemned by civil liberties groups and some religious groups in the United States and abroad. Michael Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said that several of the group’s members, who are active-duty military personnel, had contacted him in recent weeks to complain about the subtle religious references on their weapons and that he had alerted ABC. “The Constitution won today,” Mr. Weinstein said of the company’s decision. Following the television report, Pentagon spokesmen called the inscriptions inappropriate and said they were looking into the matter. Some religious groups were more strident in their condemnations. The Muslim Public Affairs Council in Washington said the biblical references violated the nation’s values and would stoke the fires of extremists who accuse the United States of carrying out a religious crusade in Asia and the Middle East. In a letter early Thursday to President Obama, the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said the gun sights “clearly violate a government rule prohibiting proselytizing,” and called the practice “only the latest in a long line of violations of the boundaries between religion and government within the military.” In Afghanistan, the Al Jazeera news service reported that sights with the Christian references had been distributed to some Afghan soldiers and that this would provide the Taliban with a propaganda coup. In its statement on Thursday, Trijicon said it would immediately “stop putting references to scripture on all products manufactured for the U. S. military” and provide kits for removing lettering on existing weapons. The company said it would follow the same policy for purchases by other national militaries. “Our decision to voluntarily remove these references is both prudent and appropriate,” said the statement by Stephen Bindon, the company’s president. Without your ongoing support,
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