Who Would Jesus Shoot?

I thought I had seen it all but a headline on my RSS newsreader on my phone at lunch made me think I had misread it... But when I got home and checked the news online, no, the headline was correct... "Gunsights' biblical references concern US and UK forces."

Read the story for yourself if you don't believe me, but essentially what is happening is that "Trijicon" is a company which supplies gunsights to the US and British military, and because the company was founded by a "devout Christian" and claims that it runs to "Biblical standards", they have been inscribing Biblical texts, including "2COR4:6" and "JN8:12" (both of which refer to God/Jesus as light - very appropriate on a gunsight which lauds its "self-luminous Brilliant Aiming Solutions™") in raised lettering at the end of the stock number.

Of course this is raising all sorts of issues in the US as regards the separation of church and state, and the thought that these gunsights are helping allied "Christian" soldiers to shoot Islamic enemies in Afghanistan is causing all kinds of panic among the political classes...

But what kind of a world do we live in where a Christian sees this as appropriate? The crusades finished around 650 years ago, and they didn't do much good for the promotion of the gospel in the Muslim world... And what about the verses in the Bible about spears being beaten into pruning hooks etc? Or perhaps because they don't actually mention M16 assault rifles or reflex gunsights in the Bible they think that such verses don't apply to them?

But, in the (paraphrased) words of Jesus, those who live by the Trijicon ACOG® - Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, shall die by the Trijicon ACOG®.

Shalom

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