What would Jesus shoot?

U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret 'Jesus' Bible Codes
Pentagon Supplier for Rifle Sights Says It Has 'Always' Added New Testament References

Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the U.S. military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.

The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.

U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

Now, I'm just going to play Devil's Advocate for a minute. Many people might have looked at the abbreviation for the book, chapter and verse of Bible passages, and if they weren't very familiar with English and Christian culture, they might not have questioned what the odd bit of code was--without knowing, it's not much more meaningful than a serial number. And so long as the codes were "always there" and never questioned, maybe one would be safe in saying, "No harm done."

Of course, that being said, once anyone notices what the code is for, of course it's going to be shared. And of course, someone is going to want to ask, "Well, just what does that passage say?" And it could very well be pointed out that a gun sight, used for operations against, for the time being, mostly people of Islam, is also a somewhat quaint witnessing tool.

Let's put this under today's blogging theme: Things that aren't helping. Yes, I think this sort of thing probably could have been well-intentioned. But also, I can see where it could be seen as off-putting to people who already are a little suspicious about "crusades" and our real east vs. west culture clash.