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Army officer, Fort Hood, Texas
The code on an ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) made for the U.S. military by defense contractor Trijicon. The lettering at the end, JN8:12 refers to the Bible passage John 8:12.
When the so-called "Jesus rifle" came to light in Jan. 2010, it sparked constitutional and security concerns, and a maelstrom of media coverage. The Pentagon ordered the removal of the secret code referring to Bible passages that the manufacturer had inscribed on the scopes of the standard issue rifles carried by U.S. soldiers into battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nearly three years later — despite the military's assertion that is making "good progress" — the code remains on many rifles deploying to Afghanistan, which some soldiers argue is endangering their lives by reinforcing suspicions that the United States is waging a crusade against Muslims.
"I honestly believe that this is a dangerous situation. It literally could be a matter of life and death for a soldier if he fell into the wrong hands," said an Army officer who spoke to NBC News from Fort Hood, Texas. "The fact that combatant commanders are not following (rules set by Department of Defense) commanders is very disturbing to me."
The officer, who asked not to be named out of fear of reprisal from commanders, provided a photograph, taken on Tuesday, of the code on an M-4 rifle assigned to a soldier who is slated to deploy to Afghanistan in coming weeks.
The code stamped into the metal of the soldier’s ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) ends with the model number with "JN8:12." which refers to the New Testament passage, John 8:12, which reads: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
Other rifle scopes among some 250,000 provided by Michigan-based manufacturer Trijicon were imprinted with codes that point to passages in Matthew, Mark, Luke, Corinthians and Revelation, ABC News reported when it broke the news in 2010.
Trijicon, reportedly had been following this practice for at least two decades, and it was well known to gun enthusiasts.
But these scopes attach to M-4 assault rifles used by U.S. troops, allies and Afghan and Iraqi forces being trained by the U.S. military.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit group that aggressively pursues the separation of church and state in defense institutions, first flagged the issue in late 2009 after receiving scores of complaints from active duty military members.
"It’s constitutionally noxious," said foundation president Mikey Weinstein. "It's an embarrassment and makes us look exactly like the tenth incarnation of the crusades which launches 8 million new jihadist recruiting videos."
The military first said it was unaware of the biblical code. Then Gen. David Petraeus, formerly the head of U.S. Central Command overseeing U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Jan. 2010 issued a press release saying he was "very concerned" to learn of the biblical markings, which were "contrary to U.S. Central Command guidance."
"Our mission is to protect the population we're serving and establish conditions for security, stability, and development, and we strive to do that while remaining sensitive to the cultural and religious norms of the populace we are supporting," he said.
In Jan 2010, Trijicon which had a multi-year Defense Department contract to provide up to 800,000 sights, announced it would stop printing the verses on new scopes for the military use and provide modification kits for the removal of the code on existing scopes.
The Department of Defense said it would modify the scopes, starting with those on bases, though in March said it might take as long as a year.
Not all observers thought removal of the unobtrusive lettering on the scopes was a matter of great urgency.
"I understand that we have already started to address this issue," said retired Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, in a debate with Weinstein on ABC News in March 2010. "You may argue it’s not fast enough," but he said he saw "no evidence" that the code presented a security issue.
Fast forward two and a half years, and "Jesus rifles" are still widely used in the United States and in areas of conflict, according to the Fort Hood officer, who was deployed to Iraq in 2010-2011. He says he has never seen a fixit kit.
Weinstein of MRFF said he has received more than 2,800 complaints from troops about the Jesus rifles — now even more widely known to Afghans and Iraqis, in part because of the controversy.
Iraqis "absolutely" know that it’s a Jesus rifle, said the Fort Hood officer, based on his experience.
"Do all the Afghans and Taliban know about this? Probably not. But the ones who do could ultimately affect the life of a soldier," said the officer. "There’s absolutely no reason this couldn’t have been done in the first six weeks. And that just leads me to wonder why is the Army leadership not taking ownership of the responsibility of completing this task?"
Contacted by NBC News, scope-maker Trijicon directed calls to the head of sales and marketing Tom Munson, who relayed the message through his secretary that "he had no interest" in discussing the Jesus rifle.
NBC News queries to the military about the plan to remove the gospel-referencing code were answered in the form of an email statement saying the "corrective measures the Army took to remove the code were still ongoing."
"We had to take steps to ensure the corrective measures did not impede ongoing operations in theater, but we've got procedures to catch this at multiple points," said the statement provided by Matthew Bourke, in the U.S. Army Media Relations Division. "We're making good progress."
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Leave a Comment:
Really Kevin? Were Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pott, Hirohito, Alexander, Napoleon and on and on really motivated By Jesus Christ? Thats what you think really? You aren't really a student of history at all are You? didn't think so!
Alexander the Great lived well before Jesus was ever born so putting his name on your list would be invalid.
This is a waste of time reporting on, reading it and commenting on it!
Are you seriously trying to tell us that anybody would even know that the last few digits refer to the bible? What a crap!
Thank the right wing loonies for this. Can't leave well enough alone. But then "spreading the gospel" whether by carrot or stick is what they're supposed to do. Regardless of any dangers it my pose to our troops.
Of course there is a "fix" for this. The government should fine this company out of existence as the scopes didn't meet spec, unless putting bible verses actually was in the spec.
"Christians" - what a joke.
come on u sissies...when i was in U.S. Army, my religion was stamped on my dog tags.so what's the difference? duh, the soldiers are wearing the U.S. uniform. and lots of pro-american tatoos.i don't think they can hate u anymore than they already do. geez. my son just came back from Afghanistan and he didn't say a word about it. and don't worry u'r little liberal heads any. u'r great leader will apologize out the whazoo for it anyway.he will be soooo sorry. and speak their language to them and cry big tears for them being shot with a scriptural rifle.ha ha. and then he'll tell us how islam is peaceful again like he did already.he'll cancel our day of prayer and take off his shoes,kneel and face east,with his people.
Is there no end to the anti-Christians to try to expand their agenda. Get real folks. A manufacture has every right to identify their product as any one else. This is one way for them to identify their product.
As for placing the lives of the military in jeopardy. Does combat pay mean anything to you? That's why the military receives combat pay. Because they are in a combat zone. So............. don't get spaced out about it.
Are you kidding me! All this over some letters and numbers and the way that it is inscribed? Soldiers should be more concerned about who the hell is going to put a bullet in you instead of whats on a serial number. Next thing were going to hear is about some IPOD that has numbers ending up with something similar.
sure be nice if the press would report on the rules of engagement our soldiers are fighting underinstead of these non stories.
No night or surprise searches.
• Villagers have to be warned prior to searches.
• ANA or ANP must accompany U.S. units on searches.
• U.S. soldiers may not fire at the enemy unless the enemy is preparing to fire first.
• U.S. forces cannot engage the enemy if civilians are present.
• Only women can search women.
• Troops can fire at an insurgent if they catch him placing an IED but not if insurgents are walking away from an area where explosives have been laid.
whats next, will they want the omission of our sacred oath, for God and country? maybe they will want to remove all the bullets for fear that they could be seen as a sign of agression.
Wow! What a big deal this is. It might take 2 minutes for every soldier using one to file off that area of each rifle. But hey, this is the military industrial complex -- let's not do it the cheap, common sense way.
here's a thought, what if, and bear with my on this one because its pretty complicated....all of their serial numbers are 2 letters, a number, a : and 2 numbers
so in other words you have scopes with AA1:11, AA2:11, AB1:11, AB2:11, etc etc etc. does this make sense? Yes it does. Would it make the scopes traceable in case a certain model was defective? Yes it does. So to say that just because one of the serials they used is JN8:12, does not mean that they are referring to the Bible by any means, and it's just a coincidence that it happens to correlate. An example, I work in a factory and we date code our loads of material 20XX-XXAA, 20XX-XXAB, etc, etc, etc where the X's represent the year and month the material expires, so by that theory, JN(and if JN works the way it does at my place of work it would correlate to the 14th) could refer to the day it was made, 8 represents August, and 12 represents the year 2012. See how that works when you actually use your brain?
But its funny how people will read wwwwaaayyyyy too deep into something because they feel like having something stupid to talk about. And here's another thought, if we didn't want the Islamic extremists to know about these so called "Jesus rifles" why in the name of God are we posting this stuff on the internet and running it through the news?!?!?!?!?! Are we really that stupid?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!? Yes give them another excuse to claim we are waging a crusade against Islam. Jesus get some common sense people, I mean seriously!
The things that to me are appalling are those of you in the "community" that try to stifle other peoples comments. I guess freedom of speech means nothing to you, and by the way the markings on the SCOPES are also freedom of speech. Most of you can all go suck eggs.
Whatever is printed on our equipment is our business, very few of those a--h---s can read and the ones that do mostly read arabic not english, if you are captured even without your weapon you are going to have a bad day and finally if you find the bible offensive too bad ah.
This is BS. Most of those ragheads there are illiterate and cannot read their own Koran, let alone understand english writing, much less know any biblical scripture to a point of identifying verse and scripture.
There shall be no peace on this world as long as the media is allowed to stir up trouble around the world, and hide behind it's constitutional "freedom of press". I am sure this matter should have stayed in the military and not been reported on by some sleazy reporter trying to make a buck off of someone's life.
So they're saying we can't send our men and women into harm's way with a blessing because the enemy might find it offensive? God forbid we "offend" the enemy. This world is getting insanely ridiculous.
As if the enemy would a: take the time to look at a serial number b: be well enough versed to recognize the coded passage and c: be paranoid enough to see it as a plot against them?
I say the manufacturer has every right to use whatever system they deem fit to create serial numbers for their products. As a former soldier, I would be proud and grateful to carry a "Jesus rifle" and I wuld do everything in my power to keep it from being switched-out. Its stupid to waste more tax money over a serial number that might hurt our enemies feelings. Sometimes I can't believe the nonsense the PC crowd pulls.
We totally support the U.S. military 100% in whatever they need, but the dual emotional nature of Jesus & rifles along with tragic events on TV "moved us" to write a music video. We were going through our own struggles and wrote this song, as it all tied together. Please see the music video "Jesus Rifle" on youtube at
Thanks
Our men, many Christians, are dying in a country that sees every American jihad, not Muslim. Tell me this is not a religious war? I say, let the men who want one, carry one. The ones who don't don't. Send the surplus?, if there is any, and I don't think there is going to be any after they all think about it for awhile, send them back to the States and sell them for surplus. Such a weapon, in the hands of Americans that do love the Lord, will be quite a heritage item.
While you still rage and ruffle about the world should not have religious wars? they Muslims kills us over an imaginary slight in a fake movie. Why not let those soldiers who do want to fight for their faith, let them.
We are at war, our ideology is different, our faith is different, our belief in how we care for children, women, animals, slaves, everything is different. Don't tell me we are not a Godly nation. To those of you who believe that, I say to you, get on the next boat South and leave the United States - we are a God-fearing nation.
God Bless America
God Bless America and those who have the guts to keep on using those guns. Amen
much ado about nothing. frankly if the reference helps the soldier shoot more accurately then i say we scribed the entire weapon with the entire bible, verse by verse, but if it does not improve rifle marksmanship than i don't care if the reference is there or not. We did hear that approximately 2,000 people made complaints that translates to over half a million that had no concerns - in this case screw the 2,000 lol
Somebody in the Journalist group favors our enemies over us - that is my considered opinion as to this rash of "offenses" which we have not done. These enemies blow up our embassies, kill our young men, women, ambassadors, scorn our flag, God only knows that they think and say of our Lord behind our backs, but you can be sure, that to a man of them, their "calling" is to kill every one last of us.
An enemy is not a friend; he is not a misunderstood fellow who, on another day, might be nice; he is avowed to kill us all. Enough of this "be kind to our enemy day".
"Turning the cheek" refers to a man of equal standing who, at a moment of offense has found it necessary to hit out and strike a real counterpart in life. Then comes the admonish, "Turn the other cheek", for in doing this to a man who understands in the first place, the cowardice and inappropriate "hitting the first cheek" was and it, he becomes immediately convicted of his own sin; that is the point - to convict the other fellow of his sins.
The Muslims are not our counterparts - they have nothing to do with "the Book", they do not educate their children, wifes, etc., they believe and entertain slavery at this very moment. They would not understand, value or think of it any other way than that of a fearful person ready to become a slave; "turning the other cheek" if you turned the other page, turned the other anything. It is time Christians learned the real meaning of being a Christian; meek is not weak; again, it is an attitude before a possible convert, not an avowed enemy.
Again, the Eisenhower Doctrine in the early 1950's opened the door for countries in the Middle East - then in the midst of questions about whether communism or democracy was the way? -Eisenhower created the Doctrine so that in the event the country turned to the US, instead of Russia, there would be a countermeasure against communism.
If you will look? the communist party and regime fell apart in Russia in 1989 and now they use elections, etc., as any other democracy. The need for the US to "help" a country turn away from communism, is nonsense;unless they turn to China? but China also, has abandoned that road.
However they contain or do not contain their lives, religion, etc., is none of our concern except that they are an enemy. As such, all sanctions we can impose whould be imposed, all Muslims should be deported as soon as possible and further immigration from them should be forever barred; they are forever "not us".
The defense of this Country, "Under God" is undertaken at the very lives of Christians who believe in what they are doing. How dare you to make circumstances about the faith of this Country that has stood since its' beginning; whatever you "new age" satanists want to call yourself, you do not seek God, he is not in your thoughts, and your fear about real confrontation in any areana makes your "critic's" attitude sickening.
Again I say, any of you who oppose the type of government we have, the kinds of relationships we have with women, children, others of the faith? we do indeed fight against an enemy who would turn our entire life upside-down and remove all we have. Our approach to women is based, in a great amount, on the learned behavior of our Lord, who befriended women all his life, made examples of men who tried to hurt them, or put them down; etc. We are not confounded by your unbelief, rather, we know what we fight for; those of you who live here in the shadow of the glory, don't have a clue; that is God's grace to you, I guess, but I say again, avoid those who will call you out, ship you out and let the Muslims do whatever they want to do to you; I, for one, would book passage for you to Baghdad tonight if I could. One-way ticket.
Trijicon is a private company. It does business with everyday Americans as much as you want to single out the everyday American that happens to be a soldier for her.
This guy will get shot.
They make it sound like it is on the rifle, not on the optic MOUNTED on the rifle. Why be so offended by an inscription on a piece of metal. I am offended by a bunch of extremists who prefer to kill civilians, and who murder the helpless.