Who Would Jesus Draw a Bead On?

This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while. -- George W Bush

I think a hippie-looking dude walked around preaching peace and anti-poverty messages about 2000 years ago. The Historical Jesus, so to speak, probably did actually exist. Thomas Jefferson cut all the "miracles" out of the New Testament, creating the Jefferson Bible, and wound up with a pretty decent account of a liberal preaching compassion, socialism, and love.

Now we get this fun story of Christian Fascists in the military industrial complex inscribing "JN8:12" (among others) on a rifle sight that we're using to train Iraqis. Problem is, that is against the law.

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.

Hey, but when has the law ever mattered to these Crusaders?

Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions "have always been there" and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is "not Christian."

Oh, I'm pretty sure there's some Christians that would not take kindly to attaching the name of Jesus onto an implement of death, especially when you remember all the backpedaling George W Bush had to do after letting the world know what he really thought of the war in Iraq.

The group that Mr. Munson might be referring to is the MRFF.

"It's wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws," said Michael "Mikey" Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group that seeks to preserve the separation of church and state in the military.

See Constantine's Sword for a great historical review of this subject, and for more on the MRFF and Mr. Weinstein.