Tell me again how the U.S. Military is secular?

For enemy combatants with super-powered sniper rifle scopes, no doubt

I’ve been all over in the past about how the U.S. Military, what with its distribution of Christian Bibles in war-torn Islamic countries and its constant proselytizing, is quite the unwelcoming place for soldiers of other faiths, who routinely undergo humiliation and are treated as second-class comrades. Well, here’s even more evidence that a large faction in the Military really is out on a poorly disguised religious crusade; what else would you call having evangelical New Testament references inscribed on soldiers’ weapons and equipment?

Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States 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.

One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Other references include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as "the light of the world." John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

But, yeah, no-one’s out to evangelize or convert any of those wikkid Moslems, are they?

For a shocking report, it leaves me thoroughly unsurprised. Instead, it merely reaffirms what we’re all told isn’t so when endless revelations of this sort demonstrate how it so obviously is: that a large part of the U.S. Military holds proselytizing on equal par with defending its nation’s interest. That is what’s most disturbing of all.

(via @todayspolitics)