Disclosure: I think the conception of separation of church and state that gets bandied about by most of those attempting to use it to force what is, in effect, pure secularism in the public sphere is absolutely wrong and ignores both the language and intent of the Constitution. Also, if I ever have to hear or talk about the Lemon test again I'm going to curl up in a ball and cry. Also, I think the group that is bringing all this to attention is full of crap.

Having said all that, what the hell is this company thinking?

If you want the military's business, then you play by the miltary's rules.  There are specific rules in place about proselytizing in the Middle East to try to keep that whole pesky Crusade/Holy War thing from gaining credence.  It should also be obvious to anyone with an above room temperature IQ that doing this will open huge huge problems with church and state issues.  We're not talking about a soldier choosing on his own to put these there.  We're talking about a company shipping out the parts with Bible references already on them.  From looking at the pictures, you couldn't get this off absent some major filing work.

Look, if the company doesn't like the rules or doesn't like the idea that it can't ship it's product without some Biblical reference, then try to change the rules.  You'd have my support on that.  Hell, the Scientologists would have my support on that.  But don't go doing this and then whine about help help you're being oppressed.  It infuriates me that organizations that are trying to keep any reference to God out of the public sphere entirely turn around and get support for their claim that there are those who are specifically trying to make there be state support for religion.

It's not okay for the manufacturer of a weapon being sold to the military to put a Biblical reference on that weapon.  Note I'm limiting this to that situation, if a solider wants to write whatever on it, that's different.  But, yeah, this is not that situation.  The company should have known better.  And if the company wanted to do this anyway, then the company bears the costs of doing that.  I'm sorry, but I can't get worked up about this the way I can about kids praying in school.  This is a company who is getting directly paid by the US government to provide a good.  Accepting that contract means accepting all kinds of limitations.

Btw, I really don't believe the guy about the whole Jesus rifles thing.   But still. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 12:52 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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