I'm not saying there should be absolutely zero religion in the military - no problem at all with my tax dollars paying for chaplains, services, religious items for the troops like Bibles, a religious burial, a tombstone w/ a religious symbol on it at Arlington, you name it.
The issue here is that 1) these inscriptions are counterproductive to the mission 2) not everyone is a Christian, or if they are, not necessarily one who approves of their holy book being on weaponry.
If #1 was not an issue (basically if they were using them anywhere but the Middle East or we were fighting a combat war instead of a guerrilla war/occupation) I would care quite a bit less as #2 is more opinion/personal. Then, like Andy has pointed out, it becomes a simple matter of the best tool for the job.
Lynnie - Since the beginning I have been SO glad they didn't have any Old Testament on there - it would be like every national holiday rolled into one for the terrorists if we had guns w/ "Jewish" inscriptions on them!
Good point: Perhaps the Muslims would have considered an Old Testament inscription to be Jewish, but for a Christian, the Holy Bible is a complete Word, inclusive of Old Testament scripture. And, the Jewish Torah is only the Pentateuch, right? There are a lot more books in the Old Testament than the first five.
And, that's all I have for this topic because I think one's theology is very personal. ;-)
Contractor relents as Petraeus slams Biblical markings on rifle sights | Stars and Stripes
and directly to the point raised earlier by SB:
"There?s a reason that we put people through cultural awareness training,? Petraeus said, referring to pre-deployment training programs. ?I can assure you that there is much greater sensitivity among our troops about this sort of thing than apparently there is from the contractor"
I do not disagree that the "government" should have found this before and done something about it; but, I will be willing to bet that another story could be written about the government bureaucrat who approved this contractor and the lobbyist who was involved.