AA Press Release: Atheists Hail Removal of Bible Citations from Military Rifles
For more information, please contact:
Ed Buckner, President 908-499-9200 (cell) or 770-803-5353 (office/fax)
Dave Silverman, Communications Director 732-648-9333
Kathleen Johnson, Vice President and Military Director 318-542-1019
ATHEISTS HAIL REMOVAL OF BIBLE CITATIONS, CALL FOR MORE SCRUTINY IN MILITARY TO PREVENT RELIGIOUS PROSELYTIZING
An Atheist public policy group praised plans to remove Bible citations from hundreds of thousands of rifle sights sold to the U.S. military under contract following an outcry from civil liberties and state-church separation groups.
A Michigan-based manufacturer, Trijicon, has announced that it will no longer imprint the citations on rifle sights used by troops in the Middle East, and distribute a special kit for removing the offensive lettering on existing rifles.
Dr. Ed Buckner, President of Americana Atheists, charged that the Bible passages “conveyed a message of intolerance and religious bullying to the very people in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq we are ostensibly trying to liberate.”
“By eliminating these ‘Christian crusader’ references, we are no longer handing al Qaeda and other Islamic religious fanatics a priceless propaganda vehicle,” added Buckner.
Kathleen Johnson, Vice President and Military Director for American Atheists, also praised the elimination of the offending Bible citations, but wondered why this issue even came up.
“The military has strict rules in place to prohibit actions that make it appear as if US Forces are proselytizing or are crusading against the Muslim faith” said Johnson. “There were apparently no controls or oversight here, as tens of thousands of these ‘Christian rifle sights’ were being sold at public expense and distributed in theaters of operation.
Johnson called for more explicit regulations, including a written requirement that any materials purchased by the Department of Defense be “religion-free and neutral”. Johnson further added a demand that senior leaders within the military ensure the imprinted bible citations are removed. “We cannot have a situation where individual commanders elect to keep the imprinted bible citations and the only way to prevent that is to make leaders accountable for compliance” said Johnson.
AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First
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