Proselytizing Practices

While the Supreme Court today defended the freedom of speech for American businesses, one American business was forced to water down its message after a brutal three-day media campaign. Trijicon, a Michigan based military supplier, recently announced it will cease to provide rifle sites with Bible verses and will even provide kits to remove the offenses.

Because the downfall of the Bible Sites was so quick, let me fill you in. This Michigan company has been providing supplies to the military, including those in active service, for a very long time. However, recently the company came under fire because the scopes that it sells to the military has Bible verse, typed out in shorthand code, on the end. The articles described the verses as listed at the end of the the serial number. The references read JN8:12 or 2COR4:6. That seems harmless enough.

However, there was an outcry from the same people that fear prayer in school and people wearing crucifixes in public. First, they said, this was an example of proselytizing in the military, which was clearly banned. Second, they said that these scopes might cause Muslims to believe that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq really are new age crusades.

Wrong on both accounts - and a little paranoid.

First of all, this is not proselytizing. The military was unaware of these scriptures until the story broke. Further, "JN8:12" does not seem to me overtly Christian, and a person would have to willingly follow the trail of coded letters and numbers to an actual Bible before they were ever inundated with Christian teachings. The placement on the scope seems subtle enough as well. I would imagine that the maker of the scopes had a good intention to declare his faith (subtly) and perhaps spread hope among soldiers. Overwhelmingly, those who would open the Bible to see what the references mean would be those soldiers who actually have a Bible, and are therefore already Christians or seekers. Other soldiers who might turn to the verses would also be seekers who might ask a Christian buddy to help them figure out the code.

The other charge is also ludicrous, in light of the words of the scriptures. Although the Old Testament is full of stories of God asking the Israelites to wipe out their (His) enemies, the verses on these scopes do not reference war at all. John 8:12 says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." And 2 Corinthians 4:6 says, "For God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Christ." The scriptures speak of light.

Does bringing a message of light into a soldier's dark world constitute a religious crusade? Frankly, the verses bring humanity back to war. Imagine your brave American soldier - he is over in Iraq risking his life to keep our country free. But does he like what he's doing? No - war scars people. You can't engage in active combat without feeling it. And if you can, well, then the hardness of your heart may be a scarier threat than the enemy you are fighting over there. The fact is, bringing a message of hope is a great idea. It reminds soldiers (who are already Christian) what they are fighting for, what they can expect in the end, and who is ultimately in charge.

These inscriptions are not a threat to anyone - ANYONE! Much larger a threat is the mindset that says that a few letters and numbers have to be immediately erased or else risk an international crisis. But honestly, what kind of message is being sent to soldiers when messages of hope are suddenly banned? I say leave the inscriptions on! They will hurt no one, and they will serve to aid those who need it in a time when they need it most.

I would also like to talk on a similar subject to a study that came out today about how Americans feel about Muslims. Not very well.

It's no surprise, really. Although we are all told, and I believe most people truly believe, that the acts of terrorism we experience are the acts of radical extremists who represent the fringes of their religion, it is hard to accept this fact when you are afraid for your life. Some would say that ignorance is the heart of prejudice, and this is somewhat true. What is a more accurate statement is that prejudice comes when someone's representative sample of a group of people is so small as to not accurately display the group as a whole.

Muslims represent less than 1% of the American population. So, less than 1 in 100 people are Muslim. I don't have anywhere near 100 friends, so my chances of having a Muslim friend are pretty slim. The study found that those who knew a Muslim personally were a lot more inclined to think favorably of Islam as whole.

So think about this - most people don't know any Muslims, or do not know a Muslim well. Our only representations of Muslims come from the news. Basic headlines related to Islam include acts of terror, mistreatment of women, and tyrannical religious regimes in the middle east.

That is not Islam. We know that Islam shares some basic tenets of faith with Judaism and Christianity. We know that Allah is their word for God and that, like Christians and Jews, Muslims believe in only one God. Muslims pray. They worship. They try to follow their faith's teachings.

The study showed that those who attend a religious service of some sort regularly were more inclined to have a positive view of other faiths. Well that's interesting. For my entire life I've been told that Christians are biased. We shove our faith down the throats of others (like with the rifle scopes), and we will not tolerate other religions. However, apparently intolerance is more linked with either atheism and agnosticism, or with those who claim a certain faith but do not follow through. Those who practice their faith (charity based faiths like Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) know that God loves all His children. We each believe He has a specific plan in showing that love, but that does not justify hatred, mistrust, or violence towards people of other faiths. In addition, those who attend religious services regularly feel, like I have felt, the hatred directed towards us from the media. How can we, then, justify similar feelings towards other religions when we have felt the heat of judging ourselves?

Finally, on that point, the study showed a mistrust of Muslims by a large degree - over 40% of people in the study claimed "a little prejudice" toward Muslims. Interestingly enough, the next religion on the list - Christianity. Although much lower than Islam, 18% of those polled expressed a little prejudice towards Christianity, as opposed to just 15% against Judaism. This is an interesting number in light that, about 82% of Americans are Christians. So what does that mean? It sounds like somewhere around 40% of Christians are prejudiced against Muslims. However, 100% of non-Christians are prejudiced against Christians.

So which religion is the most intolerant?