an open letter

To all of the individuals who are throwing hateful, intolerant, frothing-at-the-mouth, world-class tempertantrums at the idea that a private company adorned its products with encoded, tiny-assed Biblical verse references, allow me to explain something to you:
Those abbreviated, unobtrusive, and hardly noticed inscriptions were on Trijicon products from nearly the beginning of the company (1981ish)… and before they received their military contract.
Furthermore, I am willing to wager (though I have no way of proving) that all of the example products the military tested during contract-approval and acceptance trials all had the not-really-attention-grabbing Bible verse references on them.
Finally, I am additionally wililng to wager (though I again have no way of proving) that all of the products Trijicon has delivered to the military in their 20-odd years of doing so have all borne the Bible verse references that are causing so much trouble.
So let me make this as simple as I can: all of those knee-jerking, narrow-minded folks raging about the Bible verse references are not only ignorant morons, they are also misguided morons, and morons who are being played.
To begin with, their rage has almost exclusively been directed at Trijicon, who is simply doing what they have always done, for as long as they have done it (nearly the entire life of the company). However, it is not exactly like these optics were forced on the military. The military tested, examined, tore apart, rebuilt, and beat the unloving hell out of these products before adopting them as pretty much the standard, and even after those inspections (which probably have to be redone every time the contract comes up), the military still uses Trijicon products, despite the presence of Bible verse references. If you really want to be honest (which is something of a stretch for some of the people involved), the organization you should be raging against is typically referred to as “procurement”, and is part of the DoD, not some private company. After all, the DoD accepted a product with evil Jesus Codes on it!
As for “being played”, Trijicon’s products have served in Panama, Desert Storm, police forces around the world, and every major military engagement since, and yet in those 20+ years of service, the issue of these teensy, abbreviated Bible verse references has never come up. Did no one notice? Over the course of 20 years and millions of various operators, I find that somewhat hard to believe, but I have been called “cynical” before.
Thankfully, representatives from the military have said exactly what I hoped:

Military officials said the citations don’t violate the ban [against proselytizing by American troops] and they won’t stop using the telescoping sights, which allow troops to pinpoint the enemy day or night.

[...]

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which manages military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the inscribed sights don’t violate the ban on proselytizing because there’s no effort to distribute the equipment beyond the U.S. troops who use them.

“This situation is not unlike the situation with U.S. currency,” said the spokesman, Air Force Maj. John Redfield. “Are we going to stop using money because the bills have ‘In God We Trust’ on them? As long as the sights meet the combat needs of troops, they’ll continue to be used.”

And that is exactly how it should be – Trijicon secured its military contracts, and has kept them, because they make an oustanding product that can consistently put warheads on foreheads in any environment, any circumstances, and any abuse. They have their contract because they make one of the best, if not the best, product on the market, and any individual who would force our soldiers, sailors, and airmen to use an inferior product simply due to that individual’s personal bigotry and intolerance is not only an idiot, but also flat-out wrong.
Of course, that has never stopped people in the past…