Though at one point it was maligned for publicizing its Christianity, optical sight maker Trijicon has consistently been praised for its world-class rifle sights.
More to the point, a recent US Marine recruit training company graduated having qualified using only Trijicon’s AN/PVQ-31 Rifle Combat Optics, as opposed to the “iron sights” traditionally used. The result?
“I can tell you Bravo Company had 30 percent more Read more
Michael Weinstein seems to revel in excoriating those with whom he disagrees. His attacks are filled with ellipses and alliterative assaults questioning everything from people’s character to their patriotism.
He has equated officers in the US Army with rapists and racists. He’s stooped to gradeschool name-calling. He has even implied the threat of violence upon critics as varied as Rush Limbaugh and Gordon Klingenschmitt.
Another favored Weinstein tactic, though, is the somber and vaguely-worded legal threat. While it seems Weinstein threatens to sue someone virtually every time he opens his mouth, some have had the privilege of actually getting a letter from one set or another of Weinstein’s lawyers. One sent a letter to Trijicon for saying Trijicon’s critics were “not Christian.” Another Weinstein legal threat went out against the publishers of the Colorado Springs Gazette after it criticized his “[opposition] to the free exercise of religion.”
As previously noted, Weinstein’s lawyers also directed a threat of a lawsuit at ChristianFighterPilot.com after this site pointed out Weinstein’s substantial personal compensation from his self-founded “charity.”
It is readily apparent Michael Weinstein, the man who employs vitriolic criticism as naturally as others breathe, can’t stand a whit of criticism himself.
Even from a Jewish soccer mom. Read more
According to a Michigan news site, the “Bible-references flap” from earlier this year (which was frequently misrepresented) hasn’t put a damper on the bottom line of Trijicon, the maker of advanced (and popular) gunsights for weapons.
In fact, it might even have helped.
Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing at Trijicon, said the company has removed controversial Biblical verse references from inscriptions in its military orders but still includes them in commercial sales to hunters, collectors and others. He also said the company this year is on track for more business than last year under its military contracts, despite Read more
The notoriously blunt-speaking Michael Weinstein recently demonstrated an unusually thin skin when he threatened legal action against a potential critic of his organization. The statement at issue occurred in the original ABC News article on the Trijicon gun sights:
Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions “have always been there” and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is “not Christian.”
Apparently, the MRFF is offended by that characterization, though the MRFF isn’t explicitly named and the quote itself is paraphrased. Weinstein’s organization took the unusual step of releasing its legal correspondence to an internet blogger, who quoted the following paragraph from a legal letter in response to the statement above:
Referring to the Foundation as a group which is “not Christian” is not only inaccurate and shamelessly false, but demonstrably contrary to fact. Approximately 96 percent of the Foundation’s nearly 16,000 active duty military clients and enumerable additional supporters are in fact practicing Christians by faith. To state otherwise not only slanders the Foundation, but also all of its clients. Further, the Foundation’s largest supporter is the California Council of Churches IMPACT, which is comprised of 5,500 Christian congregations, 21 distinct Christian denominations, and, directly and indirectly, millions of individual Christians.
The “legal letter” came from the same law firm that Weinstein is currently employing in Weinstein v Ammerman.
The stern rebuke from Weinstein’s MRFF is laughable. Consider the ramifications Read more
Trijicon, the now-infamous maker of high quality gun sights, has been accused of illegally “proselytizing” for adding Bible references to the weapon sights it provided to the US military. The initial accusation has already been discussed, as has Trijicon’s voluntary offer to remove the inscriptions.
The term proselytize carries a negative stigma and is frequently misused, as it has been in this case. An astute letter to the editor at the Stars and Stripes notes that it would likely take more than 6 characters “to convert” someone from or to a faith, as the definition of proselytize indicates.
Still, the accusations of “conversion by Bible reference” have been largely based on the presence of New Testament references to Jesus Christ on Trijicon’s sights. However, not a single major news outlet asked why Trijicon selected the specific verses they did. It would appear most, if not all, made the assumption that Trijicon was picking “Jesus verses” for the ineptly worded purpose of “proselytizing”–an assessment supported by news organizations generally paraphrasing only the “Jesus” part of the relevant verses, as well as the popularity of the inaccurate and perjorative term “Jesus rifle” that resulted. However, an elementary web search reveals that is not the case. If one considers all of the verses that Trijicon has selected, it puts their “intent” in a whole new light. Read more
The latest “breaking scandal” on religion and the military is nearly laughable. In short:
This “controversy” is so contrived as to be ridiculous. However, if you’d like to read more, what follows is a cross-section of the comments made and the reasoning (or lack thereof) behind them. Read more