That is my only issue with this whole thing. That or alternative sights be made available.

I am sure the vast majority of people on the ground using this kit, have no opinion. If they do, it's likely to have been shaped by ignorance and hatred which are both prevalent in our society at the moment. Why be "glad" that the UK haven't purchased? The issue here is why this a big deal, not the fact that it is. Wars are not just started by Christians. They are started by human beings for any number of reasons. People need to stop making such a fuss about the most ridiculous nonsense. As I said before, the fact is that this was a non-story for years until somebody made a fuss. Move on...

Ignorance and hatred, there's two descriptions I'd readily apply to the Christian churches.

Burn in hell, homosexuals are evil etc etc. It gets boring rather quickly. Who's intolerant?

maybe they should inscribe on these weapons

'we come in peace, shoot to kill' …

Lots of people are intolerant of a wide range of things - me included. It's not exclusive to Christians or anyone else who's part of a religion.

To this day some UK soldiers will say 'I gave them the good news with the MP5' or whatever, meaning somebody took a few rounds...

Armies and religion are often linked one way or another even if it's only tenuously, the difference then is those factors can be literally explosive I spose...

Agreed.

Sounds like you need to find a different Church to base your views on.

No I really don't think so. The Christian churches in this country - particularly the CofE and Catholic Churches - are renowned for discriminatory practices and only get away with it because of their historic and mythological status.

Women ordained as bishops? Heavens no! Some are more equal than others etc. A gay person working as a youth worker? Not in our church.

I don't pretend that this sort of thing doesn't happen outside of the Church, but for an organisation that supposedly believes in equality, the sanctity of human life and forgiveness it doesn't half stick its foot in its mouth sometimes.

There are several sects of the christian faith that are entirely accepting of homosexuals. There are even openly gay bishops for pete's sake. Not all christians are homophobes in the same way not all muslims are terrorists.

Jon

it's a woman leading the chaplaincy at uni or am i confused?

all christians are not equal. Jesus asked to welcome everyone as a brother. I get rather miffed by all those "good christians" who think that hating homosexuals, burning abortion centres and generally rejecting others will get them closer to heaven :s

This is what happens when I'm gone for a few days, I read a thread and there's so much I want to comment on I don't know where to start.
In no particular order:
Linux - What are these "Christian Churches" of which you speak? A church is just a body of people, and yes, as with any other body of people there is a degree of ignorance and intolerance, but it doesn't apply to everyone in that body of people, anymore than it would in any other group. If you agree that it's not limited to religious peoples of any particular kind then why do you keep choosing Christians as a focus for your comments? IME Christians are no more or less tolerant as a people than any other religious group, or in fact any other group of people, always picking on Christians makes you sound bigoted and we'll end up spending far more time talking the semantics of "people" than anything else.

In this case it's a Christian company printing tiny letters and numbers on a scope sight, no different to a regular serial or piece nbr. Knowing that the letters and numbers actually mean something to the company makes absolutely no difference as far as I can see. It's not as though people using the sights are going to note down the numbers and go away and look them up so they can take offence. I don't see it making any difference to your average soldier either, most soldiers already know that they are being arbitrarily prayed for and that's what this is, the people who make these things know what they're going to be used for and add their prayers before they go out. Most soldiers in the field have probably prayed more than once regardless of their affiliations so I doubt they'd care as long as the thing does it's job.

It's a nothing story, designed to cause trouble, the company aren't printing verses or paragraphs, just tiny numbers and letters which didn't mean anything to anyone until this story came out. Getting enraged about nothing is the exact intent and I refuse to play the 'spin' game.

I'm "picking on" Christianity because it's the dominant religion in this country. I've already used the Catholic and CofE churches as obvious examples of the "churches" I'm referring to. You're right, Christianity is no better or worse than any other religion or group of ignorant people, but it certainly gets used a lot to defend behaviour that's completely unacceptable in a civilised society.

I don't need someone telling me how to live my life because of what a magical book says - be that the Bible, the Qu'ran or any of the others. In my mind "man-made law" is far superior, (usually) being based on logic and reason rather than superstition.

Religion, IMO, is just a now defunct form of social control, to keep the plebs in order.

No, Christianity is only the dominant religion in this country according to the paperwork. In reality people just live their lives according to whatever they believe. Nobody (who matters) is telling you to live a particular way or "because of what a magical book says" and nobody is going to, so your reaction seems to be out of proportion.

Your opinion on religion is just that, your opinion. I don't understand why people can't just let everyone else get on with it! I'm not a Christian but I respect other peoples rights to believe whatever helps them get through the night. As long as they're not hurting anyone or trying to ram it down my throat then tolerance begins at home and "because God says so" is by no means the number 1 "reason" given for unacceptable behaviour. I see just as much bigotry aimed at Christians in my circle of people and I take issue with that as well.

As I said elsewhere, I have no problem with other people believing what they like, and like you I only object when people start "ramming down my throat". I'm also under no illusion that my opinion really matters. I may not like religion, but I'm not about to start a campaign to get it banned. In fact if there was a campaign to get it banned I would oppose it vociferously.