The Military Religious Freedom Foundation and it’s founder, Mikey Weinstein, have taken to task a Michigan weapons manufacturer for allegedly violating the U.S. military’s ban on proselytizing within its ranks. At issue are rifle scopes supplied by Trijicon Inc. for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan which bear numerical references to Bible verses along side the model numbers. An ABCNews.com report showed one scope with JN8:12 engraved on it, apparently a reference to the New Testament’s gospel of John.

Trijicon officials have not responded to the issue directly but have confirmed the existence of the Bible verse engravings. For their part, U.S. military officials claim they were unaware of the markings which thus far, have not posed any big problem within the ranks of combat soldiers. Weistein disagrees there’s no problem, claiming the Bible verse references put American soldiers at greater risk. He says he’s already received several complaints from soldiers and Marines.

Whether the engravings stay or go may eventually be decided by the military ban on proselytizing. Supporters of Trijicon’s actions claim the ban only applies to soldiers who would proselytize individually within their ranks. Furthermore, the contracts Trijicon signed with the government neither require nor prohibit the markings.