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Under Their Skin: Evangelicals get worked up over human microchip implants
Nashville Scene ^ | March 20, 2008 | Jeff Woods

Posted on 03/27/2008 9:07:36 AM PDT by Alex Murphy

After losing the usual fights against gays and abortion during the legislative session so far, Christian conservatives suddenly have decided to start standing up for privacy rights in an urgent, new movement to ensure that you will never be forced to have a microchip implanted under your skin.

And you didn’t know anyone was trying to stick a microchip into you? Well, no one is really (except maybe in the vivid imaginations of certain conspiracy theorists), but that’s not stopping evangelicals from rallying behind the issue as if Pat Robertson’s TV ratings depend on it.

“We’re trying to get ahead of the curve on this one,” says Bobbie Patray, matriarch of this state’s Christian right. As president of the Tennessee Eagle Forum, she’s leading the charge to outlaw forced electronic tagging of humans.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, the data-storing microchips that we’re talking about here, could serve a lot of purposes in people—to store medical information, chiefly. But there have been no forcible implants, at least none that we know about.

So why are conservative Christians so riled up? There are the predictable paranoid anti-government types who figure anything’s possible once the black helicopters sweep in. But this fight’s really dedicated soldiers believe implanted microchips could become—cue the Twilight Zone music—Satan’s Mark of the Beast, which, as we all know from our readings of Revelation, is one way the devil will wield power over the Earth during the time of Tribulation.

At the website for the Texas-based Endtime Ministries, they even sell an “eye-opening video” all about RFID tags and “the need to be aware of how to combat the system that will soon become the Mark of the Beast.” We’re not making this up.

“In the Christian religion, and I’m a Christian, in the book of Revelation, there was a reference to, you know, the Mark of the Beast. Some people interpret that to be one of these microchips,” says Rep. Susan Lynn, the Lebanon Republican who’s sponsoring the Eagle Forum’s bill.

Lynn, who discusses the Mark of the Beast as nonchalantly as she would the state’s bond rating, concedes “it’s hard to say” whether microchips are actually Satan’s stamp. “Other people think it could be some type of tattoo,” she explains.

Regardless, Lynn says, “It’s an individual liberty. For whatever reason, no one should be forced to have a microchip, and no one should be discriminated against just because they don’t have an electronic chip under their skin.” You can’t argue with that.

Patray herself is sensitive to the possibility of mockery on this topic. “Are you going to write a smear piece on this?” she asks. “Are you going to make it sound idiotic?”

The legislation could certainly be viewed as idiotic, given that it aims to outlaw something that isn’t a threat in Tennessee. But its backers would call it visionary, as some companies around the country have considered asking employees to roll up their sleeves for microchip injections to gain access to high-security areas. Microchips also can be used to track movement, so they’ve been considered for use with Alzheimer’s patients. The Pentagon is studying whether to implant chips into the arms of soldiers.

Three states—California, North Dakota and Wisconsin—have taken preemptive action by prohibiting forced RFID tagging. Maybe they’re onto something. But don’t worry—until Tennessee outlaws it, we can all wrap our heads in tin foil.


TOPICS: Apologetics; Evangelical Christian; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS:
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To: Resolute Conservative

How do you know the infrastructure is being built?


21 posted on 03/27/2008 9:52:06 AM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: stuartcr

I see new cell towers every so often and crews laying fiber everywhere. Something is being built and it is not snow cone makers or water heaters ( said with heavy Austrian accent ).


22 posted on 03/27/2008 9:54:39 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: Alex Murphy

What would power these underskin devices, that could communicate with satellites? What would happen if you walked under a bridge, or wore a heavy coat? My cell phone doesn’t even have good coverage in most of the US.


23 posted on 03/27/2008 9:55:13 AM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: stuartcr; Resolute Conservative; topcat54
Wouldn’t this all be dependent upon an incredible wireless network?....How do you know the infrastructure is being built?

What better place to start than with Starbucks? There's a Starbucks on every corner in America - and sometimes there's more than one on every corner:
MORE THAN 12 MILLION AT&T, STARBUCKS CUSTOMERS TO GET FREE WI-FI ACCESS FOR A RICH IN-STORE EXPERIENCE

"To our valued Starbucks customer: Just wait until you see the exciting changes we've got in store for you as part of our new Phase Two. When you finally see what we've got brewing here at Starbucks, you'll have no choice but to love it."
Starbucks To Begin Sinister 'Phase Two' Of Operation

24 posted on 03/27/2008 9:57:38 AM PDT by Alex Murphy ("Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" -- Galatians 4:16)
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To: Resolute Conservative

They are running out of IP4 addresses, and will be going to IP6 in the near future. Do you know what it would take to be able to reliably ID every person? The database would be gigantic, and require huge amounts of assets to run it.


25 posted on 03/27/2008 9:58:20 AM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: stuartcr

Nothing for the dark prince and his prophet. It is not so much about getting ID’d but being marked and they can work to ID every one. If you don’t have your “pass” you don’t get to buy/sell.


26 posted on 03/27/2008 10:00:40 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: stuartcr

You mean like a SSN or driver’s license does now for majority of people in this country.


27 posted on 03/27/2008 10:01:30 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: stuartcr; Alex Murphy
Exactly how does satan wield power over someone with the mark of the beast?

It not a literal mark, or some technology inserted under the skin, or other contemporary nonsense.

If you use the "analogy of faith" and interpret Scripture with Scripture, you will see that a mark on the forehead is used to represent ownership.

There are two groups of people in the world; the children of God (light) and the children of the devil (darkness). God’s children are pictured in Revelation as having a seal in their forehead (Rev. 7:2). This sealing is representative of God’s marking out His own in the world. Once sealed the world cannot hurt them, spiritually speaking (Rev. 9:4). In the OT Aaron is pictured as having the mark of God on his forehead (Ex. 28:36-38).

In similar fashion the children of darkness are pictured as having a mark on their forehead related to the beast. The distinction here is that those who inhabit the kingdom of darkness are able to participate fully in that system, symbolized by "buying and selling". Those who inhabit God’s kingdom have no need for such business, since we are able to buy all that we need directly from Christ (Rev. 3:18).

Revelation is about symbols that represent reality. Reality does not lie in any "literal" interpretation of the imagery. That will only lead to confusion.

28 posted on 03/27/2008 10:05:09 AM PDT by topcat54 ("Light beer is the devil's beverage.")
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To: Alex Murphy; stuartcr
Global Positioning Systems. That Garmin / Tomtom you have on your dashboard may just be the next "Mark of the Beast".

There are super secret technologies in the works that all these Arthur C. Clark wannabes cannot even imagine their potential.

They are so devilish, so fiendish, that even a superb fiction writer like Tim LaHaye will have trouble keeping his adjectives straight.

When Jack Van Impe Ministries gets wind of it, Rexella will simply go bonkers.

And Hal Lindsey will get so excited, he won’t be able to remember whether he’s married to wife number 3 or 4.

29 posted on 03/27/2008 11:33:29 AM PDT by topcat54 ("Light beer is the devil's beverage.")
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To: topcat54

I may be Catholic, and you may say Revelations is all symbolic, but the day the federal government comes to my door offering free credit card implants is the day I hop a slow boat to Malta....


30 posted on 03/27/2008 11:39:56 AM PDT by Eepsy (The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.)
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To: Resolute Conservative

Yeah, but on a global scale.


31 posted on 03/27/2008 12:01:16 PM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: Resolute Conservative

I believe it is about getting ID’d. These things are going to have to talk back and forth to each other using something like PKI encryption, in order to really know who is who, and verify their data at a minimum, and things like that. There will have to be data banks, servers, mechanisms for routing info in order to see if someone has the required assets, etc...an infrastructure and logistic nightmare.


32 posted on 03/27/2008 12:04:53 PM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: Eepsy
I may be Catholic, and you may say Revelations is all symbolic, but the day the federal government comes to my door offering free credit card implants is the day I hop a slow boat to Malta....

Depends on the line of credit they are offering.

33 posted on 03/27/2008 12:11:00 PM PDT by topcat54 ("Light beer is the devil's beverage.")
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