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W.Va. offers licenses for those who fear 'beast'

Associated Press - August 8, 2008 4:33 PM ET

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - While some people don't trust the security of computer databases, for one small religious group in West Virginia they are nothing less than a "mark of the beast" -- indicating the arrival of the Antichrist.

To address those concerns, West Virginia has started keeping driver's license photos for members of the group out of the State Division of Motor Vehicles' database.

1 of the group's members made headlines in 1999 when he was fired as a schoolteacher for refusing to require his students to wear bar-coded identification badges. He was later reinstated after a circuit judge said the school board had made no attempt to accommodate his religious beliefs.

Hudok and his group have said bar codes and digital storage of photos are a way of numbering people, which they liken to a warning in the Bible's book of Revelation about a "mark of the beast."

W.Va. offers licenses for those who fear 'beast'

2 days ago

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia started Friday keeping driver's license photos out of a computer database for members of a small religious group who believe digital storage is a "mark of the beast" that evokes biblical prophecy.

State Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo said the group of about 50 or 60 Christians, who are not affiliated with a particular church, contacted the agency two or three years ago to object to their pictures "being on a database that can be exchanged throughout the world or hacked into."

One of the group members is Phil Hudok, who made headlines in 1999 when he was fired as a Randolph County school teacher for refusing to require his students to wear bar-coded identification badges. Hudok was later reinstated after a circuit judge said the school board had made no attempt to accommodate his religious beliefs.

Hudok and other members of his group have said bar codes and digital storage of photos are a way of numbering people, which they liken to a warning in the Bible's book of Revelation about a "mark of the beast" indicating the arrival of the Antichrist.

To accommodate their beliefs, state officials decided to issue driver's licenses to the group members that are exactly like other West Virginia licenses except that the individual photos will be removed from the computer immediately after they are taken by a digital camera.

Instead of being stored digitally, an 8-by-11-inch hard copy of each picture will be printed out and kept in a file. All other information, including birth dates and driving records, will be in the computer system, Cicchirillo said.

Without this accommodation, group members wouldn't get their driver's licenses, which the commissioner said would hamper their ability to get everyday services from insurance coverage to check cashing.

West Virginia adopted digital photo storage several years ago, in advance of the federal Real ID Act. The law, which has an implementation date of 2010, would establish national standards for state-issued driver's licenses and ID cards and enable the sharing of information about licensed drivers among all states.

Fearing ‘mark of the beast,’ teacher gets special driver’s license

Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter

‘And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name’

— Rev. 13: 16-17

Physics teacher Phillip Hudok, a fundamentalist Christian who once lost his job temporarily over bar-coded student ID cards, is driving now with an alternate license, sans the digitized photograph he fears is a step in putting the entire world under an end-time dictator, known in the Bible as the Antichrist.

Hudok traveled Friday to Charleston to pick up his new driver’s license, accompanied by Pastor Butch Paugh, a Nettie resident who pastors two fellowships, in Huttonsville and in Summersville.

Paugh views the digitized photograph on West Virginia operator’s cards as a prelude to the coming Antichrist, which the Book of Revelation says will exert global control on every human being via the number of his name, 666.

“We believe it pertains heavily to the ‘mark of the beast’ and the coming ‘mark of the beast,’” Paugh said, while en route to the Capitol.

“I’m not saying it is the ‘mark of the beast,’ but we’re certainly well on the road to it.”

Hudok once lost his job briefly at Elkins High School when he refused participation in a bar-coded student ID system, ultimately winning in the state Supreme Court on the appeal of a lower court edict in his favor.

In Bible studies and seminars, the topic of the West Virginia driver’s license frequently arose, he explained.

“We’re seeing what we talked about all the time — the prophetic progression of a tyrannical state that mirrors what the Bible talks about,” he said.

As far as he knows, Hudok is the first to reject the digitized photo and said he and Paugh decided to reach out to the news media as a means of spreading the word that West Virginia motorists aren’t obligated to have the three-dimensional photograph on their licenses.

“It’s ironic that when you get your driver’s license, the posting says that fingerprints are optional,” he said. “And yet, by taking the picture, you’re giving a fingerprint of your face. I don’t think most people are aware of it.”

Hudok’s opposition runs nearly parallel to a war waged against the federal Real ID card by Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, and Seth DiStefano, field organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union in West Virginia. DiStefano is Hudok’s next-door neighbor but wasn’t involved in the driver’s license issue. The ACLU official and Barnes, however, teamed up in an effort to block the state from participating in Real ID, but their bill died in a House committee last March.

“We have free will, and everyone has the option to do it or not do it,” Hudok said.

“They say you have to do this to travel and board a plane and open a bank account. When it comes right down to it, it’s still a personal decision as to whether you go along with a state or a federal mandate.”

Hudok’s alternate license contains an ordinary photograph, with this caption underneath: No digital image on file.

“They will take a picture,” he said of the alternate license. “We have no problems with something that’s not an identification. God gives us our uniqueness. We don’t believe it’s within our realm to submit that.”

Hudok says his understanding of Bible prophecy leads him to believe the seven-year Tribulation ushered in by a fascist world dictator known as the Antichrist isn’t far off.

“I can’t say (when), but we’re a lot closer than we were 10 years ago,” he said.

Back in 1999 when he resisted the bar-coded student IDs, Hudok warned all who would listen — and apparently most didn’t — about implantable computer chips the government could use to keep track of subjugated people in a dictatorship.

“When I told people that, they said we were crazy,” he said. “Now, people are taking chips.”

Paugh runs a Web site known as www.pastorbutch.com that is devoted heavily to end-time prophecy teaching.

For about 10 years, the pastor says he has eschewed a driver’s license, and, while he has been stopped on occasion, he has avoided punishment.

“Nothing bad happened to me because I feel I was instructed by the Holy Spirit 10 years ago that I couldn’t take a digitized picture,” he said. “I put my faith in God and started writing to the Division of Motor Vehicles.”

Hudok and Paugh said they have to clear a number of hurdles, but the breakthrough came when Gov. Joe Manchin lent a sympathetic ear last April and directed Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo to allow the special license.

“We really thank Gov. Manchin and Mr. Cicchirillo for doing this,” Paugh said. “We appreciate them.”

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com

Despite Real ID, WV licensees may exclude photos from licenses

By Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews

August 8, 2008, 6:25 PM

Religious fundamentalists in West Virginia are now being exempted from getting their digital photos emblazoned on their driver's licenses, after objections over carrying around what they conceive as the biblical "mark of the beast."

Although objecting West Virginians will still be required to have their license photos taken at a state Department of Motor Vehicles office, their photos will be removed from its computer immediately afterward, with the state retaining hard copies of the pictures at its main office.

But like other drivers, the fundamentalists will be required to keep their birth dates and driving records stored on the state's computer system, according to an account in West Virginia's Charleston Gazette today.

So far, only about a dozen people -- consisting of a local pastor and some of his followers -- have applied for special consideration for digital photos.

These folks purport to believe that digital photos on state drivers' licenses could spell the start of the "mark of the beast." In describing the "beast system," the Bible's Book of Revelations cautions that numbering people signifies "the arrival of the Antichrist."

The drivers license issue came up after one of the followers, a local teacher, refused to enforce school rules requiring students to wear bar-coded ID badges because he felt that practice violated his religious beliefs.

In 2006, the teacher, Phil Hudok, met with West Virginia DMV Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo -- along with pastor Butch Paugh and twelve others -- about compliance requirements around the Federal Real ID Act of 2005, which will ultimately force states to share information among themselves about licensed drivers.

Yet although it was passed in 2005, the Real ID Act has not really taken effect yet. As of April of this year, all 50 states had received extensions beyond the original compliance deadline of May 11, 2008, either because they'd applied for extensions or were simply granted extensions without soliciting them.

West Virginia's DMV commissioner said he views the exemption of the religious fundamentalists from digital photos on drivers licenses to be merely a "pilot project." So far, the state has committed only one camera to the pilot, according to Cicchirillo.

Huntington Herald-Dispatch

W.Va. DMV launches new program for religious group

Aug 08, 2008 @ 12:00 AM

By BILL ROSENBERGER

The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- The West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles launched a new program two weeks ago in an effort to keep several hundred residents legally on the road, while being sensitive to their religion.

Members of Call to Design Ministry, which classifies itself as Christian, don't believe in having their digital images stored on government computers. The DMV, sensitive to their belief, is trying the new program so members of the religion will renew, and in some cases, get a driver's license.

"They still drive, but they haven't renewed licenses because they objected to digital images," said Steve Dale, the assistant to DMV commission Joseph Cicchirillo. "But they have to retake tests because their licenses were expired."

Dale said the new program allows the computer system to delete the image from the person's file. But state and federal laws still require that their personal information, including social security number, date of birth, name and address, be on file.

The licenses that are issued include the picture, but are not considered in compliance with the REAL ID Act of 2005, which is not slated to go into effect until 2011. Dale said the identification cards given to these people would not be enough for them to travel on airplanes.

The ministry's Web site argues that people have the right to travel roadways that are constructed and maintained by tax dollars and a license shouldn't be required to drive.

The changes to the digital image was the compromise.

Dale said the department has only received three applications and hopes other members will comply with the compromise, which came out of various meetings with Gov. Joe Manchin and his staff.

Dale said the DMV can't take any legal action against these people, but if they are stopped for a moving violation, they are subject to fines for not having a valid driver's license.

Because most licenses are already expired, those members, or anyone else with an expired license for that matter, would have to retake the written and driving portion of the exam, which costs $5.

Call to Decision Ministries is out of Nettie, W.Va.

http://www.register-herald.com/local/local_story_105221324.html

Mannix Porterfield mannix@register-herald.com

http://www.sundaygazettemail.com/News/200808071407

Reach Tom Searls at tomsea...@wvgazette.com

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=71943

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/09/state-yields-to-sect-on-drivers-license/

http://www.kpax.com/Global/story.asp?S=8812838

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x214752922/W-Va-DMV-launches-new-program-for-religious-group

http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/26414159.html

http://www.betanews.com/article/Despite_Real_ID_WV_licensees_may_exclude_photos_from_licenses/1218234327

http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=8812838&nav=8H3x

http://wowktv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=42331

Montana’s News Station

8 KPAX Missoula Montana

W.Va. offers licenses for those who fear 'beast'

Associated Press - August 8, 2008 4:33 PM ET

To address those concerns, West Virginia has started keeping driver's license photos for members of the group out of the State Division of Motor Vehicles' database.

Hudok and his group have said bar codes and digital storage of photos are a way of numbering people, which they liken to a warning in the Bible's book of Revelation about a "mark of the beast."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) | West Virginia on Friday started keeping driver's license photos out of a computer database for members of a small religious group who believe digital storage is a "mark of the beast" that evokes biblical prophecy.

The Washington Times

State yields to sect on driver's license

Group believes digital storage 'mark of the beast'

Saturday, August 9, 2008

One of the group members is Phil Hudok, who made headlines in 1999 when he was fired as a Randolph County school teacher for refusing to require his students to wear bar-coded identification badges.

Mr. Hudok was later reinstated after a circuit judge said the school board had made no attempt to accommodate his religious beliefs.

Mr. Hudok and other members of his group have said bar codes and digital storage of photos are a way of numbering people, which they liken to a warning in the Bible's book of Revelation about a "mark of the beast" indicating the arrival of the antichrist.

LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER
Fear mark of the beast? State OKs special license
West Virginia drivers receive exemption from requirement to digitally store photo

Posted: August 09, 2008
8:00 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

It's not "666," but it's close enough to the New Testament's "mark of the beast," says a small religious group in West Virginia who has won an exemption from the state's requirement that driver's license photos be stored in a digital database.

Phil Hudok, a high school physics teacher in Randolph County, Pastor Butch Paugh and 12 others raised the issue in 2006 during meetings with Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo as the state prepared to bring its driver's license policy in line with the federal Real ID Act, passed a year earlier. Under Real ID, states would be required to share information about licensed drivers, including photos, with agencies in other states.

"We see us getting closer and closer to the mark of the beast," Hudok told the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

According to Revelation 16:1-2, those who are found with the mark are the objects of God's wrath:

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth."

So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

In 1999, WND reported Hudok's fight with the school board over his refusal to wear a photo ID with a bar code that had to remain visible at all times.

Hudok said that his religious beliefs prevented him from wearing the ID because it had a bar code displayed next to his photo. He said that he believed the card was the "mark of the beast" as referred to in the Book of Revelation in the Bible

Although he was given an exemption based on his religious beliefs, he was fired because he would not enforce the rule against students who refused to wear the computer-coded ID.

"I can't do that. How can I possibly ask someone to do something that I can't do myself? They've already given me permission to cut off the bar code, which I did. But they're saying that I have to enforce the students to wear their cards which have bar codes," Hudok at the time.

The school implemented the policy based on federal guidelines for reducing campus violence.

In August 2000, WND reported, the West Virginia State Supreme Court ordered Hudok reinstated with back pay and benefits.

Now, eight years later, without having to go to court, Hudok has succeeded in winning an exemption for those like himself who believe the growing computerization of personal information – in this case, photographs – have spiritual meaning and consequences.

Under the agreement worked out with the DMV, members of Paugh's group will be allowed to have their DMV pictures taken at the Capitol DMV office where a hard copy will be kept on file. The digital version, however, will be deleted from the computer system.

"What these people objected to was the digital image," Cicchirillo said. "All the other information stays there."

Perhaps a sign that Hudok's fellow believers compose a minority in the state, Cicchirillo said he had received few objections to the state's digital-photo requirement.

"Right now, I have three or four people who have requested it for religious reasons," he told the Gazette. "I think what they told me was it had to do with the mark of the beast.

"The only reason we're trying it is these people's religious beliefs and they don't want their pictures stored," he said of the "pilot program."

For Hudok, the digital photographs are "getting closer and closer to the mark of the beast" associated with the arrival of the Antichrist.

"They haven't defined what the limits will be on the Real ID," he said.

According to Hudok, the digital images can be used to establish "unique facial" characteristics that identify people better than their fingerprints.

"My children won't even have yearbook pictures taken," he said, saying that companies taking the images also forward them to the national Amber Alert for storage in the missing children program's database.

WOWK News 13

Is Your Driver's License Photo Tied To Biblical Prophecy?
Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 ; 06:07 PM
Updated Friday, August 8, 2008 ; 08:52 PM

DMV makes adjustments becaue that's the opinion of 3 Randolph County men.

Story by Gil McClanahan
Email | Bio | Other Stories by Gil McClanahan

Charleston -- Three Randolph County men are officially licensed drivers in West Virginia. They haven't had one for ten years because they say their Biblical convictions prevented it.

When the state stores your digital driver's license photo on their server, those men believe that's tied to Biblical Prophecy, giving your "God-given uniqueness" to the state.

"Because that's another way of identifying as the mark of the beast says, all people will be identified by a mark. That's another step in that system," says Pastor Butch Paugh of Randolph County.

Now the men are becoming legal drivers thanks to a compromise with the state. While their licenses are like everyone else's, their digital photo will be taken off the computer system. Instead, a regular photograph will be placed in a folder.

"Other than the fact we can eventually identify them, doesn't seem to present a problem at this point," says Joseph Cicchirillo, Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

"Just a sigh of relief. Now go out here and cash a check somewhere. I couldn't do that before because I didn't have an ID," says Richard Paugh of Randolph County.

The Federal Real ID system will begin to be implemented in January of 2010. The drivers license the gentlemen received today may not be compliant which means a whole new battle is possible.

"You're saying to the state they can control everything you do, monitor where you go. This is surrendering something that God gave me to the state," says Phillip Rudok of Randolph County.

The trio says the battle is far from over, believing individual rights and religious freedom are at stake.

The state says the licenses are part of a pilot program that could end at any time.

WSAZ TV Charleston

Posted: 8:05 AM Aug 8, 2008
Last Updated: 11:43 PM Aug 8, 2008
Reporter: Associated Press
Email Address: news@wsaz.com

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia is offering special driver's licenses to people who oppose digitized photos because they believe this could be the beginning of the biblical "mark of the beast" prophecy.

The Division of Motor Vehicles planned to distribute the special licenses Friday at its Capitol office.

Phil Hudok will be one of the first to receive a special license. The Randolph County teacher had refused to require his students wear bar-coded identification badges in 1998 because it violated his religious beliefs.

Hudok, pastor Butch Paugh and several others met with DMV Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo in 2006 after learning that the state was switching to the digitized licenses.

The DMV agreed to keep hard copies of the opponents' license photos instead of digitizing them.