As far as I can tell, there are reasonable arguments against the REAL ID Act stemming from likely invasions of privacy. But some small-government activists, anxious to defeat the legislation, have found that they can broaden their coalition by reaching out to religious groups with, well, unusual concerns about the bill.
Critics of federal legislation to establish nationwide identification standards are tapping into religious groups to galvanize resistance to the statute.
The authors of a New Hampshire bill to make the Granite State the first to reject the so-called REAL ID Act have cited financial and constitutional concerns about its implementation. But several conservative Christian groups that have endorsed the New Hampshire proposal are largely motivated by their belief that the law is a sign of the apocalypse.
According to leaders of the movement against the statute, the cause has benefited immensely from the active participation of groups that view the law as the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy. Such groups refer to scripture that predicts that humans will be numbered by marks on their foreheads and hands before the arrival of the antichrist. (emphasis added)
Apparently, it’s quite sincere. States such as New Hampshire and West Virginia are working on state measures in opposition to the REAL ID Act and have found religious groups to be very helpful, in large part because they’re “highly mobile and well-organized.”
Irvin Baxter, the publisher of a religious magazine called Endtime, said he was specifically disappointed in President Bush for his support for national IDs. Baxter said he hoped Bush would be more sympathetic to Christian concerns about national IDs.
“I am stunned,” Baxter said. “He either skipped over that part of the Bible, or he completely misunderstood it.”
Another important fissure between the president and his religious-right base? Well, probably not.