> But if you're unfamiliar, I'll explain that a common evangelical christian belief is that a national ID card may be somehow related to the "mark of the beast" stuff in revelations.
This is a parody by non-Christians of what most of them actually believe. For most of them the concern is over microchips, implants, or something physically on their person, not an ID Card, and even there is not uniform concern over it. Revelations itself says that it will be on their right hand or forehead, which no ID Card is. One could argue that it is a foreshadowing of things to come, if not itself it.
As for where the concern comes from, it's not the ID itself, as much as the implication that in the future, people will be required to commit apostasy in order to get an ID, or the chip, or whatever have you. Thus, they are opposed, so as to prevent such a lockout.
GP didn't say the ID was the mar of the beast, only that it was related to it. Having grown up in an evangelical household, I very much disagree that what he's said is a parody of what evangelicals believe. He is spot on.
Yes, frequently. It's not uncommon at all where I was raised (US South). We can talk to my father, or almost any member of his congregation, about how a national ID is a government plot to identify, control and harm the faithful.
Yes. They (my parents) believed any sort of centralized federal ID was a "slippery slope," though they weren't educated enough to know and use that exact phrase, towards an implanted chip, barcode tattoo, or whatever form they were convinced it would take.
really? still, to this day? one would think that evangelical Christians would skew conservative, and therefore be in favor of state/federal ID, for election security purposes.
These people are extremely conservative - well past treating "election security" as a primary concern and far closer to "welcoming the return of Jesus / the rapture" as their single motivating force. They'll of course support most other conservative causes, but only so far as they don't conflict with salvation.
Genuine questions: (1) what about obtaining an ID would somehow imply the need to commit apostasy and, as an extension (2) what about that would be unique versus, say, obtaining car insurance or a bank account?
Even assuming an eschatological evangelical worldview, it isn't immediately clear to me what distinguishes IDs from any other engagement in society.
Let me try to explain. The government of that time will say that you must publicly affirm your association with the beast to receive an identifier. The placement of the identifier on your hand or forehead will itself be positioned as a continual affirmation of your association with Team Beast. So, if you are wearing it then you are proclaiming your association with the beast. The beast is described as hating God and hating Christians and persecuting them. If you wear its badge (mark), then you would be affirming those actions.
This, obviously, creates a problem for Christians who are commanded to love God and to love others.
If it was just an identifier that held no other meaning, then it's fine, but it's called the "mark of the beast" and it's described as a literal badge of association with this creature. It's not just a bank account number.
Hope that helps. If not, just imagine how odious it would be, especially to Democrats, if Republicans made it a requirement to wear your MAGA hat to buy food.
"In order to have a valid citizenship ID you must submit to your biannual Multivax Booster+ Gold (or Platinum) plan sponsored by Pfizer"
I'm agnostic and always found these sorts of religious doomsday proclamations to be exaggerations, but after seeing what the masses have openly embraced over the last 2 years I know I was wrong. It hasn't made me religious, but I can definitely see their concern for being forced into any number of situations in order to fully participate in society.
There are a large number of people stuck in semi-permanent limbo because their disjointed federal IDs don’t agree about some combination of birthday, spelling of name, etc. I have a friend who fills out their taxes with a birthday which is not their birthday because they can’t get the SSA change the date on file(they insist the state must be wrong and that the state should change). Getting a passport required months of effort and ultimately a lawyer because the federal and state documents disagree.
Having one master citizen record would allow us to have one place to make changes and one group to appeal to when fixing errors.
Also, to be super clear, all Americans already have at least one federal ID, it’s just a bad one. Let’s make it less bad.
