VeriChip and the End Times

One of the most coveted email addresses on the internet is undoubtedly the Medgadget tip line, or, as we like to call it, the “Inbox of the Future.” Aside from the groundbreaking new products that come to our attention (and the desperate pleas for Nigerian bank transfers), we get some interesting notices of petitions and protests.
Yesterday, John Conner, leader of TheResistanceManifesto.com (and pictured at right as a boy) informed us of the boycott against VeriChip, the RFID makers we featured last week (and on other occasions). Conner and many like him are convinced that implanted using radio-frequency identification (RFID) for transactions is described in the Bible, as a precondition for the end times.
Apparently this is a widespread movement with the support of serious Christians. From a recent Wired article:

Albrecht fears that retailers will match the data emitted by the tags with their customers’ information, turning each tag into a potential tracking beacon. She also suspects the government will want access to the retailers’ RFID databases.
But one aspect of Albrecht’s anti-RFID crusade has been attracting a lot of attention from other privacy groups: her religious beliefs… she believes that RFID technology may be part of the fulfillment of the Mark of the Beast prophesied in the Book of Revelation.

In Revelations 13:16-18, it is written:

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. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

We, too, are wary of the potential for privacy invasion. And if the Lord works in mysterious ways, we can accept Satan does, too. But we’re not sure what’s more far-fetched: RFID chips triggering Armageddon, or the notion that Armageddon can be halted by a consumer boycott.
Still, we wish success to the proponents of privacy, and suggest a phrase for the boycotters: “Keep Government Out of Our Bodies.”
Pray for us on Judgment Day.
More at Snopes.com and VeriChip…