They Want To Microchip Us!

I was reading a thread on Facebook by old church friends and it drifted into the whole vaccine, microchip, mark of the Beast rabbit hole. I definitely would not want to get into that sticky web but I did toss in my history. After all, at 18 I was living in Texas at a religious commune called Last Days Ministries -

"Man, I was raised on Chick Tracts. Every new medical gadget or piece of wireless technology was an indicator that the Beast was surely around the corner. Every shift in geopolitics brought out another round of books from LaHaye, VanImpe, Wilkerson, etc.. showing how it was all predicted in Revelation. THEY were going to put a chip in our hand or barcodes on our foreheads. The Rapture was imminent. Another year or two, three at the most, before it all ends. Any day now... any day...

I bought into it. But the 70s went by, the 80s went by, somewhere in the 90s - even as a believer - I realized all of this had an element of conspiracy thinking in it and that I wasn't going to be flying skyward in a trumpet blast. Barring any disease, I was going to live to a ripe old age and die. That was quite a difference from the 18-year-old me who ALMOST didn't go to college because Jesus was surely coming back within the next year... two at the most.

There is a great scene in National Treasure where Jon Voight's character explains the attraction, and the trap, of conspiracy theories - "There is always another clue." Looking back over the decades, I can see where my religious community was always chasing down or promoting that new "clue". When nothing ever came of it, there was never a pause, never a time of reflection, never a call to maybe get off this train. We had already moved on to the next clue.

So, although there is a touch of nostalgia to seeing talk of microchipping and the mark of the Beast, I have lost the ability to be moved by it. :)"