A handful of people who believe digitized photos on state driver's licenses could be the beginning of the biblical "mark of the beast" will receive special licenses from the Division of Motor Vehicles today.

Phil Hudok, a Randolph County teacher who previously refused to enforce school rules requiring students to wear bar-coded identification badges because it violated his religious beliefs, will be one of the first.

"We're a Christian, nondenominational scripture-believing group," Hudok said.

Hudok, pastor Butch Paugh and 12 others met with DMV Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo in 2006 about the perceived problem. At the time, state officials were getting ready to comply with the federal Real ID Act of 2005, which would have forced states to share information about licensed drivers with other states.

Under the plan Cicchirillo established, Hudok and other followers of Paugh will be allowed to have their license photos taken at the Capitol DMV office and then removed from the computer system. DMV will maintain a hard copy of the pictures at the main office.

"What these people objected to was the digital image," Cicchirillo said.

The federal act also requires personal information, such as birth dates and driving records, in the system. "All the other information stays there," the commissioner said.

He said there has been no outpouring of people objecting to the digital photos.

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

He called the effort a "pilot project" and said the DMV has committed only one camera in the state for it. There has been no cost to the state.

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

Hudok, who was fired by the Randolph County Board of Education and then ordered reinstated with back pay by the courts, is a physics teacher who now teaches at Pickens School. His religion has no church and members meet in Summersville and Huttonsville each week for Bible study.

The Bible's book of Revelation describes the beast system and "mark of the beast," warning that numbering people signals the arrival of the Antichrist.

He calls it a battle between "states' rights" and "the federal dictatorial government."

"We see us getting closer and closer to the mark of the beast," he said.

A handful of people who believe digitized photos on state driver's licenses could be the beginning of the biblical "mark of the beast" will receive special licenses from the Division of Motor Vehicles today.

Phil Hudok, a Randolph County teacher who previously refused to enforce school rules requiring students to wear bar-coded identification badges because it violated his religious beliefs, will be one of the first.

"We're a Christian, nondenominational scripture-believing group," Hudok said.

Hudok, pastor Butch Paugh and 12 others met with DMV Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo in 2006 about the perceived problem. At the time, state officials were getting ready to comply with the federal Real ID Act of 2005, which would have forced states to share information about licensed drivers with other states.

Under the plan Cicchirillo established, Hudok and other followers of Paugh will be allowed to have their license photos taken at the Capitol DMV office and then removed from the computer system. DMV will maintain a hard copy of the pictures at the main office.

"What these people objected to was the digital image," Cicchirillo said.

The federal act also requires personal information, such as birth dates and driving records, in the system. "All the other information stays there," the commissioner said.

He said there has been no outpouring of people objecting to the digital photos.

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

He called the effort a "pilot project" and said the DMV has committed only one camera in the state for it. There has been no cost to the state.

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

Hudok, who was fired by the Randolph County Board of Education and then ordered reinstated with back pay by the courts, is a physics teacher who now teaches at Pickens School. His religion has no church and members meet in Summersville and Huttonsville each week for Bible study.

The Bible's book of Revelation describes the beast system and "mark of the beast," warning that numbering people signals the arrival of the Antichrist.

He calls it a battle between "states' rights" and "the federal dictatorial government."

"We see us getting closer and closer to the mark of the beast," he said.

If the Real ID program continues in the future, Hudok believes not only will it affect a person's ability to legally drive, but to be able to catch a plane or open a bank account.

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

Cicchirillo said those limits might never be known, since a number of states objected - many on the basis of costs - and Congress changed the implementation date to 2010.

"[Congress] may change it, adjust it or implement it," he said.

The Real ID Act would establish national standards for state-issued driver's licenses and ID cards. Some call the new driver's licenses national ID cards because they require the approval of the secretary of Homeland Security. The secretary would have the power to require additional details on state driver's licenses.

Each license or ID card would include a person's name, address, signature, date of birth, gender and a digital photograph of the person's face. Applicants also must submit more documentation for identification purposes than most states now require.

Each state also must share its database with all other states. Some groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have opposed the idea.

Hudok contends that the digital photos give people's "unique facial" qualities and will do more to identify people than fingerprints.

He also objects to school photos, saying companies that take the pictures are sending them to the national database of the Amber Alert program, which deals with finding missing children.

"My children won't even have yearbook pictures taken," he said.

He said the Randolph County photos were sent to Morgantown and entered into the national database. Federal officials are trying to "ease this on" people and plan to begin taking side views of children, too.

That, he said, is being done quietly "because they don't want to alarm the people."

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

or 348-5198.