Judge Upholds Objections to Identification

In the first court decision that declares a driver’s license applicant can refuse to give the Department of Motor Vehicles a Social Security number for religious reasons, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ruled the DMV must accommodate five men who contend the numbers are the “mark of the beast” in the biblical Book of Revelation.

In handing down the decision, Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne said last week that the state agency could use another method of identification in light of the men’s “sincerely held religious convictions . . . that anyone who uses his or her Social Security number is in danger of not receiving eternal life.”

The number of the anti-Christian beast given in Revelation’s Chapter 13 is 666. But some evangelical Christians speculating about Bible verses dealing with apocalyptic “last days” have feared the “mark of the beast” could be an identifying mark or number without which no one can buy or sell anything in today’s world. By accepting Social Security numbers today, they believe, they will play into satanic hands--a conclusion disputed by most evangelicals.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Angela Sierra said Friday that her office will appeal the court ruling, contending the state has demonstrated a compelling interest in applying driver’s license requirements equally, most notably for locating parents who are delinquent in child support.

The state had previously prevailed in court cases where California residents have sought to obtain or renew licenses without providing a Social Security number, though no earlier cases arose from religious objections, said a high-ranking DMV lawyer who asked that his name not be used. “They were usually privacy or anti-government arguments,” he said.

The ruling was praised by Steven H. Aden, western region coordinator for The Rutherford Institute, a conservative Virginia-based agency that handles religious liberty and human rights cases. “We would hope that the right to be free from being numbered by the state would be recognized and protected by all levels of government,” Aden said.

Glendale attorney Ross S. Heckmann, who represented two of the five men, said their views on Social Security numbers should be respected.

“This makes my clients’ lives much more difficult but this is their sincere conviction,” said Heckmann, a Rutherford Institute affiliate who represented Leo Guglielmo of West Hills and Steven Jones, who is now living in Idaho.

“I think the majority of the five men have Social Security numbers, but their convictions generally are that they shouldn’t use them at all,” Heckman said.

Paul Villandry of Littlerock--who along with James Clifford Brunson of Quartz Hill and Michael Bromley of Mojave represented themselves in the case--said Friday by telephone that his refusal to provide the DMV with a Social Security number has led him to several convictions for driving without a license.

“If I’m locked into that number, I’m going to hell,” Villandry said. “I chose to serve God and let God work it out for me.”

Villandry said he has no objections to receiving a DMV license number.

“A number given to me by the DMV is just for that purpose,” he said. “But the Social Security number trails me wherever I go; you can’t get a bank account or do anything without it.”

He said he supports himself from donations to his nondenominational ministry. “I minister to ministers and prison guards,” Villandry said.

The biblical visions in Revelation, also called the Apocalypse of John, have been the basis for centuries of Christian speculation about the New Testament-predicted return of Jesus to Earth and accompanying events.

Paul McGuire, a specialist in Bible prophecy who teaches at King’s College at the evangelical Church on the Way in Van Nuys, said Friday that associating Social Security numbers with this biblical teaching in Revelation is “somewhat naive.”

“A lot of people who are getting bent out of shape about Social Security numbers forget that the Bible is talking about a specific future time that has not come yet,” said McGuire, who will host a conference on Bible prophecy in March at Pat Robertson’s broadcast and college complex in Virginia.

The passages in Revelation talk about two beasts--an obvious world leader who is “the anti-Christ,” and one who is “the false prophet who will cause people to worship the anti-Christ,” McGuire said. This scenario, which he said has not transpired, would then lead to an economic system in which one could not buy or sell without bearing “the mark of the beast,” according to McGuire.

The debate over interpretations of Biblical passages was not important to this case, Aden said. When religious objections to laws are raised, he continued, the issue cannot be decided on whether a religious tenet is articulated accurately or well, but whether the one’s belief is sincerely held.

Indeed, Judge Wayne had ruled in favor of the five men on April 11, 1995. But the 2nd Appellate District Court returned the case to Superior Court at the end of 1996, saying the trial court needed to determine whether the petitioners’ beliefs were both sincerely held and religious rather than, for instance, political or economic in nature.

In her second ruling, Wayne determined sincere religious convictions were involved and that the DMV must use an alternate identification for the men.