School cafeteria's palm scanner is 'mark of beast,' says parent
An elementary school in Louisiana introduces a palm scanner to help kids pay more quickly for their lunch. Parents are seriously freaked. Seriously.
Technology is taken for granted by those who design it, grow up with it, or worship it as if it's a digital deity.
Yet not everyone believes that, for example, giving 24-Hour Fitness your fingerprint in order to lose a little blubber is such a natural, safe act.
Take certain parents at Moss Bluff Elementary School in Louisiana. Their arms are raised up high in celestial fright at the school's heathen attempts to introduce a palm scanner into the cafeteria.
As KPLC-TV reports it, the parents see the devil in the details.
Mamie Sonnier, a very concerned parent, told KPLC-TV: "As a Christian, I've read the Bible, you know go to church and stuff. I know where it's going to end up coming to, the mark of the beast. I'm not going to let my kids have that."
Naturally, there will be some who thoughtlessly scoff at such a notion. After all, the school has said very clearly that this scanner is simply a way of getting kids to move more quickly through the lunch line.
And yet perhaps they should have read Revelation 14: 9,10 a little more closely. For it mentions food and drink in its portentous words:
If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives his mark on the forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.
The school is perplexed that the scanner has incited such a reaction, Its principal, Charles Caldarera told KPLC-TV: "I think a lot of this has to do with religious beliefs. I think some people feel it's something with the Bible, mark of the beast. It's technology that is used throughout our lives. Everywhere."
Just because something is everywhere, it doesn't mean that it's good. Consider "Call Me Maybe," the word "Kardashian," or high-waisted shorts.
Parents can opt out of having their children's palm scanned. However, Sonnier says that isn't enough. She intends to remove her children should the technology be installed.
One can only hope that the school and its parents can come to a more spiritual compromise, so that any more fury is avoided.