Mark of the Beast: GetitoffmeGetitoffmeGetitoffme

A man in Hayden Idaho who thought he had the mythical “Mark of the Beast” on his hand took matters into his own, remaining hand. He cut off the offending extremity and put it in his microwave. At least so says the Seattle Times.

The article doesn’t say just what the mark was or if the microwave was turned on.

The man, in his mid-20s, was calm when deputies arrived at his home in this north Idaho town Saturday afternoon, and neither he nor the severed hand bore any noticeable tattoo or other mark, sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger.

The man, whose name was withheld, was in protective custody in the mental health unit of Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d’Alene, where he and the hand were taken by ambulance. Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Johnson would not say whether an attempt was made to reattach the hand, citing patient confidentiality restrictions.

As the article points out, the “mark of the Beast” is a sign of submission to God’s rival in the biblical book of Revelation.

Worthy of note too is Mathew 5:30 that says “ And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Of course, mental illness strikes secular folk as well as religious, so it would be very unfair to blame religion as a whole for this poor fellow’s troubles. Religion may give shape to the way folk express their paranoias and other illnesses, without necessarily causing it per se. Yet, just as much as anorexia in many cases (all cases?) can be blamed on peer pressure, media images and so forth, some cases of mental illness may be blamed on incessant religious teachings without compensating “reality checks”. I hope the fellow comes through this alright.

At least he did it to himself, and not to his kids!