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Christian endtimers opposed to RFID have formed numerous, interconnected groups whose leaders testify before legislators in the U.S. and Europe.

They’ve written books (some citing my own reporting) for major U.S. publishers. They’ve done thousands of TV and radio interviews, and protested at major retailers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany.

Now, the RFID industry seems ready to admit, the Christians are costing them money.

The production levels and profits predicted by the RFID industry and computer trade rags five years ago have not materialized. (This has not stopped anyone from continuing to make baseless estimates for the future, by the way.)

But rather than discussing production costs, or bad forecasting, RFID industry leaders are blaming the “bad information” being spread about the technology’s capabilities by Christian endtimers–even when they do not mention the Christians explicitly.

RFID Journal editor Mark Roberti last year cited my Wired News profile of Christian endtimer and RFID opponent Katherine Albrecht, in a warning to RFID companies: “Be wary of religious opposition to RFID.” (Roberti erroneously credits C/Net with the story.)

Albrecht has told me she believes RFID, particularly the implantable VeriChip, might be a precursor to the Mark of the Beast predicted in the Book of Revelation.

More recently, I received a call from AIM Global (RFID) president Dan Mullen, who worries that consumers will think the VeriChip implant “is the same thing” as the radio tags that will replace bar-code labels on store goods. (AIM Global is a major RFID industry group.)

Said Mullen: “There is a lot of misinformation out there, about what these tags can do.”

Mullen did not mention Christians in our telephone interview. But AIM Global last month launched an initiative to “dispel myths” and speculation about how RFID will affect people in the future. (Click here to listen to radio host Alan Watt‘s coverage of the AIM Global campaign.)

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