By Bob Smietana / The Tennessean
A Clarksville man said that he quit his job last week in order to save his soul.
Walter
Slonopas, 52, resigned as a maintenance worker at Contech Casting LLC
in Clarksville after his W-2 tax form was stamped with the number 666.
The
Bible calls 666 the "number of the beast," and it's often used as a
symbol of the devil. Slonopas said that after getting the W-2, he could
either go to work or go to hell.
"If you accept that number, you sell your soul to the devil," he said.
Bob
LaCourciere, vice president of sales and marketing for the Revstone
Corp., which owns Contech Casting, said that Slonopas' W-2 was labeled
with 666 by the company that handles Contech's payroll. It refers to the
order in which the forms were mailed out, he said.
This isn't the first time that the Satanic number has caused Slonopas trouble at work.
During
his first day on the job in April 2011, Slonopas was supposed to be
assigned the number 668 to use when he clocked in. But the human
resources department gave him the wrong number - 666 - instead.
Slonopas, who said he became a born-again Christian about 10 years ago, complained and was given a new number.
In
July 2011, the company changed time clock systems, and once again
Slonopas got 666. This time he quit. The company apologized and he
returned to work a few days later.
This latest incident with the W-2 baffled company spokesman LaCourciere. He could not believe it had happened again.
"I am completely at a loss for words," he said.
The
number 666 first appears in chapter 13 of the New Testament book of
Revelation, which describes a Satanic figure called the beast or
Antichrist who takes over the world and stamps everyone with a mark
bearing the number 666. According to Revelation, no one will be able to
buy or sell anything without that number stamped on them.
That's
caused people to fear anytime that number pops up, said Jay Phelan,
senior professor of theological studies at North Park University in
Chicago.
"It's seen as a very dangerous number," he said.
For
believers like Slonopas, who take the book of Revelation literally, any
tie to 666 is a betrayal of their faith. Phelan said he understands why
Slonopas quit.
"It's a desire to be loyal to his faith and to not
be identified with the Antichrist," he said. "The company ought to find
a way to cut him some slack."
Amy-Jill Levine, professor of New
Testament and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School,
said the writer of Revelation was using a technique called "gematria" -
in which letters have numerical values - to refer to a Roman emperor as
the beast.
She said that over the past 2,000 years, readers of
Revelation have tried to use 666 to figure out who the Antichrist is.
Among the candidates were political figures like Hitler, Ronald Reagan,
and Barack Obama and corporations like Proctor & Gamble and IBM.
The
number 666 has caused problems for at least one other worker in the
past. In 2011, a factory worker from Georgia named Billy Hyatt sued his
former employer after he was fired for refusing to wear a sticker with
666 on it. The sticker referred to the number of accident-free days he'd
had on the job.
Slonopas, though, said he has no interest in
suing anyone. All he wants is for his former employer to give him a new
W-2 without a Satanic number on it. Otherwise, he said, he can't file
his taxes.
He shakes his head when asked if he'd go back to work
for Contech, even if the company gives him a new W-2. That would send
the message that he sold out his faith for money.
"God is worth more than money," he said.
His
wife, Anna, said the couple will be fine. She said God will take care
of them. They live frugally, and are currently house-sitting for their
older son, who is in the military.
"If my husband makes $10, one
goes to God, two go to savings, and we live on seven," she said. "It's
not that my husband makes $10 and I spend $11."
LaCourciere, the
spokesman for Slonopas' former employer, said the firm planned to mail
out a new W-2, in a plain envelope, by the end of the day on Tuesday.
The company also wants to rehire him.
"We'd love to have him back," he said.