KENTUCKY When faith collides with the law

Amish-Mennonites refuse to put photos on law-mandated drivers licenses.
LIBERTY, Ky. (AP) -- From the swing on his Kentucky homestead's front porch, Lester Beachy exchanges waves with a family from his church as they return home in their van.
Like people in other farming communities, people here rely on their cars and trucks for almost all their transportation needs.
But for Beachy, a bishop in an Amish-Mennonite congregation, and others in his religious community of about 200 people statewide, there's a problem.
Their faith allows them to get behind the wheel, but not sit for a driver's license photo as state law requires.
Members of Beachy's enclave -- one of at least three in the state -- may have to bow to the demands of national security and keep driving or stand firm for a religious principle.
"It would open the door to what we consider unscriptural," Beachy said.
"I can see the state's concern, but I am not convinced that the state granting us an exemption on a religious basis would endanger the situation."
State law requires Kentucky motor vehicle licenses to bear the owner's photo.
Some circuit court clerks, however, quietly and unofficially exempted people who had religious objections.
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, state officials cracked down. For the sake of homeland security, state officials ordered clerks not to issue licenses without photos.
Strong belief
For many Amish-Mennonites, photos are a symbol of self-admiration and pride, contrary to their beliefs and way of life. Taking a picture is tantamount to creating a graven image -- a sin in their faith.
Cora Beachy, Lester Beachy's 22-year-old niece, says her driver's license, which expires in March of 2006, has a blue box which reads "valid without photo." However, she realizes the state may one day force her to break her religious convictions.
"I really don't care to have a picture," she said. But she also knows her family needs her help running their cattle farm 60 miles south of Lexington, and that includes driving.
"If I had to [get a photo], I would," she said. "I guess I would just accept it."
People should not have to compromise their religious convictions to qualify for state benefits, said John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, a religious freedom organization in Charlottesville, Va.
Al Keim, director of the Valley Brethren Mennonite Heritage Center in Virginia, who grew up Amish, said, "They take very seriously the biblical injunction that they are not to make any images of themselves."
Exception
Rather than submit to pressures from the religious majority, Joseph Borntrager is asking the state to allow his community an exception.
"We feel we are obligated to submit to the authority and to the laws of the land, providing it does not overstep biblical principle," said Borntrager, a bishop of Hickory Amish-Mennonite Church in Graves County, in western Kentucky. "But in that event -- which we feel this is something that does -- then we feel our calling is higher to God."
Borntrager has enlisted the help of state Rep. Fred Nesler in trying to change the law.
Nesler said he plans to introduce legislation next year that, if enacted, would allow a fingerprint or Social Security number instead of a photo on the license.
At least 10 states allow for some photographic exception, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.