MINISTER SAYS SIX SOLDIERS ARRESTED IN FLA. MAY BELIEVE IN UFOS, ANTI-CHRIST

PENSACOLA, FL (JULY 20) UPI - Six soldiers who some say came to Florida to destroy the anti-Christ may believe that a human can be impregnated by UFO "demons" and give birth to the evil one, a minister said Friday.

Barry Downing, author of "The Bible and Flying Saucers," said there is a belief in some evangelical literature that UFOs are demons and that a rash of sightings will usher in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

The Pensacola area, which has had some 200 UFO sightings since 1987, is so well known that a private group that investigates UFO sightings chose the area for a symposium earlier this month.

"Fundamentalists would say that if UFOs are active and demonic, then the ultimate demonic force may be roaming around Pensacola," said Downing, a clergyman from Endwell, N.Y., who spoke at the symposium. He said one author refers to the demons as "ultraterrestrials."

A day after the symposium ended, six soldiers - five men and one woman - arrived, said the police chief of Gulf Breeze, a suburb where the majority of the purported sightings have taken place.

The six, all AWOL from their military intelligence unit in West Germany, were arrested Friday and Saturday and sent to Fort Benning, Ga., for questioning. They have been charged with desertion. The Army said indications are they were not involved in espionage.

What brought them to Pensacola has been the key question. They were staying at the home of a woman one of the soldiers had met while attending cryptology school at the Navy's Corry Station in Pensacola. A television station identified her as a psychic.

The Stars and Stripes newspaper reported the soldiers came to destroy the anti-Christ, a Biblical figure that will supposedly lead the world into seven years of turbulence before the coming of Christ.

They left behind burned books and records and gave away possessions. There were doodled references to the "End of the World." The Army at first called it a cult but now says no such organisation appears to exist. The Army said it is probably a "clique" involving the six.

Downing, who studies the impact of UFOs on religion, said one theory about UFOs holds that they are demonic, here to torment mankind before the coming of a saviour.

Downing said UFO researchers without a religious bent have long held that UFOs are kidnapping and impregnating humans. He said that for those with a Christian fundamentalist belief, extraterrestrials impregnating humans "is a good way to get the anti-Christ here."

"I think this is a serious dimension to the whole UFO phenomenon," said Downing, who himself believes that UFOs are angelic, and claims they have done more good then harm.

Ted Peters, author of "UFOs - God's Chariots?" said the idea that UFOs are demons arose in the 1970s among some fundamentalists. It holds that the devil wants people to believe in evolution by creating UFOs.

"It's in the literature. It's a general theme but I don't know of a cult or sect that would have that as a major tenet," said Peters, who teaches Christian theology at the graduate theological union at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif.