“Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed the lawsuit on behalf of two Christian pastors, a humanist pastor and a rabbi in South Carolina, along with the Hindu American Foundation.”
“Gov. Mark Sanford let it become law without his signature because the state already allows private groups to create license plates for any cause.”
So…why don’t the humanist, the rabbi and the Hindus just ask for their own license plates, while the Christians who don’t want them just not get them?
God bless.

Well they’d have to put up money; these folks didn’t.
I’d think it might fly if they left out the cross and church window. Just “I believe” by itself seems pretty innocuous. Of course someone else could ask for “I think”.

….or even “I’m still thinking”.

We have these plates proposed in FL. They catch is they have to have a certain number of commitments in order to justify the expense of the initial run. I don’t know if they have gotten enough. They have just announced a proposed moratorium on specialty plates, so the whole matter may be moot down here. That is fine with me.
Virginia has an interesting take on their specialty plates. Anyone can order a plate, with whatever imprint they want, as long as it is not actually used on a registered vehicle. I got my wife a Virginia Parrothead plate with these characters, L&SHRK. It is hanging in our home office. They may make a fair amount of money from this.

Republican House Speaker Bobby Harrell said residents asked for a way to express their beliefs, and legislators responded.
A way to express their belief on their license plate??!! Are they for real?
I was in Florida a while back and there was a car in a Wal-Mart parking lot that was practically covered in Jesus-type bumper stickers. It was so tacky. Why does one need to wear one’s faith on one’s sleeve (or one’s car), as if screaming “I’M A CHRISTIAN!!” makes their faith more concrete? For many people, the reponse is likely to be, “So what? Bully for you.”
And, since most motor vehicle angencies are likely to be state-run agencies, there may be a conflict of interest with the apparent state suppport of a particular religion.
I find the whole idea cheesy. Stick to the crass bumper stickers and crosses hanging from the rear-view mirror if you feel the overarching need to let everyone else know what you believe; otherwise, go to church, give some charity, and volunteer your time. That’s a much better expression of anyone’s faith than a vanity license plate.

Jest:
“Candygram.”

ecl
LOL!!!

I guess there are a couple of reasons for the car covered in bumperstickers.
We have no state inspection here, and the owner may have moved a rust-bucket from up north, and the stickers were holding the car together;
OR, they had lost their car so often at a theme park, it was the only way they could identify it;
OR, Saturday night is a little too wild, so they use their car to remind them ought to do on Sunday morning;
OR they use it as a front yard defense against Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormon door knockers.
Any other ideas, folks?

ROFL pretty good comments folks!
anyway as long as we all can get I belive plates in teh religion of pouyr choice, and the state permits us to choose the background (as a muslim i’d like a star and crescent please) what’s the problem?
well except there is so much anti-muslim sentiment being inetentionally fueled by the right wing religious judeo-christian extremists some nut might try to run me off the road!!

aminah,
it’s funny (not really) you should say that.
one of the reasons i don’t have anything religious on (or in) my car is because i’m afraid some anti-semite might damage it, seeing i’m a jew.
please don’t lump me with some extremist. i share your fear.

Yes and there are places I wouldn’t want to go or park with an atheist sticker on my car.

Aminah,
Would an atheist get a transparent plate?
Would a Unitarian get a plate with one number or letter?
Would a Presbyterian get a Plaid Plate?
How about some others, folks?

jest,
I guess a jew could get a kosher plate.
and a gay would get a purple plate..

The “I Believe” should remanin on the plates, but the images should change. Beside the cross and stained glass, they should offer an icon of a flying saucer, or Bigfoot, or The Constitution, or a Democratic Spine, or a Republican Brain, or Cheap Gas prices, or Oprah, or ….

or, as our old friend windbender used to say, “the flying spaghetti monster”.

Special plates bring some interesting conversations with strangers coming over and asking you what your plates mean especially if there are letters or numbers. My husbands Ham Call sign is on our car, I wish I had a five for every time he’s explained it. Because he had this on his truck, I had a special one put on my car with his first and middle intial, and, my first, and middle intial with a ‘n’ between them. A woman came up to me in a parking lot in CA and said what does that mean? I said it’s our names, and she said why don’t you just get married!, and walked away with a stern look on her face.

ecl,
Would that be a Seder Plate?
Henrietta,
OK, it is Saturday and my brain is not on full alert. It took me a while to sort out what a “Ham Call” sign is – but I was fairly sure it did not involve enticing swine.
I wonder how long it will be until we see hefelump or donkey plates.
So any more inspirations for the good folks at Motor Vehicle Dept.?

ECL, what has purple plates have to do with being Gay?

So goes the effort to wipe Christianity out of the history of this country, ridiculous and quite sue happy also.

“So goes the effort to wipe Christianity out of the history of this country, ridiculous and quite sue happy also.”
I won’t address, “ridiculous and quite sue happy also” because I have no idea what that means, and I dare say, neither does chnuck.
As to the first clause, cknuck, my brother, my poor, confused brother;
Do you really think that one of the inspirations for The Revoluntionary War, for The Declaration of Independence, for The Constitution, was a hope, that someday, the citizenry of this country might be able to express their belief in the ALMIGHTY with the most paltry, the most tepid, the most weak-kneed affirmation as “I Believe” on their license plates?
As a believer, do you think for one minute, such an impotent, faithless, and EASY statement conveys any allegiance to Christian principles, to Christian faith, to Christian values?
My brother, you are too easily swayed by outward appearances of piety.
To paraphrase Jesus, “Be not like the hypocrites who like to display their righteousness on their license plates as the pagans do. Verily I tell you, they have received their reward.”

Henerietta,
The color purple (not to be confused with the movie) has been associated with the gay rights movement. However, some people argue that that’s not the case; that the rainbow represents the gay rights movement. No aspersions intended.
See for example The Purple Pew

OK, not to get all “Sherwin Williams” on you or anything, but the hue for the gay rights movement is lavender – a pink/purple combination. Purple is for passion and cows.
ck,
I don’t think that mocking the effort to bring religion to the Dept of Motor Vehicles (which anyone who watchers “Reaper” will tell you is the entryway to hell – no surprise) is either a sling or an arrow toward the face of religion in America. If anything it is one more stink bomb toward the kitch-ing of religion in all forms. Personally, I have a chrome Happy Shark on my car – to scare away all those little fishes that seem to be swimming on the highways and by-ways. Do we really need a license plate to proclaim our faith? And why the pseudo-gothic artwork? Have we not modernized out ecclesiology in the last couple of hundred years? And doesn;t this seem like just one more ripoff of someone else’s idea (a crime for which much of Christianity Giftware is guilty)?

sin quote: “As to the first clause, cknuck, my brother, my poor, confused brother;
When a person starts out their statement with such untruths then it is a no brainer the rest of the statement is a dance around truth.
jest it is no surprise to me that you would pick a chrome plated shark to “scare away” folk who make Christian statements with “little fishes”
Your so-called “Christian Giftware” is for many just another way of saying who they are, a right that is consistently being challenged here in the U.S. surprisingly sometimes by those who claim to be Christian and some claim to be clergy.

ck,
I hope you were not feeling picked on it was not my intent (the final clauses of your 4:48 comment seem a little – personal). But a lot of the chotkas that fill Christian giftware shelves is kitschy and often verging between tacky and silly. Sure, that is their right – and I support their right to put it on their cars, in their dining rooms, or even on their bodies. I just don’t think it is appropriate for a state to sponsor a particular religious group with a state mandated proof of motor vehicle registration. That is what bumpers and back windows are for.

I disagree if a state feels a certain way they have the right even if the rest of the nation disagrees. It is a harmless expression of how they feel and seems to be a majority of the state that feels that way. We would not be United States if we decided for them what we feel is right. It has not been until recently that such a thing would even be considered wrong. Opposition comes from those who would propose a lukewarm gospel and or those with pictures of sharks eating up little Christian fishes.

What is true in little things must also be true in big things. So if states are allowed to decide to ignore the Constitution and to make laws that contradict the unity of the country that is OK. So California and Massachusetts are OK for declaring same sex marriage legal. And other states can declare abortion legal. Now, are those decisions to be upheld in neighboring states, in states across the country? There are some who say the Civil War was over slavery and others who say it was over state’s rights. These same arguments were used in the Civil Rights battles. If we are to be a true expression of the UNITED states and not the UNTIED States, we have to honor the COnstitution – and argue from there.
And rather than play Goldilocks and the Three Disciples – one version is luke warm, one os overheated, and the other is just right – why not accept there are differing approaches. By the way, I have a HAPPY Shark on my car – as happy eating little fishes, as it is snacking on walking fish, f.s.m., Big fish eating little fish and any other chrome plated philosophy. A happy shark is a well fed shark.

There is an old tactic to throw enough unrelated arguments at a debate and confusing muck the truth maybe you convince folk of your point. It was never the constitutions aim to deny folk of religious expression even in the government where they prayed each time they met or in schools where the Holy Bible brought and paid for by the state was part of the curriculum. That is an untruth many believe if they repeat enough it will become fact, but you can’t change history to make a point.

There is an old tactic to throw enough unrelated arguments at a debate and confusing muck the truth maybe you convince folk of your point.
You would know…

The Amendment in question regards the prohibition against state sponsorship of religious groups – without regasrd to size or their proportion of the population. Although it seems fairly trivial and small, a license plate is issued by the state and is hence sponsored by the state. It is therefore in violation of the Amendment.
This does not mean that the state cannot rent space to religious groups (as long as it does so fairly), or allow for equal representation of religious groups in governemntal facilities. I served twice as a student minister in two national parks. We were very careful to be ecumenical. And if another religous group wanted t use the facilities it was allowed, as long as they followed the same regulations we did. I worked not for the Prk but for the vendor, and my ministry was as a volunteer. This is but one of many examples, which can extend all the way to military chaplaincy.

The key word jest is amendment not constitution it still was not the founding fathers purpose

ck,
It is time for a history and civics lesson. I am not the one to administer it. But to whomever you go, ask them about the people who wrote the Bill of Rights, the reason and rationale for it, and who they were. You will find many of the same names as are signatories of the Declaration of Independence. The Bill of Rights and the whole string of Ammendments are not less than the Constitution. It is where the dynamic character of the Constitution is worked through. Were this not so, then the whole 2nd Ammendment discussion about the right to bare arms – I mean arm bears – no, bear arms would not be so forcefully addressed by the NRA. It is there that Prohibition was put in place, and then removed. Free speach, freedom of religion, and several other key Rights are found there. It would be absolutely and unequivically wrong to dismiss or diminish its importance.

I had to re-read your post I disputed and change my argument and apologize. But I don’t see where based on your argument that the plate goes against the Constitution or Bill of Rights if one state can legalize homosexual unions, plate as discussed is not religion on the level that the constitution was designed to “protect” us from. Using the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to distance our country from Christianity is a new tactic which in the will be more harmful than good and it was not practiced by the founders, nor the generation after them nor the next generation after them, so it is clear it was not their intent. It is the intent of folk of today who did not write the Constitution or the Bill of Rights but do seek to manipulate these documents in a way that would make the founders rise up and fight if they could.