Unless a Federal lawsuit prevails, South Carolina residents who feel a compulsion to announce their religiosity will be able to do so on their license plates this fall.
Perhaps a plate that has I believe and a cross-with-stained-glass window on it is no more repugnant than my Obama bumper stickers, but it is considerably more repulsive to have such a license plate made by the state at taxpayers’ expense. Apparent not all South Carolinians are thrilled with the idea either and have attempted to stop the manufacture of these plates:
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.
“I do believe these ‘I Believe’ plates will not see the light of day because the courts, I’m confident, will see through this,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, the group’s executive director.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, asks a judge to stop South Carolina from making the plates and rule that the law allowing them violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which allows freedom of religion and speech among other rights.
According to this International Herald Tribune story, as least one SC clergyman believes that the plates “cheapen the Christian message.”
My question relates less to a violation of church and state—since the country has not observed that Constitutional provision for eons, witness in God we trust on coins, prayers at state university graduations, prayers in the Senate, and so on ad infinit. My question lies at the feet of the eager Christians who rush to puchase and place such plates. Are they afraid someone will doubt their piety? Are they eager to cast an implied aspersion on those of us who do not believe? Are they not too subtly suggesting that the belief of the Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, et al is less authentic?
In others words, do we have here the fretful arrogance of the least among us? Or will it just seem so if you ever find yourself behind a vehicle with such a plate?
6 responses so far ↓
1 Rick Whitman // Jun 25, 2008 at 11:00 am
As Robin Williams said on the Tonight Show as he andJay Leno were talking about the problems the Iraqi government was having trying to write a new constitution, “Let’s just give them ours. We’re not using it anymore anyway.”
Seems like supporting religious outrages is the latest ploy of political losers to generate votes.
2 Rick Whitman // Jun 25, 2008 at 11:15 am
I know this is a little outside the current political debate, but what are the stances of the Obama and McCain campaigns on the Cisneros/Martinez girls? Brenda Cisneros, 23, and
Yvette Martinez, 27, both US citizens, of Laredo, Texas, were kidinapped at gunpoint in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, by men dressed in police uniforms. This happened 9 May 2005! Reliable information has filtered back to their familys that Brenda was sold to a top local drug lord. Yvette’s fate is unknown. The US government has done nothing. Seems to me that when some US citizens were kidnapped by the Bey of Algiers, we said “Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute, ” sent over a ship of marines and brought them back. And wasn’t the War of 1812 triggered by the British impressment of US citizens?
Where is our sense of outrage? Where are the soldiers of Delta force, or at the very least, sanctions against the Mexican government until the girls are returned?
3 admin // Jun 25, 2008 at 11:26 am
The Washington Post piece on the situation you describe can be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27657-2005Jan21.html.
I’ll do some scouting around and see if I can find info on the candidates’ positions re this puzzlement.
4 admin // Jun 25, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Rick, love your Robin Williams thing. So true.
Re the border kidnappings: I have done a variety of googles and searched the issues section of each candidate’s website and find nothing relevant to this issue. From the reading I have done, the assumption appears to be that drug deals are involved. Or at least that is the public spin. Although in the past the US has stood up for its citizens, that was before we realized that druggies, mules, and other bad sorts are not really citizens. Who knows, the girls may be in gitmo awaiting a fake trial.
I’ll keep my eye out on this for sure.
5 Keanu // Aug 25, 2008 at 10:30 am
Thanks for information. Friends reccommended to visit you. Intresting. Subscribed on RSS! Want to read your blog more and more!
6 admin // Aug 25, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Thanks for the comment and the visit, Keanu. Hope I see you here often. Feel free to comment, disagree, etc.
Leave a Comment