South Carolina to offer cross on car plates

[Honey]

South Carolina drivers will be the first in the nation to be offered license plates that carry the phrase “I Believe” and a Christian cross over a stained-glass window under a law that took effect on Thursday.
Skip to next paragraph James Moore, Faith in Teaching, via Associated Press
Design for a proposed license plate that Florida rejected in April. The new South Carolina law is for a similar plate.



Critics have threatened to fight the law in court, saying the license plate represents an illegal state endorsement of religion.
The bill authorizing the plate passed the State House and Senate unanimously on May 22. It became law without the signature of Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, under the South Carolina Constitution.
“While I do, in fact, ‘believe,’ it is my personal view that the largest proclamation of one’s faith ought to be in how one lives one’s life,” Mr. Sanford wrote on Thursday in a letter to Glenn F. McConnell, president pro tem of the Senate and a fellow Republican.
The bill directs the Motor Vehicles Department to create the plate.
Mr. Sanford told the department to charge people just enough to reimburse the state for the cost to produce the plate, estimated at $4 to $6, and to not allow any organization to benefit from its sales.
The state offers 200 other specialty plates, supporting organizations like colleges, sororities, Boy Scouts and the Surfrider Foundation. The state charges up to $70 for those plates. The profit is sent to the sponsor.

A supporting organization normally pays the $4,000 start-up cost to create a plate. Because no organization will sponsor the “I Believe” plate, at least 400 people have to buy one before the state will produce it.
Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Jewish Congress said they were considering suing the state over the plate. Neither organization was aware of any previous state that has approved a similar plate. A proposal for an “I believe” plate in Florida failed in April.
“The whole issue here is that people are trying to get the state to endorse their religion, and that’s wrong,” said Dr. T. Jeremey Gunn, director of the A.C.L.U. Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “It’s almost as if there’s insufficient support, and they have to go to the state to get it.”
Senator Lawrence K. Grooms, the co-sponsor of the bill, rejected that argument.
“I didn’t see a constitutional problem with it,” said Mr. Grooms, a Republican who is chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “We have other plates with religious symbols on them and phrases like ‘In God We Trust.’ Just because it’s a cross, some very closed-minded people don’t believe it should be on a plate.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/us...662&ei=5087%0A

[Grimmlok]

Can I have one with a cross upside down that says "I don't"

[Just Kill Me]

Sure, why not?
They have a million different ones in Texas for different organizations...who cares.
Ooooh one for Moulder could be "I believe" with an alien face!

[lurkur]

Cool, are they going to have Satanist vanity plates too?

Also, it's not really fair that that vanity plate is only a few bucks compared with 70 or more for others. The people who want to show their pride in the boy scouts or whatever don't get the same waiver these plates do, as far as an obligatory fee associated with the plate. They should have it the same registration costs as the others, and the funds go toward teaching religious and cultural tolerance programs.

[sputnik]

plates are issued by the state, non? this seems like a clear violation of church and state.
i think all personalised plates are stupid.

[Quazar]

I think it's OK as long as they offer options for all organized religions and athiests/agnostics too. How do Jewish, Hindus, Pagans, etc. get to proclam their faith in the same way? How do athiests and agnostics proclaim their beliefs? This seems exclusionary and devisive. It makes South Carolina appear to endorse one religion over others.

My vanity plate supports animal rescue organizations. Helping homeless animals is my belief.

[Penny Lane]

Great... now everyone knows which cars to run off the road.



KIDDING!

[sputnik]

^^

[tee-ha-ha]

Great... now everyone knows which cars to run off the road.



KIDDING!

LOL, no shit! I'm against this license plate; it's stupid. Why do some people feel the need to shove their beliefs down our throats? It isn't as if Christians don't have other avenues to express their faith. What about all those fucking fish I keep seeing on cars?

The current trend is to have a fish for every member of the family, i.e. big fish for mom and dad, little fish for the kids. I've seen some cars with 6-7 fish on them. We-todd-did.

[Grimmlok]

I like the Darwin fish.. it's got legs, and it's eating the jesus fish

[sputnik]

^^
i love that one too.

here's the mormon fish:

[lurkur]

^^ Omg!!

[chartreuse]

Also, it's not really fair that that vanity plate is only a few bucks compared with 70 or more for others. The people who want to show their pride in the boy scouts or whatever don't get the same waiver these plates do, as far as an obligatory fee associated with the plate. They should have it the same registration costs as the others, and the funds go toward teaching religious and cultural tolerance programs.

besides being a clear violation of the separation of church & state, this is the part that really gets to me! why are christians so important that their plate is just a nominal fee rather than the full price, which others pay for their vanity plates?!

[Penny Lane]

.... because Churches know they can get their funds a lot easier through greasy, sexually-deviant, big-haired televangelists.