Lawsuit Filed Over Christian License Plate In South Carolina

[MissScripture]

I wanna get a physical therapy one that says, "The Science of Healing and the Art of Caring."

[Justin86]

I want a Harley.

[BG45]

To go off the OP and towards the "why must everything advertise" end of the spectrum...I don't have any bumper stickers or such on my car. I do this personally, because I don't want people getting the wrong idea of Christianity from my driving if I'm acting like a butt-hole on the road (intentionally or un-intentionally).

At least 95 of the last 100 times I've been cut off, nearly hit, or otherwise witnessed butt-holeish behavior on the road has been vehicles with Christian fishes on them, and Christian bumper stickers. In Drive Thru at McDonalds, the people with crosses dangling from their mirrors, bumper stickers about Christ, or fishes...were always the rudest of the bunch; more than a few people in my store absolutely despised Christianity as a whole because their only real exposure to it was people who advertised it and didn't live it.

That's what gets me more about these plates than anything. That the people who might get them might end up promoting a hatred of Christianity (and more importantly of Christ) in their driving if they do a horrible job. Because let's face it, no one pays any attention to your license plates unless they're:
A) A cop
B) At a stop sign or red light
C) Not paying attention to the road
D) The person with the plate is driving like a butt-hole.

[EricTheRed]

So i saw a cool little bumper sticker license plate thingy, it said "dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly", and it had a angel holding on to the bumper of a speeding car

i lol'd

[Justin86]

[quote name='BG45' post='1578056' date='Jun 21 2008, 11:22 AM']To go off the OP and towards the "why must everything advertise" end of the spectrum...I don't have any bumper stickers or such on my car. I do this personally, because I don't want people getting the wrong idea of Christianity from my driving if I'm acting like a butt-hole on the road (intentionally or un-intentionally).

At least 95 of the last 100 times I've been cut off, nearly hit, or otherwise witnessed butt-holeish behavior on the road has been vehicles with Christian fishes on them, and Christian bumper stickers. In Drive Thru at McDonalds, the people with crosses dangling from their mirrors, bumper stickers about Christ, or fishes...were always the rudest of the bunch; more than a few people in my store absolutely despised Christianity as a whole because their only real exposure to it was people who advertised it and didn't live it.

That's what gets me more about these plates than anything. That the people who might get them might end up promoting a hatred of Christianity (and more importantly of Christ) in their driving if they do a horrible job. Because let's face it, no one pays any attention to your license plates unless they're:
A) A cop
B) At a stop sign or red light
C) Not paying attention to the road
D) The person with the plate is driving like a butt-hole.[/quote]
You could make the same argument about people who medals over their clothing too.

[add]

What happened to the “Dashboard Jesus” figurine (way better that a R license plate and way tackier)? You don’t see them much any more.

[add]

Now that I think about it, it was a “St. Christopher Dashboard Statue” that was so popular. Now wouldn’t that create a stir, a St. Christopher license plate?

[BG45]

[quote name='Justin86' post='1578125' date='Jun 21 2008, 12:39 AM']You could make the same argument about people who medals over their clothing too.[/quote]

Sadly true...

[prose]

[quote name='Autumn Dusk' post='1576784' date='Jun 19 2008, 09:05 PM']Its the money problem...this group used money to buy there way into getting the plates. Anyone with $4000 can buy their way in. The other religions have the opportunity, but not the funds or interest to accumilate the funds, to buy plates for their particular brand of religion.[/quote]

Yes, because there are no other religions in the world that have money like Christians. Lord knows Richard Gere is just a poor Buddhist, and Tom Cruise is a poor Scientologist, and I know that I have never, ever heard of a single rich Muslim.

Give me a freakin' break.

[Socrates]

[quote name='rkwright' post='1576858' date='Jun 19 2008, 10:05 PM']I think some people are missing some important facts here...

First off, its not simply an "I believe" written across the license plate. Its "I believe" with a large cross set on a stained glass window. I don't think its a simple 'generic' 'I believe' on a license plate.[/quote]
So? . . .
It's still an optional plate, and about as generic an expression of Christian belief as you can get - hardly constitutes the establishment of a state church.

[quote]Secondly, I understand the First Amendment states that Congress shall not... but the first has long been incorporated to the states (in the 40's not some 60's liberal agenda BTW). Flip the coin; do we really believe that California as a state has the right to establish a California-state religion? I hardly think so, and I'd much prefer a state that establishes no religion than living in one that established any non-Catholic one. I believe the Federal Government does a role to step and protect the establishment of a religion because I fear the day when the Muslims have a majority and want to start imposing Islamic law as a 'state religion'.[/quote]
My reference to post-sixties liberalism refers to people seeing the establishment clause as barring any and all "religious" symbols or sayings from public life.
And in any case, the 1940s were well-removed from the time of the drafting of the first amendment - by well over 150 years! Early in our republic's history, most states did in fact have official state churches, and they was never declared "unconstitutional." They were ended by the people of the individual states without need of federal interference. I'm not arguing that we should go back to having state churches, merely pointing out that this was not seen by the framers as something within the federal government's jurisdiction.

This is in accord with the (much ignored by liberals) tenth amendment:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Federalism divided powers between state and federal governments, and did not see the federal government as having absolute power over every state decision, as it has been in recent decades.

Personally, I fear aggressively secularist courts enforcing godless policies and restricting religion more than I do the states imposing sharia law. And I think if we're really concerned about that, Christians would be better off spreading the Gospel, and maybe limiting immigration, than focusing on aggressively secularist government policies.

Secondly, an optional Christian-themed state license is not a law, and does not establish a state religion. I think the insinuation that allowing crosses on license plates will lead us down a slippery slope to sharia law and religious persecution is ridiculous to say the least.

It's simply not the job of the federal government to run around getting rid of every license-plate cross and Ten Commandments courtroom display that "offends" some atheist out there.
Such nonsense is more befitting Soviet Russia than a free society.

[Socrates]

[quote name='BG45' post='1578056' date='Jun 20 2008, 09:22 PM']To go off the OP and towards the "why must everything advertise" end of the spectrum...I don't have any bumper stickers or such on my car. I do this personally, because I don't want people getting the wrong idea of Christianity from my driving if I'm acting like a butt-hole on the road (intentionally or un-intentionally).

At least 95 of the last 100 times I've been cut off, nearly hit, or otherwise witnessed butt-holeish behavior on the road has been vehicles with Christian fishes on them, and Christian bumper stickers. In Drive Thru at McDonalds, the people with crosses dangling from their mirrors, bumper stickers about Christ, or fishes...were always the rudest of the bunch; more than a few people in my store absolutely despised Christianity as a whole because their only real exposure to it was people who advertised it and didn't live it.

That's what gets me more about these plates than anything. That the people who might get them might end up promoting a hatred of Christianity (and more importantly of Christ) in their driving if they do a horrible job. Because let's face it, no one pays any attention to your license plates unless they're:
A) A cop
B) At a stop sign or red light
C) Not paying attention to the road
D) The person with the plate is driving like a butt-hole.[/quote]
Personally, I haven't noticed drivers of cars with Christian paraphanalia to be worse than any other drivers (other than perhaps tending more to be those annoyingly law-abiding citizens who always keep under the posted speed limit), but anyway.

Personally, I think perhaps as Christians we should focus more on living our Faith and not behaving like "buttholes," rather than on getting rid of anything that publicly displays our Christian affiliation - but maybe that's just me . . .

[Alycin]

Speaking on a somewhat similar note, there is a certain trucking company that has a small yet awesome statement on the back of their trucks.

"IT'S A LIFE, NOT A CHOICE."

I loved that I saw that so much when I drove the 20-hours-one-way trip to ohio.... I believe they are called Covenant Transport. Maybe.

[BG45]

lol Soc, I'd kill for those law abiding Christians that go under the speed limit. Most of ours that have paraphernalia don't tend to.

I agree with living our faith, and it's sad when people don't tend to. I listen to Air1 and KLOVE a lot, and it's got plenty of stories that are fun to listen to about pulling up next to fellow believers and singing with them.

[Alycin]

I LOVE KLOVE but I cannot stand that they let Kirk Cameron have ad time. Yuck.