Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Religious license plates? Yep, that’s right. I was really put off by the idea when I first saw the link, but I clicked anyway, and what do you know, the plates are really well designed!
Check this out:
If you live in Indiana, go ahead and vote for your favorite!
does it have to be identified as religious?
It’s our national motto and anyone who is patriotic is mindful of that phrase and the flag but does that mean they are religious?
Just curious
Does it have to be identified as religious? It’s our national motto and anyone who is patriotic is mindful of that phrase and the flag but does that mean they are religious? Just curious!
I love the idea and may God bless the person who thought of it!
In God we trust is a motto that is identified with the United States. As the first comment made was ‘does it have to be identified as religious?’. In this, a Christian nation, yes, it does. The problem is is that it is not considered a religious statement. Our fore fathers understood that there is but one name to go along with that motto. In the time that we are in now there is such a diversity of gods recognized in this nation. The name of the one true God should be used instead of a generic title of god. And that name is Jesus Christ.
K. Meyer, your argument is based on the ignorant assumption that our forefathers founded this country on the basis of christianity or any religion for that matter. Even though you would like to believe this and feel in your gut that it must be true, you won’t find the mention of god in any of the founding documents, nor will you find the words “In God We Trust.” This phrase wasn’t added to our coins until the civil war era. And it wasn’t made the motto until very recently in the 1950s. The truth is that our founding fathers had nothing to do with labeling this a “christian nation.” The christians did that all by themselves.
K and Jeff, thanks for your recent posts.
It is my understanding that the concept of God is implied in the Declaration of Independence…
Therefore, the Jeffersonian conception of human rights was based on some notion of a Creator. It’s widely understood that Jefferson himself was a Deist along with the majority of the founding fathers, but nonetheless, I don’t think it can be denied that the founding fathers understood the basic dignity of human beings and therefore the rights and liberties all should enjoy to be derived from some divine Creator. In that case, I think its quite reasonable to say our founding fathers based this country on a (however humanistic) belief in God.
Jeff,
Just remember that, although eloquently poetic, the Declaration of Independence is not the Constitution and has no legal authority. Thomas Jefferson understood this, as did the other founding fathers. This is why they intentionally left out of the Constitution the word God or any other reference to a specific religion . Like it or not, we live in a secular nation that grants religous or spirutual freedom to everyone. Matters of personal faith are left to the individual as it should be. Regardless of what some might feel, we do not live in a Christian nation. Just because a majority of the nation identifies as Christian, does not give anyone the right to tie their particular faith to our governement.
Ian,
Yep. I’m aware of the distinction between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In a sense, the Declaration can’t even be considered an “official” document of the United States, but it is the document that more than the Constitution started the United States of America. It was the first example of something using the term “United States of America,” it is the document that launched the war for Independence, and it is the moral beginning for our country.
The founders were wise to not have any religious references in the Constitution, and I also agree with you that this is not a “Christian” nation nor was it ever one. Nevertheless, no one can deny that a belief in a divine “Creator” informed the founders of this nation with convictions of freedom and justice that caused this country to become the success that it has become.
What about “In Allah We Trust” discounted license plates?
What about “In Buddha We Trust”?
Or doesn’t freedom of religion apply equally?
No Blood:
This my sound strange coming from a pastor, but in some respect, I agree with you. As I sit here enjoying the majority religious position I am mindful of the countries in this world where Christianity is persecuted. I happen to believe in total freedom of religion which means no laws favoring or disadvantaging (is that a word?) one religion over another.
Personally, I don’t have a problem if some state wants to issue vanity plates that promote some particular religious point of view so long as all are equally represented.
However, the phrase “In God We Trust” is just as much a political statement for people in the Midwest as it is a religious one. I have seen secular people driving around with these plates on their cars.
Additionally, this particular phrase is one that every religious person should be able to affirm. Remember that “God” is not the name of the Christian divine being. Rather, that is his title. Muslims believe that “Allah is God.” Jehovah’s witnesses believe that Jehovah is God. And incidentally, Buddhists do not believe that Buddha is God, but they do believe in the supernatural oneness of all life which some could understand by the term “God.”
Christians simply follow in the footsteps of our Jewish Leader Jesus who refered to God either as God or as Father and never by any other divine name, though the biblical divine name of the Christian God is YHWH or Yahweh.
At any rate, now that the plates have come out, I happen to think they simply are the best looking plates of any I’ve seen from any state (California to New York) in the past 15 years.
Ian,
The words “Seperation of Church and State” and “Freedom of Religion” are not in the Constitution but there are many who beleive that they are. Those words are locted in letters that Thomas Jefferson – a diest – wrote to a congregatin in Danbury Connecut explaining why there was no state “sanctioned” religion. As this time in history whom ever was the ruling power in a country – THEIR religion was the state religion and taxes supported the church – even if you did not believe. But people have stretched this so far to say that government and religion are to be seperate institutions. THAT is not the case. The intention was that the government could not use tax money to support one church over another. But for some reason many people seem to confuse this to say “Freedom from Religion” – which is not the same thing.
The first amendment to the constitution makes a distinction between the free exercise of religion and the government’s establishment of a religion. By designing, creating, and distributing the “in god” plate, the government is endorsing religion. If individuals want to freely exercise their religion on the bumper of their car, they can buy a sticker with a message of their choice.
Religion is a personal commitment, between an individual, their congregation, their religious leaders. Why is it necessary to taint that with the government’s involvement? I love my country, but I don’t think that my religion needs to be blatantly supported by my government. (and, more importantly, other peoples’ religion excluded.)
I hope that religious and non-religious people can come together on this issue and denounce the plates as a violation of First Amendment.
(A bit of a side note)…Is anyone else disturbed to see people driving their Cadillac Escalades with the red, white, and blue “In God We Trust” plates slapped on their bumpers? Do they know they are supporting oil-rich authoritarian regimes and causing unnecessary damage to our environment? Displaying a patriotic, god-loving license plate is a whole lot easier than taking public transportation or driving a hybrid.
To quote the LATimes article,
“The debate over the “In God We Trust” plates in Indiana dates to 2005, when Republican state Rep. Woody Burton introduced a bill to create a plate that would be embraced by “both patriots and those of faith.”
A point of contention was the question of where the money would go if a premium fee were collected. Initially, state legislators knocked down the bid for the plates in part over concern the fees would go to a religious organization and violate the separation between church and state.
Burton said he avoided the issue altogether when he reintroduced the bill last year by categorizing it as a “standard plate” so there wouldn’t be a special fee.”
Regardless of how anyone wants to spin it after-the-fact, Burton’s intent was to create a religion-themed plate.
When I went to get my plates renewed last week, and the lady at the BMV offered me the ‘new plate, I politely declined. She said, “Why? There’s no charge. It costs the same as the others.” I replied, “… because I’m an atheist.” The whole BMV went quiet. I thought the good ol’ boys were going to lynch me on my way out.
And that got me thinking, not only did I not request the ‘banner’ and chose not to mark myself as a believer, but I actively refused it, chose the standard plate, and thereby marked myself as some unpatriotic heathen communist (in their eyes). Who, except the non-believers, would refuse such a thing?
So I’m curious… are the BMV clerks supposed to offer and push the new plate, or was this an isolated incident?
Meta, you mean here in Indiana we have a choice to get a standard non-religious license plate? Knowing how Christians are, I figured they were simply gonna force feed me their superstitious nonsense.
Boy, I’m glad for that. I was afraid for what was going to happen to me when I defaced my license plate. Nothing too noticeable. You see, I have dogs, and if I was going to be forced to have a Christian endorsement on my license plate, I was going to repaint “god” to say “dog”, reading “In Dog We Trust”.
Hey, I look at it this way. I’ve seen more evidence for the existence of dogs than the Christians’ imaginary friend.
Hi Doc,
While you are certainly entitled to your own opinion, I find it offensive that you would choose to comment in the way you did on a site proclaiming to be from a pastor who is concerned about your spiritual growth. I’m fine with you being an atheist, and I probably won’t be able to change you, but I’d request you be a little more considerate when making comments.
Your phrases…
and
are clearly condescending and derogatory. So my question is “Who is forcing their beliefs onto whom?”
I was also fed the line that the god plates are the new standard… They said there was not extra charge – which made me think, there had to be $ somewhere to make these plates. Yup, there sure was; it came from Indiana’s road budget. So we may not have to pay the extra $40 up front, but the money was taken from our roads – which of course do not need repair. We may be driving on torn up roads, but at least people can let everyone know that they believe in god… Maybe god will fix our roads for us!
Went to the BMV today to get plates for a new vehicle. They are actually pushing this new plate and look at you like you are a heretic if you ask for the old standard plate. The girl that was working the counter even asked why I didn’t want the “In god we trust” plate. I just told her that it was a personal choice. When she handed me the regullar plate she said “god bless you anyway”. How rude!
As to it being our motto and being on our currency, I have believed for a long time that should change. WIth all of the redesigns in recent years of our currency, that motto could have been and should have been removed. I personally prefer to use my debit card so I do not have to carry cash with that foul message printed on it.
I am so tired of the “christian nation’ mentality. It is one of the things keeping us from truly progressing in this country.