AmericanPapist Comments
I would not. Too much of a Mt 6:5 issue for me.
Plus it looks like a Methodist license. "Give me corpus or give me the usual plate!", that's what I always say.
I would rather have the Indiana 'In God We Trust' license plate.
Way too much of an "Evangelical" vibe.
I live in Virginia and there are all kinds vanity plates - they only cost $10 more than regular plates so there are almost more vanity plates than regular ones on the road. Here's, for example, a Knights of Columbus plate.
I think all you have to do get a new plate design here is get a few hundred people who are willing to get the new plate if its made. If other states took that same approach where as long as there were enough people who wanted the plate any group could get a design, I think that might resolve any problems of the state seemingly supporting one religion over another
I'm also from virginia and we've got it right. Pretty much any group can get a license plate made, so there's no discrimination.
Plus, what a bunch of crap about people having "no religion"! Everybody believes something, whether or not theres an organization behind it.
Plus, what a bunch of crap about people having "no religion"!
Ah, this old canard.
Religion requires an element of the paranormal. It's that simple.
A view on an issue, or a passionately held conviction, IS NOT automatically a religion. Even belief in something not proven or impossible to prove is not a religion if there is no paranormal element.
And before you trot out third and fourth order dictionary definitions, please be aware that they are there to demonstrate how the word is used metaphorically. For instance: "In Italy, coffee drinking is a religion". Do you think anyone would ever consider that Italians attribute actual mystical powers to coffee drinking?
Do you think anyone would ever consider that Italians attribute actual mystical powers to coffee drinking?
Respectfully, do you know any Italians? It's darn near mystical.
Of course, they're probably drinking http://www.MysticMonkCoffee.com.
Personally, I favor DE's system-- all ugly blue and yellow, and no personalization whatsoever.
Seriously people. Buy bumper stickers.
WRC - lol. :)
How would you ever get through customs when visiting Canada? Hate speech plastered on your car!
First, Virginians can't get any plate they want - our former governor vetoed the Choose Life plate. We have a KofC plate, but didn't have enough spaces to personalize it with "KAANIGGIT". However, knowing that the Knights support Pro Life groups helps ease the withdrawal symptoms from moving up here from Florida, where we were blessed to have a "Choose Life" plate.
Secondly, I wonder where the extra money raised from those plates would go. With the Choose Life plate, the money goes to crisis pregnancy centers within the states who allow people to purchase them. None of the stories I've read or heard have information on where the money would go.
I wouldn't get the plate. And, honestly, knowing how the Constitution is being applied in these cases, I think there are better things to do with our time. I might feel differently if I knew what or who was getting the extra money raised - maybe it's a really amazing cause - but I'll stick with my KofC plate.
I want a Catholic plate. Maybe Padre Pio could be on it.
CBLF, there are religions that have no paranormal basis or views. Some forms of Buddhism deny paranormality entirely.
Why am I suddenly tempted to walk into mass with a PKE meter, to, ya know, check for paranormal activity? Dude, don't cross the streams! I mean, who uses that phrase except paid-off crackpots on the History/Discovery Channel and Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters? Paranormal. Sheesh. CBLF could have picked a less loaded connotative term to point out the loaded connotation that andrew used. I love that 'paranormal' is used to imply that all religious activity is, in the parlance of our times, freako-nuts. Off the cuff and without consulting the OED, I suggest the distinction that a religion is a religion and not merely one's own simple worship when the activity of worship also has followable tenets, an organized system of communication and, oh, yeah, some sort of membership that identifies a particular group of worshipers. This, I think, rules out Masons, Atheists and anyone who habitually plays World of Warcraft or attends Star Trek conventions. This does not, presumably, discount Scientologists, Unitarians or Marxists.
Italians with coffee? I defer to WRC's comments.
Doesn't anyone see the irony in Christian VANITY plates? "Hellooooo? Look at me!!! I'm humble enough to advertise the fact that I'm a holy roller!" Doesn't work for me, sorry. Last time I checked Christians were supposed to be identifiable by the fact that their words and deeds resembled those of Christ, not that they were able to pay for the appearance of belief in him.
What about Obama supporters? They get pretty religious about the Messiah.
Maybe we could have Obama vanity plates? That TOTALLY trumps bumper stickers.
We live in Florida and my wife said that she'd be willing to get one. I guess that means I'd get one, too.
One argument against the plates is that it implies the government favors one religion over another. Well, we have a lot of specialty plates in Florida. If another group wants to have a plate, they just have to go through the same process to get one.
For example, we have plates for manatees, but we don't have plates for mockingbirds (which happen to be the official state bird, BTW). There's nothing wrong with mockingbirds. It's just that no one has applied to have a plate made for them. The government isn't favoring manatees over mockingbirds simply by having one on a plate and the other one not on a plate.
@Teep:
I see your point, but it's not easy to show your faith in the way you drive, unless you're a member of the Sacred Heart Driving Club. 8-)
Paranormal is a perfectly apt word in this discussion. If you prefer, I'll switch to mysticism. I could equally use supernatural.
As for this:-
I suggest the distinction that a religion is a religion and not merely one's own simple worship when the activity of worship also has followable tenets, an organized system of communication and, oh, yeah, some sort of membership that identifies a particular group of worshipers.
Nope.
It also needs mysticism, usually of an interventionist and "higher intelligence" nature.
And by talking about methods of worship, you demonstrate that you are missing the point. Much of the "everyone has a religion" canard is put about by creationists, who try to maintain that atheism is a religion as a way to discredit evolutionary theory as a religious manifestation that should be subject to whatever church/state laws are extant. This is flawed in many ways, not least in the fact that you don't need to be an atheist to accept evolutionary theory.
That's why Marxism is not a religion, no matter how slavish the devotion. It's a political/economic philosophy. There's no mystical element. Ergo, it's not a religion. Buddhism is a religion, even though it's often touted as atheistic. It has plenty of mystical elements.
Italians and their coffee drinking falls into the realm of cultural obsession. No matter how arcane the rituals and how passionate the zeal, it's still not a religion in the real sense.
I agree with Thom about the state having no personalized plates. I'm sure the police department/highway patrol would find it easier to deal with, too. Bumper stickers are way easier.
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