Nutty secularism
I am all for secularism, as the heading of blog indicates, but this is just taking it too damn far, you know? (Hattip Sully) Not to mention, i don't see the 1 in 3:16. All i see is 36. This is totally a "In the eyes of the beholder" thing, so why is the State of Vermont making a big deal out of it? Makes you wonder what their position is on License plates that have 666 on them!
posted by The Sandmonkey @ 6/12/2005 04:52:00 AM
11 Comments:
Hi SM,
Remember when some years ago, the Ministry of Interior banned religious messages on car windshields in Egypt. It was getting out of hand with some people and it was a good thing to be stopped. Religion belong in the heart and not to be paraded around in windshields or licence plates. Freedom of expression is good as long as it is not abused.
well am sure the guy could have gone away with it if he was to register in one of the bible belts..and I see it is a bit different from the signs that MOInterior have banned in Egypt...it is far less conspicious, i would have never even figured it out that it would stand for John 36..so yep taking it a bit way too far, but is this not along the lines of east coast liberalism..dunno, but i would say that Egypt took the lead once...yaay for us.
Yes, it's slightly nutty. It's not the first time. In 2001, Vermont disallowed the use of ROMAN5 as a vanity plate. In 2003, a case went all the way to the Vermont Supreme Court when the DMV disallowed IRISH.
Vermont has also rejected SHTHPNS or Shit Happens. This case made it all the way to the 2nd Court of Appeals.
This individual can express his religious sentiments in many other ways. Bumber stickers are quite common in VT. There's a women who drops her kid off at day care near my office whose SUV sports the bumber sticker, What Would Jesus Bomb, a knock off on WWJD - D for do.
The license plate, like a driver's license, a passport, a birth certificate, or a voter registration may not be the most appropriate place to signal one's religious, racial (as in IRISH or in another state, the more contentious, ARYAN1) or even one's political identity.
Religious bumper stickers are perfectly legal, and quite common. Even license plate "holders" with a religious message are legal. The issue Vermant seems to have here is with a government issued license plate.
It's probably a legitimate case, as it can be seen as endorsement of religion by the government. There's an impending head on collision between Christians and secularists in the US - driven mainly by the fact that Christians feel they are discrimated against, because they are the majority in the US. Which is very true. It's only Christian displays of religion that are being banned across the country.
I'm a secularist, btw, and I always have been. There's a problem, though, in America. Secularists think the constitution guarantees freedom FROM religion, when in actuality it guarantees freedom OF religion. In other words, people are free to practice religion as they see fit. Most secularists (but not me!) believe that people should just not practice religion. Period.
BTW, previous anonymous, why is ARYAN1 contentious? For a northern european to have a plate like that, it might as well say IDIOT. Why would a white guy northern european want to claim to be Iranian? :D
6TN = 6TEEN
What does the verse say anyway?
I'm too lazy to look it up.
Besides this way anyword can be given some meaning, religious or not; a la Qabbala.
Every now and then Car & Driver runs a photo-essay of creative license plates. The best seem to be from California -- they don't seem to edit anything there!
- 6ULDV8
John 3:16
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that who so ever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
From memory. Might not be exact.
Now, onto my problem with this stupidity. Where does it stop? A vanity plate represents the person's views, not the government's. This is utter bullshit frankly. So, maybe the government should ban licenses like "nd4spd" since it would be technically advocating speeding or possibly advocating an amphetamine addiction?
Now if it said "killall" or something advocating violence or violent criminal acts like "rape" or "sodomiz" or something disgusting, sure, censor it. But, really, this is just ridiculous.
Free speech babe, free speech
Now that's what I call BULLSHIT. And the US calls itself a democratic country. IMO, it isn't.
Now that's what I call BULLSHIT. And the US calls itself a democratic country. IMO, it isn't (sorry if anyone felt offended)
Actually, I think that verse is the famous "I am the Way, the Truth and the Light; no one shall come unto the Father but through Me." Which of course, to a non-Christian, basically says, "boy, sucks to be you! You guys are all screwed!" Even so, this is not the government endorsing religion, and speaking as a non-Christian myself, I can safely say that this is stupid. Like Sully said, it just gives Fundies another thing they can point to and say "'elp, 'elp, I'm bein' repressed!"
No, J. Francis, the other commenter was right with "for God so loved the world...." which to me is kind of just a vision statement of general Christian theology so what the hell is the prob with that? Are they allowed bumper stickers? It would be like the little religious bumper stickers you see here in Cairo with the Shahada or other Duaa type stuff on them.
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