Separation Anxiety

Last Wednesday, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed a measure approving a controversial specialty license plate. The plate bears Christian symbols and the words "I Believe."

Bill sponsor Sen. Larry Grooms has authored and backed other legislation that seeks to allow displays of faith in public areas. Along with roughly 100 other specialty plates, mostly NASCAR themed, South Carolinians will be able to purchase a "Choose Life SC" plate.

Opposition to the license plate is building.

"People can express their views however they want, on a bumper sticker" said Ronald Lindsay, director of the First Amendment Task Force for the Council for Secular Humanism, a New York-based group. "Once you get into the license plate area, that's an official government document, or tag. There is simply no need for it."

Among the groups pledging to oppose the bill if it passes the senate is the American Jewish Congress whose general counsel, Marc Stern told the press,

"There must be something more important to deal with in South Carolina," Stern said. "The Legislature wants to be on record saying that they like Christians."

HT: The Post and Courier

"The Doctor and the Shiksa"

Thanks Uncle Mich!

All Religions Are Fairy Tales...

...or so said a billboard in Orange County, Florida. MediaNet, the company that leases the billboard for $1400 per month, claimed ignorance saying that the sign was put up illegally at night without their knowledge. That's a hard sell considering the sign's six-week run starting the week before Easter and ending April 25.

According to a local TV station, restaurants in the sign's shadow reported a decline in business over the same period, attributing their losses to the controversial billboard. Some locals even thought nearby business had a hand in the sign.

Above the pavement, vehicles and pedestrian traffic this sign boldly delivered its message for over a month. It might have caused some to question their faith and actually examine their beliefs. Others, feeling persecuted, may have been fortified in their godly convictions.

Harvard professor Steven Pinker writes "...there has been an inexorable trend: The deeper we probe these questions, and the more we learn about the world in which we live, the less reason there is to believe in God." We still do not know what motivated the provocateur behind the billboard but in light of the 'trend' to which Pinker refers, it doesn't seem out of place.