public domain "I Believe" Faith Plate

South Carolina offers close to 200 specialty license plates. State residents can select from a vast array of causes and organizations from Boy Scouts of America to various colleges or numerous hobbies like fishing or camping. The cost of such plates is $70.00, with the majority of the cost going to support the organization depicted on the plate. The organizations involved are required to pay a $4,000 start-up fee to have their specific plates created which ensures that the state itself does not incur any fees in the manufacturing process. The "Faith Plate" has no specific organization behind it and will require 400 people to purchase the plate before the state will consider producing it. It is assumed that there will be a large number of residents opting to display the plate on their vehicles now that it has become legal to do so. On May 22nd the state house and senate voted unanimously to allow the "faith plate" to be added to the list of vanity options. The cost of the plate will be a mere $4.00 to $7.00, the wholesale cost to produce the plate, with no additional monies going to any religious organization. The plate which features a large golden cross against a stained glass background includes the words "I Believe" printed at the bottom and is expected to be a big seller in the Bible Belt state. So. Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is not in agreement with the production of the plate, but the state constitution did not require the Governor's signature to implement the law.

“While I do, in fact, ‘believe,’ it is my personal view that the largest proclamation of one’s faith ought to be in how one lives one’s life,” Mr. Sanford wrote on Thursday in a letter to Glenn F. McConnell, president pro tem of the Senate and a fellow Republican.

Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Jewish Congress said they were considering suing the state over the plate. Neither organization was aware of any previous state that has approved a similar plate. A proposal for an “I believe” plate in Florida failed in April.

“The whole issue here is that people are trying to get the state to endorse their religion, and that’s wrong,” said Dr. T. Jeremey Gunn, director of the A.C.L.U. Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “It’s almost as if there’s insufficient support, and they have to go to the state to get it.”

Senator Lawrence K. Grooms, the co-sponsor of the bill, rejected that argument.

“I didn’t see a constitutional problem with it,” said Mr. Grooms, a Republican who is chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “We have other plates with religious symbols on them and phrases like ‘In God We Trust.’ Just because it’s a cross, some very closed-minded people don’t believe it should be on a plate.”

Personally, though I am a Christian, I wouldn't be interested in a plate like this. It just seems too "commercial" for my taste. But with that said, I see no reason that the state should be sued for producing it and offering it to residents. What is the harm exactly? No specific church is benefiting, and it doesn't hurt anyone - so what is the big problem exactly? I think that Senator Grooms made a valid point when he stated that are currency here in the United States includes the words "In God We Trust" - although I am sure that there are plenty of people hard at work to have those words removed as well. So where do you stand? Should states begin producing "faith plates" and allowing residents to display religious symbols on their vehicles? Or is this a violation of church and state as opponents are charging?