The Crazies Will Always Be With Us
It is appropriate that this comes from the St. Petersburg Times: Florida Senate approves religious license plates
TALLAHASSEE — If you want Jesus on your license plate, the Florida Senate is looking out for you.
Because why worry about a budget impasse or property insurance when you can spend more than an hour talking about Jesus, the devil and license plates?
Religious specialty plates offered by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, made it onto a bill Friday even though many members had not seen images of those plates and none was produced for the debate.
Senator Ronda Storms is on a crusade to replace Michele Bachman as the Craziest Christianist Conservative in Congress. I will include the graphics below the fold so no one will be offended or outraged. If you think I’m protecting atheist sensibilities, it is only because you haven’t seen the plate – something to offend everyone.
This is the “I Believe” plate that is sponsored by Senator Siplin, which was also introduced, but not approved last year
This was my response to the “I Believe” plate, also from last year.
This is the new one. Look at the design elements. A large sun disk, a man dying of torture, and the caption “Sunshine State”. Does anyone think this isn’t offensive on multiple levels, to multiple groups, including Christians? The “Sunshine State” ?!?!? What on earth were these people thinking? I assume that the color was supposed to represent stone, but it looks like a dead body after a couple of days. Ignoring the issue of church and state, this is an amazingly offensive design, especially with the torture issue so active.
21 comments
does the plate come with little tablets that break and ooze blood while you’re driving? If a driver with one of these plates is caught driving drunk do they automatically get triple the penalty because I don’t think that’s WJWD.
The controversy over plates here in CA is the whale plate where the artist is upset cause he wasn’t really paid for the artwork and the police are complaining because they can’t take down plate numbers due to the artwork. Makes me want to save up and get one.
cookie jill´s last blog post..olestra…it’s back….
You have to wonder if you are involved in a accident are you charged with failure to yield right-of-way and blasphemy?
I remember having to save up to pay the regular fee. After years of paying $15 to $25 annually, the fee in California was quite a shock. I would hate to think what they want for a special plate.
eek.
hipparchia´s last blog post..Send faxes, faxes, and money!
I can see it being very popular up here, Hipparchia. It’s even better than a “fish”.
Ooooh, can I have a flaming chalice (the UU symbol*) on mine? No? Why not? How about a pentangle? No? Why not? Are not all religions equally treated by Florida’s government? Why not? Doesn’t the First Amendment say…
(etc., etc.)
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* Years ago, there was a maker of very, very bad harpsichords whose name was John Challis. I used to say that the official symbol of a Unitarian harpsichordist was the flaming Challis…
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I don’t understand why anyone would want to put a religious symbol on a license plate. It would get covered with red clay or bugs in no time. It seems nearly as bad as putting “G-d” on money that can be used for immoral purposes or lining the floor of a garage with religious texts.
These people just don’t make sense to me, and I’ve lived among them most of my life.
What a great idea! Seriously… It will make it easy for everyone who isn’t an extremist nutter Christian spot the nut’s. Especially as they are speeding away from the scene of a crime! 😆
It’s kinda like the old branding of the Jews and the yellow stars really. 🙂 All fundies should be forced to have one IMHO! THen the rest of us know who to stay the hell away from! 😆
Only a typical wingnut could come up with something like this.
Take my word for it, with the plastic fish symbols, bumper stickers, over-sized crosses, and personalized Bible covers they all flaunt, you have no problem figuring out who is going to asked you: “Have you been saved?”
These are not people you want around your livestock, much less children.
The backend of a pick-up is no place for an icon.
sadly, i can see it being popular here too. all it needs now is for that bottom line to read sonshine state and we’re set.
i [unfortunately] have occasion to drive by the local abortion clinic fairly often, and all too often the ‘pro-lifers’ are out. the huge posters those people brandish makes this image look pretty tame.
hipparchia´s last blog post..Send faxes, faxes, and money! [update]
I was brought up in a more conservative Protestant Christian tradition, and I see it as a sacrilege, just like the motto on the money. We weren’t “four walls and a sermon”, but a cross was just that, not a crucifix, which bordered on idolatry.
The Eucharist was part of Easter, and no other time, and it was done with grape juice, because liquid spirits were not considered part of the religious experience. You didn’t proclaim your Christianity publicly as that was what the Pharisees did, and that included wearing even a plain cross.
You stayed in the New Testament, primarily the Gospels, because that was where the “Good News” was to be found. You knew about the book of Revelation, but no one dwelt on it. The Sermon on the Mount was the most important text. Sins and Hell weren’t dwelt upon. It was more important to emphasize what was right, than what was wrong.
This is really pushing it for my tradition, and the “I Believe” plate isn’t far behind. Those wealthier churches that had stained glass, were simply colored glass, with no iconic symbols beyond a white cross, but it made some people uncomfortable, and was thought by more than a few to be too “Catholic”.
Not quite Calvinist or Anabaptist in simplicity, but not too far removed.
I guess these sorts of views aren’t too popular anymore. Apparently it’s all about guilt and following the “party line”.
yours is similar to the traditions my parents were raised in [4 walls and a sermon describes some of the family tree pretty well, actually], and though they’re churchgoers to this day, they’re probably as close to being uu as you can get without actually declaring yourself so.
one of the family stories is of my grandparents visiting us shortly after we moved to a new town and started going to a new church, one that served real wine at communion. my grandmother, who had never in her life so much as looked at alcohol, let alone tried any, couldn’t get over how bad the grape juice tasted. i don’t think anybody ever told her about the ‘secret ingredient’ in that grape juice.
nobody in the family is overtly anti-catholic that i know of, but i was rather at a loss the first time i went to church with one of my catholic friends. in fact, ‘creeped out’ might be a better description.
my brother and i were sent to jewish [i’m guessing reform] summer camp when were kids, and i have to admit, i liked them better than any of the christians.
hipparchia´s last blog post..Send faxes, faxes, and money! [update]
*shrug* I’ve mentioned by religious (well, Catholic anyway) upbringing before.
As far as I am concerned, anyone who needs to blatantly, loudly and brightly proclaim their Christianity isn’t a Christian at all. They are usually either someone who’s out to control and fleece others, someone who needs some serious psychiatric help, or is simply a fool, or a truly lost soul. And that’s not just my view either. I’ve discussed this with several Christian friends who act in a Christian way, they don’t wear badges of honor, their homes are not festooned with enough religious symbolism to sink a ship, they don’t scream and rant at everyone… In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard them raise their voices. They are simply good people I know I can trust and rely upon, and they know they can trust and rely on me.
One family of dear friends needed me to look after their 9 YO daughter for a few weeks many years ago. I was a lot more concerned and nervous about it than they were! I’d known her since the day she was born and was her ‘Godfather’. Now she’s 22, and calls me her 2nd dad. 🙂 I love her a great deal. I don’t know if I could ever trust anyone with a child of mine like that, not today anyway. But, they did, and I (eventually) felt very honored. I looked after her a few times over the years and we never had any problems. We became good friends and I’d like to think I helped her a lot with *life* etc. 🙂
I don’t need to pay a bunch of crooks to tell me how to act in a moral or ‘Christian’ way. And anyone who does, IMHO, will never truly be moral or a Christian and is someone to run from. I have no problem with ethical, moral Christians who want to get together with others in a spirit of community, that’s different and is usually a good thing, but the second one wants money, run!
Hipparchia, the “Catholic” reference goes back to the founding in the Reformation. Anything that was considered overly ornate was called “Catholic” as a code word. Simplicity was one of the reasons for forming a separate church. For a bunch of “revolutionaries”, they are a very conservative group who feel they have returned to the roots of the groups that the Apostles knew.
If you live it, Kryten, you don’t have to talk about it. Lead by example and people will follow of their own free will. If they have to be convinced, they probably won’t really believe, and that can’t be forced.
If you are a good person, it doesn’t make any difference what, if any, religion you follow. If you aren’t, religion obviously won’t help you.
Hmm. One of my favorite UU ministers, long since retired, preached a sermon once a year about the necessary monetary contributions members of the congregation must make if the church was to survive. He titled it “The Sermon on the Amount.” I wish even one of my evangelical acquaintances had such a sense of humor.
Bryan, Kryten, hipparchia: so much of what all of you said above makes such good sense that I can’t imagine any of you are going to Heaven, at least not the one described by the local Southern Baptists…
Steve Bates´s last blog post..When It Rains…
If Jerry Falwell and I are at the same location, it’s a sure thing that the sign at the entrance doesn’t say Heaven.
LOL @ Steve. 😀 I’ve known a couple of ministers that I truly liked Steve. 🙂 They were sincere and understanding, but mostly, honest and truly moral. I discovered that was a rarity sadly. I enjoyed talking with them, and they did help straighten a few things out for me.
One was a Baptist, and we discussed baptism. Being raised a Catholic, I’d been baptized as soon as I was out of the hospital. We discussed that, and I concluded that is wrong and against the bible for several reasons. Anyway, I asked if he thought I should be properly baptised as an adult. He asked me if I was ready to leave everything behind and devote myself to God. I gave it serious thought, and said that I wasn’t ready for that. He told me to go see him when I was ready. Baptism is a *choice*. How does a newborn baby have a choice? He asked me how I felt about being baptized as a baby. And I really thought about it, and I got angry. I felt as though my freedom of choice had been taken from me, and that I’d been totally conned. I felt that the Catholics only do it to grab as many people as they can for their Religion. I felt like they decided: “Quick! There’s another one! Grab him and don’t let him get away! He’s ours! We’ll be the biggest religion yet!” The Bible states clearly that every child is a child of God. Only an adult has the right and the ability to decide if he wants to go the Christian (or any other) path or not. John the Baptist never baptized children.
Bryan, given what we have been through and seen here on Earth, anything else will be a walk in the park. 😉 😆
Sometimes, I do hope there truly is a God and I do meet for even a second, so I can ask “What was all that crap about?” But as I get older, and the more I see and understand, the less inclined I am to want to.
How can a kind and loving G-d permit these things to happen…
Blue-skinned zombie amputee Jesus loves me, yes I know, ’cause the Florida legislature tells me so…
Bwhahahahahaha! Oh my, can’t breathe for laughing… didn’t anybody look at this plate and figure out that, well, it’s effin’ HILARIOUS?! Blue-skinned zombie amputee Jesus, heh. Oh my.
– Badtux the Laughing Penguin
Badtux´s last blog post..Well, well…
The Florida Senate – all their taste is in their mouth.
A musician I know in Austin has no sense of taste as a result of neural damage from a fall off a bicycle. (She eats very peppery things so that meals are not completely bland.) On one occasion I told her that all her taste was in her ‘cello playing…
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You are a terrible person, Steve.