Columbia, USA - South Carolinians might get a chance to buy a Christian “I Believe” license tag after all.
The plaintiffs who won the lawsuit this month that killed the General Assembly-sanctioned “I Believe” license tag are saying they won't protest a private group's request that the state make the same tag for them.
Oran Smith, president and CEO of the Columbia-based Palmetto Family Council, has filed a request with the S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles to have the department issue a tag with the words “I Believe” on it and images of a stained-glass window and Christian cross. That's the same idea behind the tag U.S. Judge Cameron Currie ruled was unconstitutional Nov. 10.
Smith said his Christian faith-based public policy group is “resurrecting the idea. You have to have a death before you can have a resurrection.”
State law allows private groups to get their own license tags with their own messages. More than 100 private groups have their own messages on state license tags.
The plaintiffs who just won the lawsuit that killed the General Assembly-sanctioned “I Believe” license tag are saying they won't protest Smith's plan — as long as it's a private group, and not state government, that is sponsoring the tag.
“This would be a specialty license tag like all the other specialty tags,” said the Rev. Neal Jones, one of the four plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit over separation of church and state. “It would be an expression of freedom of speech by a private group, and we don't have a problem with that.”
Jones, pastor of the Universalist Unitarian Fellowship in Columbia, said he had discussed with the other three plaintiffs the possibility of a private group putting “I Believe” on a tag. “Everyone was fine with it,” he said.
Judge: No state sanctioning
On Nov. 10, Currie issued a scathing 57-page ruling saying the General Assembly's 2008 law establishing a state-approved Christian license plate was flagrantly unconstitutional.
Her opinion, which criticized state officials for pandering to religious conservatives by getting the General Assembly's official approval for the Christian religion, said such laws have been unconstitutional since the United States' inception.
“Such a law amounts to state endorsement not only of religion in general, but of a specific sect in particular,” Currie wrote.
Smith said one of his goals was to get a Christian tag approved for the public “without attracting unnecessary constitutional challenges.”
Already, Smith said, there's a plate sponsored by the Secular Humanists of the Low Country that says, “In Reason We Trust.”
“Christians shouldn't be offended by that because we don't have to buy it,” Smith said. “People who don't want a cross and a Christian message don't have to have that message. It's a matter of choice.”
He wants his group's tag to be the same as the one that Currie rejected, Smith said. That tag, designed by the Department of Motor Vehicles, depicted a cross and a stained glass window and displayed the words “I Believe.”
Efforts to reach Department of Motor Vehicles officials for comment were unsuccessful.
McMaster to give advice
Meanwhile, Attorney General Henry McMaster said earlier this week he would meet with state officials to advise them on whether to appeal Currie's decision.
McMaster, whose office did not represent the state before Currie, declined to say what advice he would give. But he said winning an appeal of Currie's decision would be “an uphill battle.” Notice of an appeal must be filed by Dec. 10.
Jones said that although he is a Christian, he won't be buying an “I Believe” license plate.
“I have a problem with being ostentatious,” Jones said, saying Jesus urged his followers not to flaunt their faith in public. “I believe our faith is demonstrated by our lifestyle — not by what fits on a license tag. Anyway, my theology won't fit on a license tag.”
Smith said having “I Believe” on a Christian license tag is in line with biblical teachings. “The great commission is pretty clear. ‘Go into all the world and spread the Gospel,'” he said.
Moreover, he said, a Christian with that license plate will be bearing witness and will be inspired to drive in a safer, more considerate manner.
“The last thing you want to do with an ‘I Believe' plate is to be cutting people off in traffic,” Smith said. “You bear the symbol of Christ on your bumper. It would be a daily calling to try to live up to that symbol. … It could be a calling to discipleship.”