Right-wing politicians have no shame when it comes to pandering to their fundamentalist christian base. They don't mind violating the Constitution at all, if it'll get them a few more votes by playing the religion card.
Thank goodness our Founding Fathers foresaw the short-sighted and self-indulgent behavior of politicians (and many voters), and gave us the Bill of Rights to go with our Constitution. Otherwise, we would already be living in a theistic dictatorship rather than the secular constitutional democracy that was intended.
A good example of this is the recent action by state politicians in South Carolina. They decided to reassure their re-election by creating a special license plate to appease their fundamentalist voters. They designed and approved a speciality plate with a cross, a stained glass window and the words "I BELIEVE" on it.
Lt. Governor Andre Bauer said approval of the plate was a "free speech" issue. He said it was ridiculous that the state had 103 different speciality plates, and yet didn't have a plate for christians. But the truth is that the move actually restricts speech rather than insuring free speech.
That's because the state singled out the christian religion to be honored with a plate. They did not approve a plate to honor any other religion (or one to honor non-religious thought - atheism). Because they only created a christian plate, that amounted to the state sanctioning a single religion -- a clear violation of the United States Constitution.
And that's exactly what District Judge Cameron Currie said when she struck down the law and banned the christian-only license plate. She said the law amounted to a state endorsement of christianity.
Judge Currie went on to say, "Whether motivated by sincerely-held christian beliefs or an effort to purchase political capital with religious coin, the result is the same. The statute is clearly unconstitutional and defense of it's implementation has embroiled the state in unnecessary litigation."
It's a good thing we have honest judges to uphold the Constitution and protect our secular democracy.
As a SC resident and one who grew up in an evangelical home, I find it interesting that the tag had a gold cross and stained glass. Pretty much every church I went to that I figure would have a parking lot full of these tags was made of clapboard or cinderblocks. The crosses were wood or steel and stained glass was an unheard of luxury. See, most of those churches didn't have A/C so opening the windows was really important and you can't open stained glass windows except with a rock. No, this tag has nothing to do with sincere Christians; it is ALL about the politics. I just find it unfortunate that some people believe a fish or a cross on a person's car means the driver is a fine person and an upstanding Christian.
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