‘In God We Trust’ license plates start to pop up

All over the state of Indiana, a new license plate design is popping up. Unbeknownst to many Indiana constituents, lawmakers passed House Enrolled Act 1013 on July 1 last year, which introduced a new license plate design available to the public on Jan. 1, according to a press release. The design includes the American flag and the words “In God We Trust.”\nRepublican Rep. Woody Burton, in collaboration with former Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joel Silverman, decided to offer the plate design to Indiana residents without the specialty license plate fee that is usually charged, for example, for the environment, arts education, breast cancer awareness and other causes.\n“There are no fees because this is not considered a specialty plate,” Burton said. “This particular plate is what is referred to as a stock-shelf item, and is an extension of our nation’s motto.”\nThe state, in order to produce the license plate, requires at least 500 signatures on a petition to bring before the bureau. The “In God We Trust” license plate was granted $40,000 to begin production, and as of Wednesday has sold 207,391 plates, Burton said.\nUnlike the standard Indiana license plates, the county numbers are not displayed as the first two digits of the license-plate number, Burton said. Instead, the indication of county is on the bottom left corner, displayed as a small white sticker.\nIndiana is not the only state to implement such a plate. Burton said North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee and Louisiana all have similar plates, but that was unknown when the bill passed.\n“This nation was based on faith,” Burton said. “I don’t think that this plate is bias toward any particular religion, because if you look at them, there is no religion that doesn’t have a godlike figure. \nChristians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists all have a central god.”\nBurton did admit, however, that there was some minor controversy within the Jewish community about the plate. “(The Jewish community) had several questions about the plate and still had mild objections at the time that the \nbill was passed,” Burton said. “But I have a friend who is Jewish, and he just bought one of these plates.”\n“I’m really excited that \nso many people have bought these plates, ”Burton said. “It shows me that people are expressing themselves, and it gives \nthe public an opportunity to show their faith in their religion \nand their country. In the past few years, we’ve had attacks on faith, and the United States Supreme Court has been trying to get ‘In God We Trust’ off the dollar bill. There were even Christians jailed for putting \nfliers on vehicles at a gay pride rally.” \nThe license plate is currently available at local bureau’s branches and costs the same as the standard Indiana license plate. \n“People at the BMV have a choice, and no one’s going to push them to choose one plate over another,” Burton said. “If nonbelievers don’t want the ‘In God We Trust’ plate, then they don’t have to get it. I’m a Christian man, but I don’t have the right to force my beliefs onto another person.”