{"id":18818,"date":"2004-03-14T00:25:00","date_gmt":"2004-03-14T00:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cathleenfalsani.wordpress.com\/2004\/03\/14\/18"},"modified":"2004-03-14T00:25:00","modified_gmt":"2004-03-14T00:25:00","slug":"18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2004\/03\/14\/18\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Road religion: Vanity plates encourage virtue<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in the early 1980s around a lot of church folks who were fond of adorning their cars with those stick-on metallic Evangellyfish symbols, and stickers that said, \u201cIn case of Rapture, this car will be unmanned,\u201d I was always puzzled by a guy I\u2019ll call Mr. Murphy.<\/p>\n

He was a deacon in our church, a pious man who often hosted Bible studies in his home and could quote Scripture with both great ease and relish.<\/p>\n

Mr. Murphy was unapologetic about his faith. And yet, conspicuously missing from his family truckster were any obvious expressions of it.<\/p>\n

No fish. No stickers. No \u201cGod is my copilot\u201d license plate frame. <\/p>\n

One day after his daughter and I had earned our own driver\u2019s licenses, he told us why.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t want to give God a bad name.<\/p>\n

Apparently, Mr. Murphy was a really aggressive driver, even given to the odd fit of road rage, and he didn\u2019t want to cut someone off in traffic and have them look up and see a \u201cJesus loves you\u201d bumper sticker tearing down the road.<\/p>\n

A wise man, that Mr. Murphy.<\/p>\n

I think of him often when I see those fish, or those bumper stickers, and especially when I see a religious vanity plate.<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s someone invested in their faith enough to actually go through the trouble of applying for a official, state-issued identification and pony up the cash.<\/p>\n

Who are these people? And why do they do it?<\/p>\n

After a little research, I can tell you with certainty that in the state of Illinois, BUDDAH7 is an 18-year-old girl, JESUS is a camera-shy Egyptian pastor and CHRIST is a semi-retired dairy farmer from Metamora.<\/p>\n

Walter H. Christ, to be exact.<\/p>\n

Mr. Christ (rhymes with \u201cTHIS-t\u201d) has had the CHRIST plate for about 15 years, he was telling me the other day.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy boy got it for me,\u201d Christ said, as he drove his truck, the one without the CHRIST plate. CHRIST is currently on his \u201979 Mercury Cougar. (\u201cIt is a little sporty for me,\u201d he admitted.)<\/p>\n

What about the plate? Statement of faith or something else?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I am a Christian,\u201d Mr. Christ told me, explaining that he was raised as a Mennonite and now attends an Apostolic Christian church since his wife, Kathleen, died about 10 years ago. She had a vanity plate, too: KCHRIST.<\/p>\n

Mr. Christ has lots of stories about people reacting to the vanity plate. My favorite is the time he was at a gas station in Chicago a number of years ago when the CHRIST plate was on his \u201976 Cadillac DeVille.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother fella drove in and he kind of chuckled and said, \u2018I always wanted to know what kind of car he would drive,'\u201d Mr. Christ remembered, cracking himself up.<\/p>\n

The other story I liked was the time he was driving near Peoria and saw someone waving at him from another car with the license plate JESUS on it.<\/p>\n

That might have been the Rev. Hosny Reyad, pastor of the Chicago Southside Arabic Church of the Nazarene in Worth.<\/p>\n

Reyad has had the JESUS plate \u2014 just Jesus without any numbers after it \u2014 for about four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose this because I am a true Christian and I am a pastor for all my life, for 23 years,\u201d Reyad, who is a native of Egypt, said. \u201cThere\u2019s one thing in my life to be proud about and that\u2019s Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good message for everybody,\u201d Reyad continued. \u201cPeople usually are involved in secular and material things. Most of the time they are not aware of their eternal life. This is a reminder.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Reyad applied for the JESUS plate, he figured it wouldn\u2019t be available.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking at least one person would think of getting JESUS. But I was praying and I got it,\u201d he said. (Actually, there are 68 other JESUS plates. But his is the only one with JESUS alone.)<\/p>\n

So, how about we come out and take a picture of you with your JESUS plate, I asked him.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. That is not necessary,\u201d Reyad told me.<\/p>\n

Well, no, it\u2019s not necessary, but it might be nice for the readers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. It\u2019s not necessary,\u201d the pastor said, shortly before our conversation ended.<\/p>\n

Right. So, what\u2019s the story with the ALLAH plate, I wondered.<\/p>\n

A bold expression of Islamic faith in a culture that doesn\u2019t always welcome it with open arms. There\u2019s got to be a good story there, I thought.<\/p>\n

When I called him at home in Calumet Park, the guy who owns the ALLAH plate (there are eight others but his is the only one without any numbers after ALLAH), said as much.<\/p>\n

And then he said he wouldn\u2019t tell me the story unless I paid him. When I explained that no reputable media outlet pays people to tell their story, that it\u2019s not ethical, the ALLAH plate guy would have none of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you going to pay me for this?\u201d he asked me again.<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell then I\u2019m not interested. It\u2019s a really interesting story, but I\u2019m not going to tell you unless I get paid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

So much for spreading the word.<\/p>\n

My next call was to the owner of BUDDAH7, the only Buddha-related vanity plate I could find.<\/p>\n

BUDDAH7 belongs to 18-year-old Christina Perez of Moline who is not a Buddhist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my nickname,\u201d Christina told me. \u201cMy grampa gave it to me. Because of my stomach. Because I was so chubby.\u201d And seven is her lucky number.<\/p>\n

GOD has, well, expired.<\/p>\n

At least the original one has. The GOD plate, the one without any numbers after the \u2018D,\u2019 which was registered to a Sterling man whose initials were G.O.D., lapsed off the state rolls in 2000, according to the secretary of state\u2019s records.<\/p>\n

There are 21 other GOD license plates \u2014 GOD11, GOD1111 and GOD2003 among them.<\/p>\n

GOD alone, however, remains up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Among the thousands of vanity plates on the road in Illinois, there are also:<\/p>\n

Six YESHUAs, four JEHOVAs (one JEHOVAH), and four RABBIs; eight SHIVAs, four KRISNAs (one KRISHNA), three VISHNUs, and one HINDU; six PASTORs, five PRIESTs and a single IMAM.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also one ATHEIST.<\/p>\n

That would be Rob Sherman of Buffalo Grove, head of the National Atheists organization.<\/p>\n

When he applied for the one and only ATHEIST plate for the first time in 1987, the state said no.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey refused to issue the plate because they don\u2019t issue plates with obscene words or phrases. I told them \u2018atheist\u2019 is not an obscene word or phrase,\u201d Sherman said. Eventually, with the help, he says, of a high-ranking Illinois politician, Sherman got his ATHEIST.<\/p>\n

How do people react to his statement of, er, lack of faith?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wave,\u201d he said. \u201cI usually get one of the first three digits. Sometimes they point at me with the first finger, sometimes people give me the middle finger, sometimes it\u2019s the thumbs up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some people \u201cput their bright lights on behind me to blind me,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to be intimidated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courage of his convictions, yes. And he\u2019d even pose for a picture.<\/p>\n

Still, I can\u2019t help but wonder, what would Mr. Murphy do?<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 The Sun-Times Company
\n
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Road religion: Vanity plates encourage virtue Growing up in the early 1980s around a lot of church folks who were fond of adorning their cars with those stick-on metallic Evangellyfish symbols, and stickers that said, \u201cIn case of Rapture, this car will be unmanned,\u201d I was always puzzled by a guy I\u2019ll call Mr. Murphy. 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