If you don't want one, don't buy one!

The age old question of the separation between the church and the state has found a new stage on which to enact its controversy: In Florida, the licensing authorities plan to allow a special issue of plates with a depiction of Jesus Christ - a move strongly opposed by those who see no role for the state in ecumenical matters.

Critics see a huge conflict of interests in the approval of the design and claim that the agency has no business endorsing religious affiliations. A similar furore surrounded an application for the plate 'BE GODS' by a licencee in Indiana.

There, the objection was eventually over-ruled on the grounds that the state legislature could hardly justify such a stand when it had already approved a whole series of designs bearing the well-known legend 'In God We Trust'.

This decision was pounced upon by Florida's State Governor: Noting that motorists wishing to display the proposed plates would have to pay an additional fee, the aptly named Charlie Crist bluntly stated his case with the words, "If they don't want one they don't have to buy one".

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