Quodlibet
Driving in Neutral
I can't believe I'm writing this, but three cheers for the Kentucky Department of Motor Vehicles. "Obscene or vulgar" is how the Kentucky DMV categorized Kevin Hart's request to have "I'm God" emblazoned on his personalized license plates.
Mr. Hart then filed a lawsuit in federal court (of course) with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom from Religion Foundation (of course, of course). The court ruled in Mr. Hart's favor (of course), writing, "To allow such plates as 'IM4GOD' and 'LUVGOD' but reject 'IM GOD' belies viewpoint neutrality."
The court may be indifferent as to whether a man believes in God or blasphemes him, but there's nothing neutral about it. As Anthony Esolen once put it, there's no such thing as a beach ordinance that's neutral on nudity. It's either a nude beach or it isn't.
J. Douglas Johnson is Executive Editor of Touchstone.
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more from the online archives
24.2—March/April 2011
Certain Death & the Last Lectures of Socrates & Jesus by Randall B. Smith
32.6—November/December 2019
Historical Truth, Beguiling Stories & Three Kinds of Hearers by Anthony Esolen
24.5—Sept/Oct 2011
A Critical Memoir of Thomas Merton at Gethsemani Abbey by Patrick Henry Reardon
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