(This is a related thread to mykcob4’s “A day in the life of an Atheist.”)

I live deep in the US bible belt and this afternoon I was in the parking lot at Starbucks waiting while my wife ran in to get us coffees. One of the other cars in the lot had a vanity plate. (For those unfamiliar, a vanity plate is a specially-made automobile license plate with a combo of numbers and/or letters that mean something to the driver. For example, a medical doctor may have “SAMMD83,” while a computer programmer’s might be “I CODE,” I’ve also seen the pretentious IMSAVED.)

Anyway, the vanity plate on this car was “JCDYD4U.” It took me a few moments to work it out. (Answer below if needed.)

At first I thought, Hey, if they want to pay $35 to have the plate made and an additional license fee of $35 every year, that’s additional revenue to the State that does not come from my pocket. Then I thought, what are the regulations regarding what you can and cannot have on a vanity plate?

According to the State Department of Motor Vehicles, there is a prohibition against: “Any combination of letters or numbers which disparage a religious belief or being, race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.”

Is it just my interpretation, or does this vanity plate disparage all religions except Christianity? All these vanity plate combinations have to pass an administrative review. I guess the (most probably Christian) reviewer did not consider this plate “disparaging.”

Not a big deal. Just another day in the life of an atheist in the southern US of A.

Answer: Jesus Christ died for you.