Midwestern Gothic

You may or may not recall a Nebraska man who in 2007 decided to sue God for

“widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants.”…“fearsome floods … horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes.”

And while we at MG wished him the best of luck with his lawsuit, we pretty much chalked that whole mess up to a glaring case of undiagnosed retardation. So you can imagine my joy/frustration/malaise when I read about this Indiana woman who is suing the BMV over not being able renew her religious-themed license plate.

The woman, who had a license plate for 9 years that read ‘BE GODS’, was late this past year in renewing it and was denied when she did. Why? Because of a recent policy adopted this year.

Says BMV spokesman Dennis Rosebrough:

“We do not permit personalized license plates with references to deity.”

Fair enough. But let’s back up. What does ‘BE GODS’ mean, anyway? According to the plate-bearer:

“I associate it with the Bible verse Romans 14:7, 8 [….] No one belongs to himself. If we live, we live onto the Lord. If we die, we die unto the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”

Hmm, not really drawing a comparison there. When I first read it, I thought she was preaching some new age pagan-esque religion, where the sole tenet is to literally be a god. I got excited, momentarily, and called dibs on Zeus, Lord of Thunder, even though Nick has a huge man-crush on him.

Anyway, the worst part about this is that the BMV took back their ruling and told the woman that she could get the plate after all. Did she retract the lawsuit?

Heavens no. It’s still in full-force.

Ciao.