Hoosier God?

During our recent holiday visit to Indiana, I saw lots and lots of Hoosier license plates. It turns out, you can get a wide variety of plates sponsoring many different organizations and interests.

For example, if you support the Lions Clubs, for $40 extra, you can get this plate:

If you support your University, for $40 extra, you can get a plate like this:

Or you can get the standard plate for no extra charge:

Finally, you can also get this plate FOR NO EXTRA CHARGE*:

*Blatant religious message sponsored by the Indiana government and the taxpayers.

Like all the other special interests plates, if people could pay extra for such a plate, that would be fine. I know that if I buy the Lions Club plate or the Boy Scouts plate, I'm donating part of the fee to those organizations and advertising my support. While choosing the "In God We Trust" plate doesn't donate to any group, it is an endorsement of a special interest - religion. There are no free plates with other slogans such as "E Pluribus Unum", "Separation of Church and State", or even "Wherever you go, there you are". (Rhetorical question alert.) Why does religion get a free advertisement?

Plus, some license branches are apparently pushing the "In God We Trust" plate, making it the de facto plate unless you specify that you don't want it.

Something's rotten in the state of Indiana.