Belief as a bumper sticker (try 2)

The comment from last night has really left me thinking. After two years of living in a red state I have a horrible feeling that I have this conception and possibly misconception of the world. I’ll try to explain.
First, I certainly don’t remember any Phish stickers on the car with the PYITE plates. At least nothing that stood out as a jam band follower. It doesn’t surprise me that I may have missed that sort of reference. I’ve never claimed any great support of that scene. Heck, I’m on record as saying that the Grateful Dead are the second most overrated band of all time (just behind the Doors). But the thing is, it never even crossed my mind that there might have been any other purpose than the following: the person was trying to spell piety and either a) couldn’t or b) there already was one so they were going towards an alternative spelling.
The reason that I was so convinced of this is the sheer number of similar license plates and bumper stickers that I’ve seen in the past two years. I’ve seen plates that read URLOVD. I’ve seen the fish symbols (which I am perfectly cool with) and the fish symbols with the word Truth in them eating a fish with legs with the word Darwin in them (which I have a bit of an issue with). And I’ve seen numerous cars with the bumper sticker “In case of rapture, this car will be unoccupied.” After two years of this, I just assume that everyone is trying to make a religious statement with their car.
It’s tough to explain how unusual this is to me. It’s not that I grew up in some pagan side of the planet. I’m from the Chicago suburbs with twelve years of Catholic education (plus two years in graduate school). It was the type of area where you asked people what parish they belonged to. The thing is, even though religion was a common facet of everyone’s life it was never an advertised point. My favorite line from the Bible is that one should pray in a closet, that faith is a personal connection between you and God. It’s not something that you should make a show of, to proclaim on a bumper sticker your certainty that you will reach the promised land. That’s the one thing that has always bothered me because that always seems to assume that you know what the ineffable plan is and if you do, it isn’t much of an ineffable plan now, is it?
So for those of you who may wonder at times why I seem critical on conservative Christianity that might be the explanation, there style just doesn’t mesh with mine. I don’t question their beliefs, in fact, all I ever ask of people is that they have thought about their beliefs. Believe in something or not, just be able to give a reason other than “This is the way it has always been.” Examine your life at the very least. But to me, I never want my faith to be a saying on a bumper sticker. That is one matter not to trivialize.
(Of course, if we wanted to trivialize things I could take this second to talk about the Aeon Flux trailer, which might not be a good movie but might be a great excuse to watch Charlize Theron for an hour or so.)