A special license plate just for Christians is rolling through the Statehouse, despite arguments over its constitutionality. A House subcommittee passed the bill Wednesday morning, so it now goes to a full committee. The full Senate has already passed the bill.

The license plate has the words "I Believe" along with a cross superimposed on a stained glass window. The same tag stirred quite a controversy in Florida's legislature. The bill did not pass there.

The bill to create the Christian plate creates an interesting division in the House. Rep. Lester Branham is a Democrat and retired Baptist minister. Rep. Joe Neal is also a Democrat and a Baptist minister. But Rep. Branham supports the bill, and is on the subcommittee that passed it Wednesday, while Rep. Neal is against it.

Rep. Branham says, "In my opinion, it's not the state promoting religion. It's allowing the expression of your religion." He says he fully expects it to be challenged in court if it becomes law.

"We cannot deny that that might happen, but I think you have to defend yourself. And in defending this, I think you'd be defending the Constitution. You're saying people have freedom of their religious expression; freedom to do it and freedom not to do it."

But Rep. Neal disagrees. "I think that, in this instance, having the state to issue a license tag for one faith and not another could be interpreted as the state promoting a particular faith, and I don't think that's consistent with what our Constitution allows," he says.

He also argues that lawmakers shouldn't pass something that's almost certain to bring a lawsuit when the state budget is so tight.

That hasn't stopped them before with a similar bill. The legislature passed a bill in 2001 to create a "Choose Life" license plate, but the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck it down in 2004 saying it was a violation of the First Amendment.

Columbia resident Tavis Brunson was at the DMV Wednesday afternoon to get a tag for a car he just bought. He plans to get a personalized plate down the road, but when he heard that lawmakers might create an "I Believe" tag, he said he'll consider getting that instead.

"I understand where people are saying as far as, like, if they feel like other religions are being left out. But I'm of the same belief that... because, I mean I'm a Christian, so it's not like it's a tag that's being forced on anyone," he says.

South Carolina already offers a tag that says, "In God We Trust" across the top, along with more than 200 other specialty tags.