Heaven on Wheels

The American auto has long enjoyed a not-so-subtle sanctity all its own. The vinyl and chrome interiors have become mobile family chapels for communing with nature and each other; the weekend car wash has become a purification rite, the trade-in for a newer model a form of spiritual renewal and reaffirmation. Now the auto's explicit religious overtones and artifacts have spilled over from the dashboard, where they have long been visual obstructions, to the bumper, where they constitute eyestoppers if not public affronts. The religious bumper sticker has recently become a profitable business. An estimated 2,000,000 stickers will be printed this year. Among the hottest sellers:

OUR GOD IS NOT DEAD--SORRY ABOUTYOURS

HONK IF YOU KNOW JESUS

SMILE, GOD LOVES YOU

AMERICA--HANDLE WITH PRAYER

FIND HELP FAST IN THE BIBLE PAGES

GUESS WHO'S COMING AGAIN?

THINGS GO BETTER WITH JESUS

In Elkhart, Ind., Elden W. Perm, 42, a onetime car salesman, expects that his company, Perm Associates, will produce half of this year's bumper crop. The tie-in between the path of righteousness and the macadam turnpike comes through most clearly in one of Perm's latest offerings: I'M HEADED FOR THE PROMISED LAND, SEE YOU THERE --J.C. Or as the Old Testament counsels (Jeremiah 31: 21): "Set thee up way-marks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway."

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