Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

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The Templin Pastafarians are Fighting the State of Brandenburg

Published April 8th, 2016 by Bobby Henderson

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Our friend Brother Spaghettus is fighting for the right to keep Pastafarian signs up.

In Brandenburg, Germany, churches are allowed to post signs advertising their gatherings. But after the Templin Church of FSM put up signs advertising Noodle Mass, the local government said the signs must come down, because Pastafarians clubs are not a legitimate religious community.

Now Brother Spaghettus and his crew are taking the fight to court.

I think it’s great, and expect a successful outcome. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see the arguments for allowing Protestant and Catholic churches to advertise their meetings but not the Church of FSM. It will be hard for the bureaucrats to devise a test of religious legitimacy that keeps us out. We’ll see!

Huge thanks again to our friend Brother Spaghettus for all of his excellent work. Such a great ambassador for all of us Pastafarians — and he really looks the part, too.

You can read more about the case here: www.thelocal.de

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#Evangelism #General

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FSM Pirate Adventure Game: Quest For Enlightenment

Published April 1st, 2016 by Bobby Henderson

Our friend Jakob from the Danish FSM Church has created a Pirate-Adventure game: Quest For Enlightenment (and Pasta).

In the game,you survive on Rum, look for FSM relics and pieces of parchment with the “8 I’d Really Rather You Didn’ts”.

The holiest of events is, of course, if you’re lucky enough to be touched by His Flying Noodliness who floats above the world in a Godly fashion ;-)

I played it and it’s great (and challenging). Check it out here: www.fsmgame.com

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#Endorsement #Evangelism #General

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Australian Driver’s License

Published February 16th, 2016 by Bobby Henderson

Good news — Sue from Melbourne was allowed a Colander in her Driver’s License photo, after a fight. Well done.

As always, we take this as implicit government acknowledgement of our legitimacy.

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#Endorsement #General

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Wisconsin DMV says Colanders are ok

Published February 11th, 2016 by Bobby Henderson

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Good news: the Wisconsin Department of Transportation says Pastafarians are allowed to wear Colanders in their license photos (despite some having been denied in their earlier attempts).

Attorney Derek Allen deserves the credit — he wrote an impressive letter laying out in detail why DMV rules allow for religious headwear.

Here is Mr. Allen’s letter to the Wisconsin DMV, and their response — they are worth a read.

Thanks Mr. Allen, you are doing great work.

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#Evangelism #General

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Cashed Wednesday

Published February 11th, 2016 by Bobby Henderson

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Hello Bobby,
My name is Paul. I’m a practicing minister and proud of it. Recently a few of my disciples and I received a revelation for a new holiday, and we just finished celebrating it successfully. The holiday happens to coincide with the traditional catholic holiday of Ash Wednesday, however the FSM revealed to me through my friend Harprett the true name of the day: Cashed Wednesday. My followers and I proceeded to indeed Cash a few packs of bud, being “of age in an area of the world where it is legal to do so.” I found it prudent to inform you of this revelation.
May you be Touched,
Paul Redling
Minister

Maybe he’s on to something?

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#Endorsement #Evangelism #General

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The Netherlands recognizes Pastafarianism as an official religion

Published February 1st, 2016 by Bobby Henderson

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Great news, The Netherlands has recognized Pastafarianism as an official religion. There are efforts for recognition in a bunch of places — I find it interesting (and telling) the reactions from the various governments. Clearly The Netherlands is a great place.

The Metro has a nice article about the successful Netherlands effort here.

Nice work guys.

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#General

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Georgia Drivers License Discrimination

Published January 4th, 2016 by Bobby Henderson

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Christopher Avino wearing a colander in his temporary license photo

More news about Pastafarians wearing colanders in their drivers license photos, this time in Georgia.

The Dept. of Driver Services refused to issue a permanent license to Christopher Avino (after issuing a temporary with colander headwear) and asked him to come back and re-take the photo. More surprising is that their legal department wrote a letter laying out their reasoning, which includes this line, “Pastafarian is not actually a religion. Rather it is a philosophy that mocks religion”.

Here’s the whole letter:

Obviously most of us disagree with their view that Pastafarianism exists only to mock religion (I could not disagree more), but I find it particularly surprising to read such a statement in a letter written by the DDS General Counsel. I did not realize the legal departments of small government offices were empowered to declare what is and what is not a legitimate religion.

And it shouldn’t matter, but I wonder: would this General Counsel happen to be Christian, and did that have anything to do with the DDS decision to deny the permanent license?

Christopher wrote a smart and entertaining letter in response to the DDS. The whole thing can be read here, but in case you do not read it, let me paste here my favorite part:

“You mayfind our beliefs to be strange, but as strange as you may feel they are, they are still our beliefs. Some may find it strange that Christians believe that Jonah spent “3 days in a whale’s belly” according to some texts. Some may find it strange that Muslims believe that Muhammad was carried to the seven heavens on the back of a winged horse. Some may find it strange that Scientologists believe that Xenu, the dictator of the Galactic Confederacy brought billions of people to earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs. Maybe you, the reader of this letter, do not personally believe that Muhammad flew to heaven on a winged horse, but do you question the validity of Islam as a religion? “

As frustrating as I find these bureaucratic hurdles, I think overall they end up helping the Cause, because they bring so much attention to the issues. There are already volunteers willing to help take up the legal fight, and I’ve read many messages of support, many from people who are not Pastafarians but who support us.

Huge thanks to Christopher for spending the time and energy to get into these issues.

RawStory has a good overview of all that’s happened here.

UPDATE —

Christopher moved to Nevada, and has applied for and received his Nevada driver license, wearing a Colander:

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I could not be more pleased — I take this as implicit approval by the Nevada licensing authority, clearly they support Pastafarianism headwear. Thanks!

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#Evangelism #Noodle Love #Secular Vs. Religious

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The Lansing capitol display looks great

Published December 26th, 2015 by Bobby Henderson

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Excellent — the Lansing State Journal made an article about the Flying Spaghetti Monster Holiday display at the Michigan capitol grounds.

The tongue-in-cheek church — its pamphlet advertises “flimsy moral standards” and a “WAY better” heaven that includes a stripper factory and beer volcano — brought its monument to its creator to the statehouse on Friday. The monument shows a sort of blob of spaghetti with eyeballs on top and giant meatball orbs on either side.

You can read more of the Journal article here. There’s a video and some more photos as well.

The backstory is that Michigan lawmakers decided to open up the capitol lawn to everyone (as not to appear to promote Christian displays), and a number of religious groups (including us) jumped on the opportunity for outreach.

Huge thanks to Chris Beckstrom and the local Pastafarians for organizing the display and their evangelism efforts (not to mention Chris’s impressive accordion playing). No doubt passers-by were enchanted, maybe already considering converting to Pastafarianism.

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#Evangelism #Holiday Celebrations

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He watches over us

Published December 25th, 2015 by Bobby Henderson

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Sent in by Brendan

Very nice!

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#Endorsement #General #Noodle Love

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New Zealand government approves Pastafarian marriage ceremonies

Published December 15th, 2015 by Bobby Henderson

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Good news — New Zealand has approved the Church of FSM to perform marriage ceremonies.

The application was approved under a sub-section of the Marriages Act, satisfying the registrar-general that the principal object of the organisation was to uphold or promote religious beliefs, philosophical or humanitarian convictions.

Posted by Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster – New Zealand.

Montgomery said the purposes set out by the church were educating and training people, particularly atheists and superstitious people, about Flying Spaghetti principles and practices.

Those principles covered human rights, cultural and spiritual diversity, ethics, relieving poverty and advancing education.

“In considering the matter I have referred to the Objects of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, reviewed material available online about this organisation and considered other organisations already able to nominate marriage celebrants.

“A review of media and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s international website show a consistent presentation of their philosophies. While some claim this is a ‘parody organisation’, members have rebutted this on a number of occasions.”

You can read more about it here at stuff.co.nz.

I lived in New Zealand for a year in college and it does not surprise me that the NZ government has publicly acknowledged our legitimacy, both because they are a progressive open-minded people, and also because of the amount of drinking that goes on over there.

Unrelated, they have birds that eat cars:

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