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:
I could not be more pleased — I take this as implicit approval by the Nevada licensing authority, clearly they support Pastafarianism headwear. Thanks!
http://www.maldivesembassy.jp/yuano/index.html
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Dear Cap’n Rever and Bluebeard, (BTW, Is Blue Rinse the name of your Wench? If she is as cheeky as you are, it’s a match made in heaven, my salaams to her.)
That bit of RN drinking lore: interesting and fun post – thanks. How I love the sensuous sensation of the deep belly chuckle! You’ve proven a lively regular at church now, certain to stir, opinionate and pontificate. A brash-type Pasta, and NOT afraid to say your thing. A Pasta worth his salt. I LIKE THAT! Yay, there’s never going to be a dull moment now.
Alas, SKM seldom comes to church anymore. I consider him our Secret Weapon. He would detonate upon his victims with a scalpel-like precision and he, too, would never mince his words. Sharp intellect, that one. He, too, was a bit of TNT. And our Saucerer? Where the heck is he? Probably away on his galleon again. He does tend to go awol from time to time, leaving the forum in the hands of his capable but thoroughly disreputable henchman-sidekick Rasputin who always criticizes my arse. BTW: Damn that bloody monk, the insensitive son of a Russian lady of the night.
Anyhow, if we are lucky, our saucer sends us a LONG epistle, (an epistle which would put the lengths of a “normal” epistle to shame – thank all the gods) but these, unfortunately, are few and far between now. They are brilliant.
The “other” long-standing yet not-so-often-posting regulars (this post is getting too long now and I cannot mention the names of ALL our faithful, valued and respected “Regulars” – you know who you are) Well, I’ve surmised that the absence of their posts are because they are our Pasta Missionaries and are away at far-flung destinations, taking the Word of our beloved FSM to craven teetotalers worldwide.
My skiff has drifted out of control and I’m in danger of falling off the end of the earth. Paddling furiously, I try to reverse.
St George,
I thank you for the compliment. I don’t think I’m tremendously clever, it’s just not hard to out-gun the intellectually feeble. I am (sometimes unfortunately) the type that doesn’t mince words or suffer fools gladly.
Our once great church has, in my eyes, fallen a bit. Many of the old guard have departed, there is too much spam, but most of all, the calibre of whacko has plummeted. We no longer get genuine mental, just annoying trolls that our members unfortunately respond to. All this does is clutter the threads with tedious crap.
I still fight the good fight in the streets, I pin up my little spaghetti monsters to lamp posts every September the 19th, and I’m still campaigning for an abandoned church near my workplace to be turned into a brothel called “Holy Fuck”.
Dear St. G., Silly Kiwi Man is busy looking after his silly kiwis. It’s a full-time job. And I think your bum is WONDERFUL.