Author Archives: Bobby Henderson

Evangelism, Noodle Love, Secular Vs. Religious

The Lansing capitol display looks great

Posted on 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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Endorsement, General, Noodle Love

New Zealand government approves Pastafarian marriage ceremonies

Posted on 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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Evangelism, General, Secular Vs. Religious

The war on Holiday

Posted on by Bobby Henderson

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This has become my favorite Holiday[1] tradition: a government institution hosts a Christian-themed display, then non-Christian groups demand a display as well, then the Christians who thought a government building was an appropriate place for a religious display get worked up by the “war on Christmas”.

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The one in the news this year is a DMV in Florida with a baby Jesus display. Here’s an article in RawStory talking about it.

And a great quote by a Christian activist:

“My hope is that the Christ in Christmas is louder than a wood display and some figurines,” Pam Olsen, president of the Florida Prayer Network, explained to the Miami Herald.

“I have been pondering this for a while,” Olsen said. “The racial tensions and mass murders, the shootings at the Planned Parenthood and in California – something is very wrong in our country. We need to step back and say we need to stop. Let the sound of the Christ Child bring hope, joy and peace instead of dissension.”

I will admit that I have a small (very small) amount of sympathy for the Christians who get upset that they can’t just put a baby Jesus in the DMV and keep the “wrong” groups out. I recognize that they are more comfortable in a world where everyone shares their religious views (or keeps quiet about their own). I think this is less about promoting Christianity and more like a nostalgic yearning for simpler times. And I’ve always liked Christmas displays – even if they’re a little Jesusy – I’ve never found them too bothersome.

That said, once these Christian vs non-Christian display stories hit the news, I think it does become a highly charged issue, and the Christian warriors come out speaking loudly about the war on Christmas. This I find ridiculous, and I am very thankful that we have so many Pastafarians who stand up for our rights. I can not wait to see the FSM Holiday display this year.

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[1] A note on Holiday: years ago we noticed there was a shift in the way people expressed winter greetings — fewer “Merry Christmas’s” and more “happy holidays”. We concluded that these people were most likely Pastafarians (albeit many of them in secret) wishing people a happy Holiday – referring to our winter celebration also known as ChriFSMas.