Bobby Henderson's Blog, page 13

Pastafarian minister sworn into office

Encouraging news, reported by The Observer out of Dunkirk, New York:

A unique style of headwear was present during newly-seated Pomfret Town Council member Christopher Schaeffer’s oath of office Thursday afternoon, but it wasn’t intended to keep his head warm.

Schaeffer wore a colander (a strainer typically used to drain water from spaghetti) while Town Clerk Allison Dispense administered the oath of office to him before the board’s reorganizational meeting. When the OBSERVER asked afterward why he wore a colander on his head, Schaeffer said he was a minister with an even more unique organization – the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

This may be the first openly Pastafarian sworn into office. For sure, the first to be sworn in wearing a colander.

I imagine Council member Schaeffer is getting a lot of heat because of the news coverage. Some people will see it as obnoxious or a sign that he’s not taking the oath of office seriously. But I am completely confident that Schaeffer will distinguish himself as a Council member of the highest caliber.

Scaeffer’s statement at the end of the article says it all:

“Mostly, I’m just looking forward to making sure that the town is run smoothly and we meet the needs of all of our citizens,” he said. “If anybody ever has any concerns or questions, I hope they contact me, because I want to make sure that everyone is represented.”

You can read the article here at the Observer.

Tampa Tribune featured the FSM Holiday display

The Tampa Tribune featured the FSM Holiday display in today’s paper, front page.

The sign says “A closed mouth catches no noodly appendages.”

And here’s the Christian nativity display that started all of this:

What do you think — next year, will the Florida Capital allow any religious displays?

Thanks to Jay Nelson for the photos.

FSM Server Needs Home

I’m looking for a place to co-locate our new server. We need a spot to hold a 1U size chassis, a few IPs, on a fast un-metered connection. I’m hoping to get it settled in the next few weeks. Please contact me if you know of a good deal. Thanks !

Florida Capital approves Pastafarian Holiday display

Great news! The Florida Capitol building has endorsed our religion by allowing an FSM Holiday display on its grounds.

The Florida Capitol building just made a move that Sarah Palin is likely to interpret as a hostile affront in the so-called “war on Christmas,” approving a religious statue from the Pastafarian group of their deity the Flying Spaghetti Monster to be included in the Capitol’s holiday displays.

You can read more at Death and Taxes magazine.

Official Call for Scriptural Submissions: The Second Edition of The Loose Canon

Attention all Pastafarians!

The Council of Olive Garden is seeking submissions to be canonized into the Second Edition of the Loose Canon. If you have any inspiration, revelation, long-lost and recently translated scripture, please contact us! Submissions may be emailed to olivegardencouncil@loose-canon.info, and we invite you to join us at the official FSM forums to submit and discuss scripture there.

In particular, we are looking for more content for some of the new sections. Those being:  the Samudra-dasy-pravacana (Sacred Writings of the Pirates), including anything written in the spirit of Hindu, Jain, and early Buddhist literature. Further description and examples can be found here.

The Dào Bǎo Jīng (The Canon of the Way and the Satiation of Hunger), including anything written in the spirit of Confucian, Taoist, Shinto, and later Buddhist literature, examples of which can be found here.

Also, The Book of Rituals, Ancient Vigils, Customs, Holidays, and Lordly Victuals aka ‘The Boravchalv,’ which includes descriptions of, how-to guides, and layouts for services and rituals, which can be found here.

Be sure to let us know if you have something to submit, or that you plan to write (er, that is, transcribe), as the deadline is September the 30th. And despair not if you miss the deadline, as the Canon will never truly be finished, there’s always the next edition.

May You Be Covered In Sauce! May His Appendages Touch Us All!! Aye Me Hearties!!!

Secular message not well received as House of Reps daily prayer

I like this — Arizona Rep. Juan Mendez offered the daily prayer at a floor session, and instead of God talk, he spoke about tolerance and the values we share as humans, and the duty of government to look past religious divisions:

Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state.

This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration. But this is also a room where, as my secular humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love.

What a great sentiment, and surely the members of the House, even if religious, appreciated such a positive message.

Except for Rep. Steve Smith, who felt it necessary to re-do the prayer the next day in repentance. What a douche.

Some articles:

About Rep. Mendez’s secular daily prayer

About Rep. Smith, butt-hurt, re-doing the prayer

I look forward to the day when Pastafarian members of the House can speak openly about their one True faith.

Where is the evidence?

Here’s a video that has been making the rounds.   Richard Dawkins shows great patience in interviewing Creationist Wendy Wright.  I find it painful to watch but also fascinating.

He has Risen

My friend Gooeld spotted this egg with an uncanny likeness to the FSM. 

Because it is Easter, I want to share a link to a debate on “Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?” between Michael Horner and Dan Barker.   Horner is Christian scholar and Barker is a reformed Christian preacher and now an atheist activist.  It is an engaging debate and I suspect no matter your beliefs you’ll find reading this time well spent.

Here’s the link:  Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?

Kiva team FSM hit $1.5 Million

 

Nice work everybody – Kiva Team FSM just reached $1.5 Million in loans.

Kiva is a non-profit micro-lending organization whose mission is to end poverty. We believe making small interest-free loans to 3rd-world entrepreneurs can be a big help. Please consider joining us if you haven’t already. Check it out.

Note —

We are currently 2nd place in the Religious Congregations category, just behind Team Baha’is. We are still ahead of the Mormons.

The Colander In His Admiration: Aaron Williams acknowledges NJ Licencing Laws

The Holy Colander, blessed of His Noodlyness because He Boiled for Us inside it, has once again confirmed its rightful place among the Holiest of religious head garments!

Aaron Williams, an Egg Harbor NJ Pastafarian and Sauced Beyond Marinated, has paid tribute to the just Licencing Laws of New Jersey and honoured Lord Glob by wearing the Holy Colander for a renewal photo. Joining Niko Alm with the desire to etch his devotion to the One True Monster in perpetuity, Aaron insisted that the Colander did not breach the Licencing Law.

Despite Aaron Spreading the Truth, the Unenlightened, dedicated as they are to the Law of New Jersey, were compelled to refer this Holy Matter to the State.

Here are some excerpts of  Aaron’s Epistles of Enlightenment to the MVC from the original South Brunswick Patch report written by Davy James:

“What we deem as different or embarrassing is different from what another individual deems as different or embarrassing, in terms of religious practices,” Williams told Patch on Tuesday.

“Had it been a turban or a head scarf, or something from a mainstream religion, then it would’ve been fine,” he said. “I guess since they hadn’t heard of the religion, that’s why they opposed it. But that’s not really acceptable to me. They’re not in a position to discriminate against religions that are mainstream, or not mainstream, just because they may not have heard about it.”

“The people there were very polite, but I’d like to have better training for their employees, so I may be looking into some way to educate their employees on their own policies,” he said. “I feel like after I expressed my opinions and beliefs they were definitely more accepting. I was met with hostility at first and they were asking me what my problem was.

“I didn’t have a problem, they had the problem. After I expressed myself, they realized I wasn’t just some crazy person, but they still didn’t let me wear the strainer for my picture.”

Here is a link to Davy’s original article.

May His Noodlyness Touch the Unenlightened that they become strengthened by Protein, and that the Colander takes its true place not only among the world’s great head garments of faith but on the photo of every Pastafarian driver licence holder!

PBUY!

(Thanks to South Brunswick Patch and Davy James)