The Michigan Tech University Pastafarian club has been the victim of harassment even before their first meeting. The MTU Lode reports:
Two individuals are currently undergoing disciplinary procedures through the Dean of Students Office after an investigation by MTU Public Safety determined that they posted a threatening message on the door of the President and Vice President of a recently-formed student organization called the Pastafarian Club.
Some background on the MTU Pastafarian club’s leaders:
According to the president of the Pastafarianism Club, Matt Halberstad–who identifies as agnostic–the group is a parody “religion.” But the group’s purpose isn’t to attack religion, and one would be hard-pressed to find a member of the group who truly believes in their parody deity–the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The vice president of the Pastafarian Club, Steven Wheeler–who is atheist–believes that Henderson’s argument boils down to the main belief of the Michigan Tech chapter of the Pastafarians: creationism, whether or not one believes in it, is not a science, and should not be taught in a science classroom.
I agree with that, but there are people - maybe not in this particular club - who do truly believe in the FSM. Also, I want to make the point that there are plenty of Christians who are members of the Christian religion without truly believing in the deity God/Jesus.
The harassment was hateful, not unlike some of the messages I receive. In part, the message said:
they [Pastafarians] should be shot and hanged from the tallest redwood and then thrown to the raging sea.
The individuals who left the hate messages were caught and are now facing a hearing:
The Bias-Related Harassment and Violence section of MTU’s Code of Community Conduct covers threats due to one’s “race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious or cultural identity, sexual orientation, gender-identity or gender.” The penalties for violating the Bias-Related Harassment and Violence section range from disciplinary probation to expulsion.
The outcome of this will be very interesting. Even if the death threats were not meant to be taken seriously, they were still hateful messages directed at members of a religious group on campus. What if the harassment had been instead directed at an Islam club? I strongly suspect the kids would be expelled.
I wonder if the school admins are willing to make the statement that Pastafarians deserve less protection against religious harassment than other mainstream religions.
That said, I don’t think these kids should be expelled. But it would upset me if a Pastafarian organization received less protection than another religious organization (or any other organization).
I guess we’ll see what happens.
Read more about it here.
To me, it would not be FSMish to expel them. I think they should be forgiven immediately and allowed to stay in school.
Yes to Strippers Any Day Now, they should be forgiven. But they should be forbidden from ever eating pasta again. RAmen.
UGH!
so what if we don’t worship jesus and all these other things.
It is still a religion and deserves respect!!
i am but nearly furious!!!!!
Spread the Pirateness!!!!
-Fairy
I wish I was knew these MTU students, just so I could publicly forgive them. That would have to send them into a tailspin. “Hey, you can’t forgive me thats the Christian thing to do”.
I believe there might be an FSM
I feel sorry for these lost and Pasta-less children. They have never tasted authentic sauce of the noodley one (praise him and the collander from which he arose).
As good Pastafarians we don’t need to punish these hooligans, they deserve our empathy. Let us bow humbly before our pasta and pray that they be granted his deliverance and come to know the slippery touch of his noodle.
RAmen, brothers, sisters, and associated pirates, RAmen! (F-ing Noodly, that one; personally, no matter what the outcome, I beleive this should go into some sort of Chronicle of the FSM’s triumphs. Just a thought.)
~(oo)~
(FSM, that last thingy.) ;)
There are good carbs and bad carbs! Pasta is a good carb! See there’s your proof!
Lash them with wet noodles and be done with it. You’re right though, had this hate been directed at Muslims, there’d be hell to pay.
can we put peices of paper on church doors about their religions? or will we be arrested?
wow. i spelled pieces wrong
I do think they should be sentenced to a remedial geography class. You are all in Michigan, aren’t you? In order to hang someone from the highest redwood and then throw him into the raging sea, wouldn’t you all have to move west?
Comedy aside this is a truly important movement here. The final indoctrination or seperation of church and state. This is as big as the black rights movement. People are being threatened and harrased at that school in much the same way as during the MLK days. And hopefully this Movement will not be constipated by all the pasta
These poor misguided fools need to be forgiven, and we should show them His Noodly ways. However they need to learn what they have done is wrong. I think they should each write a 500 word essay on the correct preperation of spaghetti sauce, and to show they are truly sorry for having offended His Noodliness, they should prepare the greatest of meals for the MTU pastafarians. A healthy portion of spaghetti and meatballs.
That or maybe the FSM will send them to antarctica and turn them into penguins… both are good
~^-^~
RAmen
I hope they are treated with the same magnitude of those who harass people of other religions, but they should be safe from expulsion. I also hope that they shall someday be touched by His noodley appendage and see the error of their ways, so that when they die they shall have a normal beer volcano, as opposed to a stale beer volcano.
RAmen.
Observing from afar it strikes me that this is onew of many paradoxes that the FSM church faces. The whole point of organised religion is just atht…it is organised and as a result recognised and of course should therefore be subject to the same protection as other like groups.
However, if the dogmatic and intolerant approach of other less enlightened religions is to be broken, then the FSM must forgive these transgressors and demand their reinstatement to the student body without reproach. That is true forgiveness, without vengeance. In fact this gesture should be the subject of a new word “forgiv’em-ness”.
i agree that the intolerant students should not be expelled. and as the wise banjo player so eloquently put it, we should offer them our forgiv’em-ness. and as one who is Christian and also sympathetic to the pastafarian movement, i would just like to say that i whole heartedly believe in the separation of church and state. firstly, because the church is not called to be in power or to govern the world. and secondly, because i think it is impossible to be fully american and fully Christian, one has to take precedence or you end up doing both in a half-assed manor. and thirdly, INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS NOT SCIENCE AND DOESN’T BELONG IN A SCIENCE CLASSROOM. i hope you all had a “Merry Saucemas” and may you be touched by his noodly appendage in the new year. RAmen.
To address those who defy reason, although this is moreso aimed at the individuals who targeted this refreshing religious group. I’m an Athiest, who understands evolution and has read both a translated Qua’ran and the new james king version of the bible.
Whats wrong with following the ‘path’ blindfolded (a prehaps more apt description of the religiosly inclined then was intended) is that you will work your entire life, the only life you have that gives you the oppertunity to interact and benefit others, to prove yourself worthy of merging with some unknown sky-god. This is the constant understanding of almost all people, you cant influance the world from beyond the grave.
Prehaps these people believe that the world is a better place with the variuos churches and ideologies intact. It simply isnt. One example can be harvested from Christina Clarkson, executive director of the Living Light Ministries of Lubbock, TX. This individual and her collective congregation put on charity events and managed to gather enough money to send gifts to a poverty-striken African country (Niger). The country has over 3.5 million people who are starving to death, and of course I sound like im supporting the particular faith, but the truth is horrifying to the rational. Instead of much needed supplies, these people were sent 60,000+ leather bound bibles. Bibles… some of them reputidly cried at the sight of them being unloaded off of a bread lorry. I’ll bet they did. If I were an illiterate african (Niger only has an 18% literacy rate) I would cry if I thought I was getting bread, and recieved books.
One individual here said that punishment is the best way to disipline, and it is. The problem lies with what you are trying to teach. ‘Harrass this person or I will punish you’ (almost the definition of most religions) is the right way to teach, but the wrong message to teach. This is true of almost all religions, particularly mainstream ones. The technique of hellanising the faith (one side says its out of love, another out of fear of the sky-god… neither is true) is the best threat… if a hollow one.
I could attack the current events side; Islamics burning embassies, christians blowing up abortion clinics… but I know the best weapon is the spear of the enemy. God is neither too holy to lie, nor too holy to lack our own basic instinctual morality. In 1 Kings 22, 2 Chronicles 18, Ezekiel 14:9 and 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 god specifically lies. 1 Kings 22:23: “Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours”. When the Ark of god was uncovered early by two curious hunters, god not only killed them outright, but also thier families and all the members of the two villages that the hunters hailed from (1Samuel 6:19-20). Any of the rational would know this is outright disgusting and immoral.
I could go on, but I think I’ve already exceeded my word count limit.
If ive offended any of the religious (aside from the Pastafarians, who rock) then I’m not in any way sorry. Your whats wrong with the world. Sometimes I think of what your doing, and I’m ashamed to be the same species.
i dont believe that the flying spaghetti monster currently exists, but i do believe that there is a god that briefly took the form of the FSM, because he actually has a sense of humor. i think that He is currently in the form of a talking lampshade. just my opinion
It is our job as Pastafarians to forgive them. It is the school’s job as an administrative body to expel them. Another reason church and state should be separated. Religion should be like a wet noodle, whereas law should be a bit more like a dry noodle.