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.
Hmm – keep yourselves safe MTUites – there are some scary people out there.
And they should be given the same rights – no question – any group should – religious or otherwise – what if someone said that to the Chess club?
The hate mailers have started leaving notes now.
The students responsible should get suspended or given a substantial fine, if they just get a slap on the wrist, they’ll think it’s considered acceptable.
Those kids should probably be expelled. I went to MTU for a year, expressed that I didn’t care for Counterstrike to one student, and I received so much harassment that more than 7 kids got expelled for leaving me multiple, and very graphic death threats for the remainder of my year there. It’s a very strange school. I guess people lose sight of reality from all the isolation up there.
Threats like this are never acceptable, either against a religious club or as Booty says the chess-club. It should be made very clear to all. Disagreeing is ok, being against a group, their ideas etc is ok, threats are not!
Hanging someone after they have been shot would be a bit pointless wouldn’t it!?!
> there are people – maybe not in this particular club – who do truly believe in the FSM
thank you for acknowledging that. i realize that it might seem kind of silly, but as i’ve gotten older i’ve found that science does *not* hold the answer to everything, and for me the fsm does the best job of filling in those empty spaces.
i don’t pray (or prey) to the fsm. i don’t expect him to change my world. but he does bring me peace of mind.
Bah…they are just ignorants; people who are as violent as their god is. That’s what is wrong with these crazy (please note that I said crazy) religious people: Only them are right! Egocentric, ignorant, full of shit, people.
What do I get for the 7th post?