JT of the Missouri State University Pastafarians has told me about some troubling discrimination.
The MSU campus is displaying a Holiday Tree and Menorah - but requests to put up a FSM Holiday display were denied, then false hurdles put in place, and now it seems that communication is being ignored.
It should be noted that Pastafarians are an officially recognized student organization at MSU, with the support of many of MSU’s finest faculty members.
It seems clear that the denial of the FSM display is due to the Dean of the Humanities Dept. and building coordinator, Dr. Lorene Stone.
The display is spectacular, and tasteful by anyone’s standards.
Take a look:
JT and MSU Chemistry professor Dr. Mark Richter have documented their correspondence with Dean Stone. It’s an extremely interesting read; everyone should take a look: JT’s blog post about this.
A note to Dean Stone: you’re running a school, NOT a religious organization. It’s not your place to push your personal beliefs on anyone, nor is it your place to reject beliefs that you don’t subscribe to or take seriously. Jesus would not approve of what you’re doing.
–UPDATE —
It seems the MSU administration is unwilling to discuss the matter. Dean Stone’s most recent correspondence said “I am VERY busy and do not have time to continue this e-mail dialogue with you.”
MSU President Dr. Michael Nietzel has been notified of the issue.
We need your help. We’d like the administration to get a sense of the number of people concerned about this issue. If you choose to write the administration with your views, PLEASE be courteous and respectful. The issue here is equality, not whether Pastafarianism is better than any other belief system.
Dr. Lorene Stone:
lorenestone@missouristate.edu
417-836-5529
Dr. Michael T. Nietzel:
President@missouristate.edu
Thanks for your help.
– UPDATE 2 –
I’ve been forwarded some replies by MSU President Dr. Michael Niezel, which, if accurate, indicate that the administration offered to allow the Pastafarian display to be placed in a different building.
I would like to know why the Pastafarian display is not allowed to be placed next to the other religious displays.
I believe Dr. Stone made the decision to deny the placement of the Pastafarian display based on her biased personal views, and that her decision is being upheld by the administration above her for political reasons.
My view is that a building administrator who allows a Christian and Jewish display, but denies a Pastafarian display has acted inappropriately.
What do you think? Is it enough to be allowed to place the display in another building?
@Nametabs
This is about more than “having fun.” This is a serious violation of personal liberty guaranteed by the Constitution, as written by our Founding Fathers. Whether the FSM is a real god or not, is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the laws (or in this case the policies of MSU) MUST be applied equally and that government cannot promote religion.
The First Amendment of the Constitution forbids the Congress from establishing a religion and from preventing an individual to practice their religion of choice. As the Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution, the Court has expanded the Bill of Rights (the first ten Amendments of the Constitution written by the founders of this country) to apply not only the national (federal) government but to ALSO state governments.
As a publicly funded university, MSU is forbidden from promoting any religion. By permitting the menorah and christmas tree to be displayed, and excluding the FSM display, MSU has violated the First Amendment of the Constitution. MSU administrators are in effect promoting Judiasm and Christianity.
When MSU refused to provide the policy for displays in the common area to the official, university recognized student group Pastafarian Student Union, MSU deans was overtly practicing discrimination. And when the university president, provost, administrators, and board of trustees allowed this discriminatory policy to continue, and did not stop or reprimand the offending employees, it not only violated the law but the ethics of an institution of learning. Their inaction not only condoned the offending dean’s behavior, but was immoral and ILLEGAL.
It is interesting to note that the Supreme Court has an exhibit of the ten commandments in the Court building. But this is not establishment of religion because also displayed are laws of other religions and societies. The laws of Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hammurabi are also displayed.
Where MSU went wrong:
No written policy for displays in public spaces (or refusal to provide the policy when requested).
Discriminatory practices that allowed select groups to erect displays in public spaces while denying other groups the same access.
Allowing a bigoted dean to unilaterally decide what would be displayed with no accountability for those decisions.
Failure to respond to genuine requests for access to display in public spaces.
Permitted one administrator who obviously does not care about students, student rights, student funds, or the U.S. Constitution, to unilaterally make decisions about public space usage while denying the students (for whom the university exists) information on how to conform to policies and procedures. (Stone should be fired.)
Remedies:
MSU must establish and disseminate a written policy for access to public spaces for displays of any and all kinds.
MSU must establish and disseminate a written policy for funds for such displays.
MSU must issue formal reprimands for university staff and faculty who failed to address the concerns of the PSU in a timely manner.
MSU must clearly state that it will not tolerate discrimination of any kind, with appropriate consequences outlined, AND FOLLOW THAT POLICY.
Fire Stone.
What PSU should do next fall:
Work with established Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist groups to ensure that they, along with the PSU, will have equal access to everything (i.e., same funds, spaces, activities, information, polices, etc.) to which other student groups (religious or secular) have access.
Demand copies of relevant policies as soon as school begins, and challenge illegal discriminatory policies immediately.
Be prepared to contact the ACLU if MSU continues (or permits its employees) to practice religious discrimination and to deny equal access, or refuses to address student concerns in a timely and appropriate manner. (I don’t have time to deal with your emails is NOT appropriate).
Now that Easter and Pastover are behind us, I would be interested to know whether Pastafarians were allowed a seasonal display and whether any other religions erected displays. How about an update?
.
RAmen
considering that everyone knows how and why the whole FSM story got started, I would find it highly unusual that any institution or organization would take it seriously.
“The Flying Spaghetti Monster (also known as the Spaghedeity) is the deity of a parody religion[1] called The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and its system of beliefs, “Pastafarianism”.[2] The religion was founded in 2005 by Bobby Henderson to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. Because intelligent design implies the existence of an intelligent, but not necessarily omnipotent or omniscient designer, some, like Henderson, argued that this designer could, in fact, be anything imaginable.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
Dear Henry.Danger
You can believe what ever you want, you are afforded that right if you are a United States Citizen. In the Bill of Rights, First Amendment, and I’m quating “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Whether you wish to believe or not you have no true say on what the beliefs are no one can discriminate you. You can have an opionon but that is all and well yours is just as valided as anyone elses you must remeber the saying “Opionons are like ***holes every ones got one and no one can get rid of one!”
Respecfully
Curtis
I am very surprised at this…Complete and UTTER discrimination.
@henry.darger
Just so you know, you can’t believe everything you read on wikipedia.
“All worship the green llama. he is green therefore he is good”
.
what asshole rubbish.
.
it is perfectly okay to discriminate religion. Because it is such obvious shitt
.
if the Spaghetti monster made the world what made the Spaghetti monster? you are entering the concept of an infinite regress in which you don’t know what god to worship because just behind it is a better one.
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try the Green llama for size. he is of the opinion that a purple pancake on the head calms your qualms about his existence
@Curtis: actually, you can get rid of an ***hole, if you’re willing to live with a colostomy bag.
The primitiveness of modern monkeys astounds me. All of this vaunted equality, yet still dismissing things out of hand based on absurdity. Quite frankly, I find the notion of ANY deity absurd, yet equally absurd. Democratic society [though that’s a misnomer] provides equal protection…it’s not supposed to enter into judgment calls of how absurd a notion is, which is basically what happened here. It’s so absurd [to them] that it just overloads their brain and sends them straight into “I’m ignoring you now” mode. Fortunately, those in positions of authority such as this situation, do not have that luxury of judging something’s absurdity level…nothing can be afforded to be dismissed. THAT is the world we live in now, not the Dark Ages, where petty bureaucrats ruled over minor fiefdoms.