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)

If you ordered a certificate in the last week it’s in one of these mailers that were sent out yesterday:

The response was more than I anticipated and the majority of newly minted Pastafarian ministers live outside of the US which I did not expect. 

There are at least 5 weddings planned in which a Pastafarian minister will officiate.  I’ve gotten quite a few emails saying you are not allowed to do this.  But like I’ve said, we maintain that our religion is as legitimate as any other.   By all measures, our religion is more intellectually honest than any faith-based religion.   If, when an ordained Pastafarian minister applies for a license to perform wedding in his or her region, the bureaucrat who processes those applications can reject it, if they wish.  To date I’m not aware of that happening, but I realize there is some hoop-jumping required in certain areas.   I am happy to write Letters of Good Standing or any other official documents that they may require.

To answer a question: I will make these as long as people want them and I am in the country.  I move around a lot so if you would like one I’d recommend ordering it now.  

Ordination Certificate order page

Pastafarian Niko Alm has won the right to wear a colander as religious headgear on his Austrian driver’s license.  Congratulations!

Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons.

Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.

The Austrian authorities required him to obtain a doctor’s certificate that he was "psychologically fit" to drive.

The BBC article is fantastic and can be found here.

You can follow the link to (google’s translation of) Niko’s blog: here.

There’s something of a troll problem in the comment discussions.    I think the BigGest offender has now finally been convinced to find another venue, but there will be more in the future who are bent on being disruptive.  

Short of moderating all comments before they’re published (meaning it may be hours before they become visible), the options are a bit limited in what we can do.  We have a few options but some trolls are persistent at getting around the obstacles.

One thing I wanted to make clear is that there is no opinion filter.  The whole spectrum of opinion is welcome here – and especially when commenters are representing a minority view (strongly religious, for example) I feel obligated to give them the benefit of the doubt.  What I am saying is, unpopular opinions are as welcome as popular opinions, but all comments must be somewhat civil. Commenters who are only disruptive will be asked to find a new venue. This last trouble-maker was ejected because he was trying to ruin the peace (and succeeding), not because he was religious.  Many people asking for his removal were in fact Christians who felt he was giving Christians a bad name with his ranting.

The question is what to do with the comments left behind.  It was argued that we should leave them in place to avoid any precedent of deleting comments.  This makes sense to me.

For those looking for a more structured discussion forum, the FSM Forums are available and run a much tighter ship.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions about the troll and for your patience.