Religious Status

[Aclor79]

Does anyone know the legal religious status of Pastafarianism in the U.S.A.?

[Roland Deschain]

Hi Aclor79, and welcome to Venganza. Being a resident of the UK, I don't know for sure, but I would hazard a guess at it not being officially recognised as of yet, at least not universally. You can be ordained as a minister now, but there are different laws per each state as to what you can do with it. In some, you have to be ordained/have a licence from another recognised religion, such as Unitarian Universalists, who come from many different religious and non-religious backgrounds. This means either it is not recognised, or just dumped into a group of religions titled "Other".

There are instances of it being recognised in smaller ways, such as the Austrian who was allowed to wear a colander on his head in a driving licence photo, claiming it was a part of Pastafarianism, but the US seems to be a little further behind in that case. Maybe some of our US citizens can more fully answer this from personal experience.

[Roy Hunter]

Being another Brit, I too am poorly informed about how our former colonies are doing things these days. However, as I understand it, religious recognition is on a state-by-state basis: the federal government has no role in it. It depends where you are. As an organisation, for taxable purposes, I believe the answer is no we are not recognised as such.

[Arkaeon]

(... sneaks back into the forum as if the last 6 months of intense shamanistic practices hadn't cut him off from 21st century society in any way...)

In the US, you are an official religion if you file your religion with any state or territorial government, providing some basic information on who are the equivalent of corporate officers for the religious organization. By virtue of the 1st amendment, the state has no right to evaluate or judge your religious principles except as might regard to criminal activity at the time of filing. Other states and federal territories are then basically required to accept your registration in the same manner that they would any incorporated entity. If anyone has filed and maintained the paperwork in any state or territory, then that covers the entirety of the organization as recognized by the filers, similar to copyright protection. I believe the Jedi are currently filed/recognized in this manner. It is likely that the founder, Bobby, has copyright protection regarding FSM material, so he may have to write permission for the use of the significant names/symbols he has authored.

The true question, perhaps, is whether it is beneficial to the CotFSM to file such papers or not. Debate follows?

[Roy Hunter]

(Hi Arkeon! Nice to see you back. You must visit the Where Have You Been? thread and fill us in on the details.)