A very interesting story has come to our attention through the Chicago Tribune. A 21 year old women, Rachel Hoover, is fighting for her right to express her Pastafarian beliefs in her driver license photo. From Tribune writer Lee V. Gaines;

“A Chicago-area woman says she wants to fight for her right to wear a pasta strainer on her head in her driver’s license photo, claiming the item is an expression of her religious beliefs. Rachel Hoover, 21, says she belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and has actively practiced the religion for five years. Members call themselves Pastafarians.”

Rachel at first was told by the DMV employees she couldn’t wear the pasta strainer on her head but was able to convince them eventually, citing the strainer as her religiously expressing herself. To be fair to Rachel if you’re laughing at her choice of belief you should look inwards towards your own and see if they are anymore logical. Rachel got the picture but apparently also had to deal with insults from other customers and employees, making her justifiably call her experience “pretty awful.” But it got done and she left to go about her day and then legal trouble happened the following week;

“Then this week, she received a letter from the secretary of state’s office saying the photo was “incorrect” and that her license will be canceled unless she gets a new picture taken by July 29. Agency spokesman Dave Druker said Hoover shouldn’t have been allowed to wear the strainer on her head in the first place and “we are looking into why that was done.”

The secretary of states office is arguing that it’s a mockery of religion even though Hoover continues to fight that it was her right to express herself that way. But it’s obvious they believe that this is penalty enough to cancel a license;

“Druker said a similar incident happened several years ago, and that person was also mistakenly allowed to have the strainer picture taken, but then agreed to a re-shoot when told the license would otherwise be revoked. Self-proclaimed Pastafarians have tried to wear strainers in license pictures in other states, and some have been allowed, such as a woman in Massachusetts last year.”

Illinois allows people to wear religious headgear in their photo if it doesn’t cover up the face, which they clarified after some controversy with Islamic headdresses in license photos last year. Obviously a pasta strainer on the head doesn’t cover up the face so Illinois doesn’t see this as a religion. I have no idea the policy towards non religious headgear. When at the DMV for my ID photo I was asked to take my hat off but I have no idea what would have happened if I refused to do that. I’d imagine I would get into a pretty pointless argument. Here’s some more info about the Pastafarian movement;

“The movement was created by Bobby Henderson — now considered its “prophet” — in response to a 2005 proposal in Kansas that schools teach the theory of intelligent design along with evolution. Henderson wrote an open letter saying that if intelligent design was going to be taught, so too should the beliefs of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It’s largely seen as a parody, yet Hoover purports to take it seriously, explaining the colander is a way of remembering “the supreme being above me.” She said her experience at the secretary of state facility prompted her to pay $25 for a certificate proclaiming her to be an ordained Pastafarian minister. She said the title does not come with any specific duties.”

So it’s a bit of a reactionary movement it seems to Kansas schools trying to get around evolution by foiling it with intelligent design. A hot button issue in many school systems in America, thought it seems evolution has won out at least. I won’t get too much into religion here because it’s something that means something different in all likelihood to every person who practices it, but that’s part of the reason why I’m discomforted by any this religious headgear is ok, this religious headgear isn’t. Many might not take this Pastafarian thing seriously at all, some may think it’s mocking peoples religion, and most probably just don’t care but I really can’t argue with someone if they say this belief is important to them because if they think it’s important to them than it is. I guess I’m saying is that there’s no cut and dry this is a religion and that’s not because this and that. that’s what I’m assuming one of the points of Pastafarianism is. I mean of course there are certain things religious institutions aren’t supposed to do as supposedly benevolent institutions, such as take a profit from your believers. (Hint hint scientology) but I haven’t seen that from Pastafarian. What I do see is a harmless belief system that is obviously advocating a light and humorous view of deities or religion seeing that the opposite of that has caused quite a bit of strife in the world. Maybe their point is that we shouldn’t take religion seriously and people may take offense to that but you know what, who cares? It’s not going out there saying people who take their beliefs seriously are stupid, and if someone gets angry at it their probably proving the Pastafarian’s point. Rachel concluded with this and that she would at least partly continue the fight;

“Some people say a Flying Spaghetti Monster sounds silly. But to me, because I didn’t grow up with that, the idea of Jesus sounded silly to me. I’m 21 years old. I have car issues. I’m broke. I can’t really afford an attorney at this point,” she said. “But that does not mean it’s the end of my battle at all.” Hoover said