The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) held its first legally recognized marriage in New Zealand yesterday, with the offbeat movement hailing it as a milestone toward acceptance as a real religion.
Church adherents call themselves Pastafarians, wear colanders on their heads, revere pirates and believe the world was created by a giant deity made of spaghetti.
However, while they have a love of pasta-based puns and celebrate holidays such as “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” followers insist their religion is no joke.
Photo: AFP
New Zealand officials agree, giving Wellington-based Pastafarian Karen Martyn the legal right to conduct marriages last month after ruling the church was based on genuine philosophical convictions.
Martyn conducted her inaugural wedding as an ordained “ministeroni” yesterday, when Toby Ricketts and Marianna Young became the first couple in the world to “tie the noodly knot” in a legally recognized ceremony.
“It’s a formal recognition that we are a church and that’s just great,” she said ahead of the ceremony.
She said many more weddings were planned, including same-sex unions, which were legalized in New Zealand in 2013.
“I’ve had people from Russia, from Germany, from Denmark, from all over, contacting me and wanting me to marry them in the church because of our non-discriminatory philosophy,” she said. “We will marry any consenting legal adults who meet the legal requirement.”
The wedding took place on a charter vessel decorated as a pirate ship at the South Island town of Akaroa, with guests dressed in costume.
Ricketts, a filmmaker who discovered Pastafarianism while making a documentary about religion, said he knew some people might not take the marriage seriously.
“That’s kind of what attracted us to it,” he said. “We were never planning to get married and have a conventional wedding, but this allowed us to do it in a way that we’re comfortable... Our families are 100 percent behind us.”
Pastafarianism first appeared in a 2005 open letter written by Bobby Henderson to the Kansas Board of Education in protest over its decision to teach intelligent design in schools.
Henderson, 36, a self-described “hammock enthusiast” and computer nerd from Oregon, is regarded as the prophet of the FSM.
He said that believing a pasta god made the universe was no less valid than intelligent design, a form of creationism promoted by Christian fundamentalists, as both theories had no scientific merit.
Since then, it has gained popularity and Henderson’s Web site venganza.org details member activities ranging from public parades to campaigns for the right to wear colanders on driving licence photographs.
“New Zealand is one of the few places that has formally recognized us,” he said via e-mail.
Not all are happy with the decision, including professor Peter Lineham, a religious history specialist at New Zealand’s Massey University.
“I am not at all convinced there’s a genuine statement of values [in the church],” he told Fairfax New Zealand when the original decision was handed down.
“I know some people who think ‘The Force’ is rather more meaningful than a spaghetti monster,” he added, saying FSM was essentially a satirical body that mocked religion.
Martyn disputed the view and said a strong belief system underpinned FSM.
“We are anti-discrimination on any basis for any reason and we truly believe there should be a complete separation of church and state,” she said. “We believe in challenging ourselves and other religions and challenging cultural superstitions... We’re very serious about our beliefs.”
She said there was a major distinction between a joke church and a church that can take a joke and laugh at itself, such as the FSM.
“Laughter is the best medicine and it makes life much better and maximizes our happiness,” she said. “We embrace that to the fullest extent.”
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