Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

And so then some people started wearing these colanders.

And there is actually an organization called the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

They've been pretty clear that this was meant to ridicule religious accommodation.

They're trying to prove a point.

Members of some Native American tribes are allowed to use illegal drugs like peyote for religious purposes.

And in an intentionally absurd example, adherents of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster have successfully gotten their driver's license photos taken while wearing pasta strainers on their heads, despite hats and headgear not being allowed.

But for every successful religious exemption, there's plenty that aren't successful, like Mormons trying to get a religious exemption for polygamy or people trying to claim a religious exemption from getting the COVID vaccine despite virtually no religion prohibiting it or even acknowledging it.

Yeah.

So the government can decide if that faith is an actual element of faith or if it's something civil.

So, for example, like the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the government is allowed to look at that and say, that's not a real religion.

Right.

And and the Supreme Court is able to look at that and say, well, yeah, the government came up with, you know, it's not a real religion.

While that would include all non-Christian religions, it would also allow the exclusion of Satanists and other aberrant groups.

Think of the infamous Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, for example.

So, promoting actual religious liberty even amidst other religions does not mean elevating falsehoods.

Christianity can be freely proclaimed as the one true religion if citizens are allowed to freely adhere to it.

But I think the other way to come at this is to think about the idea of legitimate religion.

And it's an idea that I think we run into today when we kind of think, well, that's a joke religion or, you know, Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a longstanding kind of satire movement on religion, right? And it's intentionally saying this isn't legitimate religion.

So what the British Empire did was really define the boundaries around legitimate religion.

And it looks like established Protestantism.