In
Cavanaugh v. Bartelt, (D NE, April 12, 2016), a Nebraska federal district court became one of the few to undertake a serious analysis of whether "FSMism"-- the doctrine of the Flying Spaghetti Monster whose followers are called "Pastafarians"-- qualifies as a "religion" for purposes of RLUIPA or the 1st Amendment. In a suit by a prisoner seeking accommodation of his Pastafarian faith, the court (in a 16-page opinion) said:
The Court finds that FSMism is not a "religion" within the meaning of the relevant federal statutes and constitutional jurisprudence. It is, rather, a parody, intended to advance an argument about science, the evolution of life, and the place of religion in public education. Those are important issues, and FSMism contains a serious argument—but that does not mean that the trappings of the satire used to make that argument are entitled to protection as a "religion."
Later in the opinion, the court explained:
This case is difficult because FSMism, as a parody, is designed to look very much like a religion. Candidly, propositions from existing caselaw are not particularly well-suited for such a situation, because they developed to address more ad hoc creeds, not a comprehensive but plainly satirical doctrine. Nonetheless, it is evident to the Court that FSMism is not a belief system addressing "deep and imponderable" matters: it is, as explained above, a satirical rejoinder to a certain strain of religious argument.....
This is not a question of theology: it is a matter of basic reading comprehension. The FSM Gospel is plainly a work of satire, meant to entertain while making a pointed political statement. To read it as religious doctrine would be little different from grounding a "religious exercise" on any other work of fiction..... Of course, there are those who contend ... that the Bible or the Koran are just as fictional as those books. It is not always an easy line to draw. But there must be a line beyond which a practice is not "religious" simply because a plaintiff labels it as such. The Court concludes that FSMism is on the far side of that line.
