There is quite a bit that is valid in
Judge Gerrard's decision; it seems clear that FSMism began as a
protest against the Kansas State Board of Education when that august
body was seriously considering introducing intelligent design theory
into public school science classes. After all, intelligent design
deliberately does not posit the nature of the designer, and Bobby
Henderson, the founder of the Church of the FSM, wrote a letter to the KS BOE urging
their acceptance of the FSM as the designer.
Additionally, and perhaps more
damningly for Cavanaugh, the judge notes that, while “the Court
does not ultimately address whether Cavanaugh's beliefs are sincere,
it bears noting that his pleading strategy is not entirely consistent
with authentic religious convictions . . . His vagueness [regarding
the tenets and practices of FSMism] looks less like inadvertent
omission and more like an attempt to prevent the Court from
recognizing FSMism for what it is.” I also imagine Cavanaugh's
request for relief, including $5 million for “deep emotional,
psychological, and spiritual pain resulting from not being allowed to
practice” his religion did not help his case.[2]
Judge Gerrard is also careful to note
that -
It bears
emphasizing that the Court is not engaged in — and has been careful
to avoid — questioning the validity of Cavanaugh's beliefs. The
Court is well aware that it "should not undertake to dissect
religious beliefs because the believer admits that he is struggling
with his position or because his beliefs are not articulated with
clarity and precision that a more sophisticated person might employ."
United States v. Ali 682 F.3d 705, 710 (8th Cir. 2012)
He goes on to state that “to read
[the FSM Gospel] as religious doctrine would be little different from
grounding a "religious exercise" on any other work of
fiction,” for example, claiming that Vonnegut's or Heinlein's works
could be read as scripture for Bokononism or the Church of All
Worlds, respectively. But this begs the question of when is a text
fiction and when is it scripture? The Epic of Gilgamesh is a smashing
good read, but most readers today would be more likely to categorize
it as a fictional narrative from an ancient time, rather than
religious scripture, even though 3000+ years ago it was, in fact,
scriptural. And Judge Gerrard does note that using fiction as a
source for actual religion is not impossible, given that there is an actual movement based on Heinlein's work.
Gerrard believes that “to read the
FSM Gospel literally would be to misrepresent it — and, indeed, to
do it a disservice in the process. That would present the FSM Gospel
as precisely the sort of Fundamentalist dogma that it was meant to
rebut.” The key question, though, is when does a parody cease to be
a parody and to become something else, to become a living faith? The
Discordian Society was deliberately created to refute the idea that
deity had to be both male and serious [3] – perhaps not exactly a
parody in the way that FSMism could be called a parody, but a protest
movement against the religious and social straitjacketing of the
'50s, '60s, and '70s.
However, a cogent argument can be made
that the Discordian Society has become a robust faith. Gerrard cites
Africa v. Pennsylvania,
(1981):
First,
a religion addresses fundamental and ultimate questions having to do
with deep and imponderable matters. Second, a religion is
comprehensive in nature; it consists of a belief-system as opposed to
an isolated teaching. Third, a religion often can be recognized by
the presence of certain formal and external signs.
Those
“deep and imponderable matters” include issues that are
existential, teleological, and cosmological in nature. An
examination of the forums at principiadiscordia.com reveals serious
discussion and debate on all these issues, and Discordians continue
to create thoughtful (if humorous – and why can't a real religion
include humor?) new scriptures, such as the Chao Te Ching, which, while a
parody of the Tao Te Ching,
is also a reasoned examination of consensus reality and one's
conscious and unconscious behaviors and attitudes toward that
reality.
The
same could be said for the Church of the Subgenius, which also started as a parody of religion, in
this case of the over-the-top Christianity as represented by 20th
century televangelists like Robert Tilton, but progressed to become
something more for those who are engaged with the Church. The Church
of the Subgenius posited July 5, 1998, as “X-Day,” the day when
aliens would come to “rapture” up all the Subgenii and destroy
everyone else. They held a large gathering at a campground in New
York state, and after X-Day, when no one had been raptured and
nothing destroyed, a series of posts on Subgenius internet groups
revealed a sense of shared community and personal meaning – dare I
say, even spirituality – on the part of those who had been there.
One
could also point to Jediism, and the fact that 390k+ people reported
Jediism as their religion on 2001 census forms in England and Wales,
which prompted the UK Office for National Statistics to grant Jediism
its own code for processing purposes, though they were quick to note
that this did not convey upon Jediism any official status as a
protected religion. It must also be granted that many of those 390k+
people probably listed Jediism as a joke; however, there are those
who do not consider it
a joke, based on the time and thought put into the development of Jedi doctrinal statements.
When
does a parody become a religion, then? When does a text become
sacred, become scripture? It may be true that to take the Gospel of
the FSM and treat it as
gospel would be to pervert or subvert the author's intent, but once
an author writes a text they have little to no say in how that text
gets used. The Apostle Paul, for example, certainly never intended
his occasional letters to become scripture, and yet, here we are.
While I do understand Gerrard's decision (and I can't help but feel I
would have decided against Cavanaugh myself), I do worry about the
precedent this decision may set with regard to future cases involving
small, new, or “funny” religious movements.
__________
[1] Reading the decision, Judge Gerrard
seems to have taken pleasure in writing it, since he got to read and
cite the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster extensively.
[2] I mean, really, what's a guy in
prison going to spend $5 million on – all
the cigarettes?
[3]
See the interview with Greg Hill in the Loompanics edition of the
Principia Discordia,
in which Hill states, “I set out to do what my society told me is
impossible – make a real religion from a patently absurd deity.”
