The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster celebrated its first offical wedding at the weekend, in New Zealand.
The happy couple were Toby Ricketts and Marianna Young, and the world wishes them well. They were married by a 'ministeroni' aboard a ship decorated as a pirate vessel (Pastafarians, as the Church's devotees are called, are fond of pirates, whom they believe to be divine beings misrepresented by centuries of Christian teaching).
Is Pastafarianism just a laugh? It certainly started off like that. Its founder Bobby Henderson started it as a satire on the teaching of creationism in 2005 with a letter to the Kansas State Board of Education. He argued that belief in a Flying Spaghetti Monster was just as credible as Intelligent Design. Since then Pastafarianism has morphed into something bigger, with its own mythology (global warming is down to the decline in piracy) and attracts all sorts of people who claim it gives them a philosophy to live by.
But it would surely be a mistake for Christians to get too wound up about it. For one thing, many Christians would agree that creationism and the attempt to get it, or versions of it, into schools doesn't reflect very well on the faith. It's quite true that the underlying premise – that my religion is just as ridiculous and unprovable as yours – has a bit of a bite to it. On the other hand, Pastafarians deny being anti-religious. They say on their website: "This is NOT an atheists club. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join our church including current members of other religions."
But at another level, the religious language used by the Church, albeit satirically, can set off the wrong sort of alarm bells in Christian minds. This isn't a Satan-inspired plot to destabilise the Church. Instead we should think of Pastafarianism as being like other alternative lifestyles.
How about Steampunk, whose devotees draw on Victorian science fiction for their wardrobes? Or Goths, with their distinctive pale faces, dark clothes and existentialist philosophies? Pastafarians are just non-conformists who want something more out of life than the nine-to-five mortgage-driven ratrace and find it in a Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Do-it-yourself religion isn't dangerous to Christianity, though they are challenging to it. It's a sign people are fundamentally spiritual beings, who look for meaning and community. If they can't find it, they'll make it. So the challenge to orthodox faith is to make it easier to find.
Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
