I’m a Christian and a lawyer, and I have a long question, because it’s quite specific:
I know that the first requirement of exercising a free-exercise right is that a religious belief must be “sincere.” You don’t have to live up to it perfectly, and you don’t even have to have your religious community completely support you for a belief to be “sincere,” but it does need to be something an individual ACTUALLY believes. This issue usually comes up in prison-rights cases, where there is doubt about if a prisoner’s sudden demand for certain accommodations is truly religious or a way to make trouble for the ones running the prison. (I had a religious liberty litigator once tell me that they call it the funny-hat test, because if your client comes to court wearing a funny hat, like a turban, yarmulke, or an Amish hat, nobody will even think of challenging their sincerity.)
I also know that the belief must be “religious” and not political in order to be covered.
Therefore, with this background, here’s my question: in your opinion, do you think that any Pastafarians have sincere religious beliefs? It doesn’t look like it to me. It seems to be a sarcastic political stunt based on (otherwise) reasonable political beliefs.
mrcalebjones2 karma
I’m a Christian and a lawyer, and I have a long question, because it’s quite specific:
I know that the first requirement of exercising a free-exercise right is that a religious belief must be “sincere.” You don’t have to live up to it perfectly, and you don’t even have to have your religious community completely support you for a belief to be “sincere,” but it does need to be something an individual ACTUALLY believes. This issue usually comes up in prison-rights cases, where there is doubt about if a prisoner’s sudden demand for certain accommodations is truly religious or a way to make trouble for the ones running the prison. (I had a religious liberty litigator once tell me that they call it the funny-hat test, because if your client comes to court wearing a funny hat, like a turban, yarmulke, or an Amish hat, nobody will even think of challenging their sincerity.)
I also know that the belief must be “religious” and not political in order to be covered.
Therefore, with this background, here’s my question: in your opinion, do you think that any Pastafarians have sincere religious beliefs? It doesn’t look like it to me. It seems to be a sarcastic political stunt based on (otherwise) reasonable political beliefs.
View HistoryShare Link