FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER JOINS FESTIVUS POLE, ATHEISTS AND NATIVITY IN CAPITOL
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which is more often associated with opposition to the introduction of creationism and intelligent design as science in public schools, has joined the growing number of groups putting up irreverent displays in the first floor of the Florida Capitol to counter a Nativity scene placed there by a Christian group.
On Tuesday, the Department of Management Services approved an application from Florida State University graduate student Peter Wood to give floor space to, essentially, an office desk chair that is used to display the pseudo-church’s deity and includes a sign on the backrest that states “A closed mouth catches no noodly appendages. ProvHerbs 3:27.”
A request by the Satanic Temple to put up a poster of that group’s symbols continues in a sort of bureaucratic purgatory. The initial application, filed Dec. 9, wasn’t clear on what the group intends to display.
Since the Florida Prayer Network’s Christian Nativity scene was set up on Dec. 3, the state department has approved requests for space in the rotunda for a 6-foot-tall “Festivus” pole made of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans by South Florida political blogger Chaz Stevens and seasonal signs from the Tallahassee Atheists, The American Atheists Florida Regional Directors, and the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. The Nativity scene will be replaced Dec. 27 by a similar display by Reclaim Christmas for Christ to mark Three Kings Day.
–courtesy News Service of Florida
