Growing Pains

More fun stuff from home. A science teacher in Wichita, KS has been asked by a state school board member to take down a picture of the Flying Spaghetti Monster hanging on her classroom door. The board member spotted the picture while touring the building and asked the principle to have it removed. In a respectable move, another board member on the tour informed the principle that the board had no jurisdiction over the teacher and the principle should do as he saw fit. He did not ask the teacher to remove the picture and only told her about the request when she asked. The last I heard (i.e. what it says in the article), the picture is still hanging.

This is all very nice, but I actually wonder if the cause of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism would benefit were the teacher forced to remove the picture. The only reason that she could conceivably be compelled to do so would be to comply with guidelines about displaying religious iconography on public property. If this reason were used and upheld by a court, we would have de facto legal recognition of the FSM as a religious figure and FSMism as a religion. Then Bill O'Reilly would be free to rant about the war on the good FSM-fearing people of Kansas like he does about the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.