Weddings Legalised for Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in New Zealand

Anything you can do, we can do better. Or, if you can hold a wedding in the name of an imaginary being, then so can we. As ABC reports:

It's official — New Zealanders can now tie the noodle knot in a legally recognised Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster wedding ceremony.

The church, which believes the existence of a god made of spaghetti and meatballs is just as likely as the existence of other gods, has just had its first marriage celebrant approved by the New Zealand Government.

Now weddings of church members, who call themselves "Pastafarians", and anyone else, will be perfectly legal, and different.

The head of the church, Karen Martyn, has been dubbed a "Ministeroni", or marriage celebrant.

"We have swords, we have noodles and pasta involved in the ceremony. It's a bit of fun," Dr Martyn says.

New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs late last year approved The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster's request to be able to solemnise weddings.

Now, the department has approved Dr Martyn as a marriage celebrant.

Although it may seem unorthodox for the New Zealand Government to sanction what many consider a spoof church, the law says any group that "upholds or promotes religious beliefs or philosophical or humanitarian convictions" can obtain the right to perform marriages.

There are some interesting arguments for and against this. The FSM celebrants join Wiccans and Druids in NZ as being able to do this. Dr Martyn claims, in defence of being able to solemnise:

"So we have no dietary restrictions. You can wear any clothing you want. You can look like what you want. You can speak what you want. You can act like what you want. You can even belong to other religions and we don't care.

"You can make fun of us because we really believe all religions should be subject to scrutiny and to humour. And they should be for the greater good — not something that tears people apart, communities apart, or pits people against each other.

"We are really into maximising the happiness and pleasure not only of individuals, but community and the world, all sentient beings."

Peter Lineham, a professor at New Zealand's Massey University, on the other hand, claims:

"This is a delightful group which facetiously mocks religious bodies by its constitution and that's perfectly fine, but to then start investing them with what not all religious groups are allowed to have, seems to me to be astonishing... Karen Martyn will doubtless do excellent and appropriate celebrations of marriage but it won't be according to rituals and values, because really, they don't have any."

What do you think? Do you think the FSM being able to have a celebrant devalues the institution of marriage? Do you think that because they know the falsity of their deity that there is an issue at heart? Or, do you think that since 50% of marriages end up broken, that the whole institution is not really fit for purpose anyway?

[caption id="attachment_7420" align="aligncenter" width="550"]

Joe Mabel [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

[Some interesting marriage facts - latest UK figures show divorce rate at lowest (42%) for decades, suggesting that "living in sin" before marriage strengthens the eventual marriage. In the US, a 2012 study cited by Pew Research center found that an estimated 78% of women with bachelor's degrees, and 65% of men with bachelor's degrees who married between 2006-2010 can expect their marriages to last at least two decades. Women with a high school degree or less, on the other hand, face a meager 40% probability of their marriages surviving the same period.]

Discuss.