When Joy Camacho went to the DMV in Knoxville to renew her driver’s license, she was expecting more of a fight when it came to her right to wear a colander, the official garb of Pastafarians everywhere.

There was no battle whatsoever.

I asked Joy how difficult the process was — especially in Tennessee — and she explained how she didn’t expect it to be so straightforward:

It was all surprisingly easy. I walked in wearing my colander. One lady had to walk away to keep from laughing. The other two ladies were able to maintain their composure and were very professional. Nothing was said until it was time to take the picture and they asked me to remove my “hat.” I told them it was a part of my religion and it was my understanding that Tennessee had an exception for religious headgear. I brought in printouts from the Church’s website. One lady had a lot of questions while the other went off to call a supervisor. When she returned, I asked if there was a problem. She said no and told the lady handling my reinstatement to write on the application that there is a religious exception for the headgear. I didn’t even get to say, “You are discriminating against my religion!” Before I left, I told them they could keep the printouts so they could learn more about FSM.

So there you have it. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is alive and well in the South!

(Thanks to Amber for the link)



