Ohio officials reject request to wear spaghetti colander in driver's license photo

Jackie Borchardt | Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption 'Pastafarian' gets DMV license with colander hat 'Pastafarian' gets DMV license with colander hat

CINCINNATI – Ohio officials refused to let a man wear his religion's "holy headgear" in his driver's license photo. But he thought it shouldn't have been a problem.

Richard S. Moser III, who lives in Green Township in suburban Cincinnati, called the local Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles office ahead of time and was told he would be fine. But when he showed up at the deputy registrar in Green Township last year, he was given funny looks and turned away by a manager.

He struck out at a second Cincinnati-area motor vehicle office, where he learned there was a note in his file to deny a photo ID featuring his headgear.

Moser, 33, believes he's being unfairly treated because of his religion: The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The headgear he wants to wear is a red plastic colander.

He considers himself a "Pastafarian."

"My holy headgear is just as silly as others'," said Moser. "And I believe we’re all afforded to wear our holy headgear with the First Amendment."

The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles prohibits hats, scarves and other head coverings in license and ID photos. Exceptions are made for headgear related to a religious purpose but only if "usually and customarily worn whenever the person appears in public."

The bureau says the policy ensures law enforcement can properly identify people and minimizes the possibility of fraud and identity theft.

'Pirates are the most holy people'

Moser made several phone calls to bureau officials, to no avail. He then sought help from the American Humanist Association, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates religious freedom and has defended Pastafarians in other states.

In an Oct. 8 letter to the motor vehicles bureau, first reported by The Columbus Dispatch, the association said the state was violating the First and 14th amendments. It likened Moser's request to the bureau allowing a Muslim woman to wear a hijab in her photo.

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"The government may not grant some benefit or privilege to adherents of one faith and withhold that same benefit from others merely because those other faiths are novel, unpopular or esoteric," Monica Miller, the association's legal director and senior counsel, wrote.

In response, an attorney with the bureau wrote that the association provided no proof that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a "recognized religion" as opposed to a secular argument or parody religion. And if it were a religion, there's no evidence Pastafarians regularly don colanders during job interviews, at work or during other tasks in public.

"To this day, the church’s website still shows many Pastafarians wearing pirate hats and scarves – or no colanders/head coverings at all – in the course of daily life," Winston Ford, associate legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, wrote in an Oct. 11 letter.

Moser admits he rarely wears the colander in public. But, until recently, he frequently wore a tricorn hat and other pirate garb.

"Pirates are the most holy people, so people dress as pirates," Moser said.

Satirical and serious

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has a deity (the Flying Spaghetti Monster aka His Noodly Appendage.) It has a creation myth (in which the spaghetti monster creates a beer volcano). It has a sacred text (Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster).

It's satire and parody, but it's also something much more serious to many believers: a response against what they see as erosion of the separation between church and state.

The church dates to 2005, when founder Bobby Henderson wrote a satirical letter to the Kansas state school board in opposition to teaching "intelligent design" alongside evolution. The gospel was written soon after.

Moser read the gospel last year while recovering from breaking his hip. He liked it. He decided to adopt the religion, partly as a protest to a new "religious liberty task force" initiated by then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Moser founded the Cincinnati Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and filed state paperwork to register it as a nonprofit. He became licensed by the secretary of state to solemnize marriages as a church "ministeroni."

Getting a photo ID while sporting a colander has become an aspirational milestone for Pastafarians. In a statement, Henderson explained that wearing the colander is a tradition, especially "while making official identification documents."

Is it a religion?

New Zealand has recognized the church as a religion for the purpose of marriage ceremonies, and several individuals have successfully worn colanders in government ID photos.

But case law on the matter is sparse. A federal court in Nebraska determined in 2016 the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was not a religion.

Judge John Gerard, in ruling against a prisoner's request to practice Pastafarianism, called the church a “satirical rejoinder to a certain strain of religious argument" and its gospel a work of satire.

"The only position it takes is that others’ religious beliefs should not be presented as ‘science,’ ” Gerard wrote. “Despite touching upon religion, that is a secular argument.”

The motor vehicles bureau cited the case in its letter but also said it was not passing judgment on whether Pastafarianism is a religion.

The agency also kept the door open to allowing the colander in the future: “If you have information and, more importantly, case law specifically addressing the theological significance of the colander and how the Ohio (Bureau of Motor Vehicles') policy substantially burdens a Pastafarian’s religious beliefs, we will be happy to review them.”

Moser said neither he nor the American Humanist Association plans to move forward with a lawsuit. But he still disagrees with the state rule: "People can choose to be religious for one minute of the day or choose to be religious all day long and be a devout religious person."

Follow Jackie Borchardt on Twitter: @JMBorchardt