The Colander-Topped Councilman from Upstate New York

In a small town in western New York, a new councilman was sworn into office January 2 wearing a pasta strainer atop his head.

It seems that Christopher Schaeffer, the newly-seated Pomfret Town Council member, is a “Pastafarian” and a minister in the so-called “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.”

“Strainer things have happened,” quipped The Observer, the local newspaper in Dunkirk, New York.  According to The Observer:

Schaeffer wore a colander (a strainer typically used to drain water from spaghetti) while Town Clerk Allison Dispense administered the oath of office to him before the board’s reorganizational meeting. When the OBSERVER asked afterward why he wore a colander on his head, Schaeffer said he was a minister with an even more unique organization – the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

“It’s just a statement about religious freedom,” he said. “It’s a religion without any dogma.”

The “church’s” website explains more about its core beliefs:

Most of us do not believe a religion – Christianity, Islam, Pastafarianiasm – requires literal belief in order to provide spiritual enlightenment. That is, we can be part of a community without becoming indoctrinated. There are many levels of belief.

By design, the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma. That is, there are no strict rules and regulations, there are no rote rituals and prayers and other nonsense. Every member has a say in what this church is and what it becomes.

There is no report as yet explaining why the citizens of Pomfret elected as their governmental representative a man whose first action in public office was to make a mockery of organized religion, rather than to lay out a platform for improving city government.