In rare cases, religious privilege can make the difference between life and death, such as when a religious conscientious objectors are more readily exempted from military service than secular conscientious objectors with equally deeply-held beliefs. Oftentimes the differential treatment in question is more mundane, such as tax breaks readily given to traditional faith groups but denied to secular groups. Sometimes the differential treatment in question is symbolic, such as when an inclusive interfaith rally is held out-of-doors on the Capitol steps while the exclusively Christian prayer rally is held in the center of the Capitol rotunda. Occasionally, the differential treatment is over something seemingly trivial, such as when people of faith are given special exemptions regarding headwear, while people of reason are denied equal treatment at the DMV.
In the unusual case of ostentatiously non-theistic ID photos, there is a case to be made that putting cookware on your head might come off as being a bit silly, or worse, insulting to people of faith. As to silliness, well, guilty as charged. As to being insulting, I just don’t see that as particularly problematic in this case. The colanders used by Pastafarians aren’t designed to resemble or mock the sacred coverings of any particular religion or sect, they are worn to mock the idea of religious exemptions being written into state law (or administrative regulations) in the first place. If people of faith choose to take offense where none was intended, such silliness must be laid upon their heads.
As humanists we must strive to be sensitive to other people’s feelings, but once we allow that sensitivity to squelch legitimate expressions of civil discontent, we have gone too far. That way lies madness, and Tumblr.
