Sketch: Paul Jump finds MPs puzzling over the Flying Spaghetti Monster

By Paul Jump, Third Sector, 18 June 2008

The Public Administration Select Committee's hearing on public benefit and religion descended into a predictable bun fight last Thursday. To be strictly accurate, though, the projectiles on this occasion were jelly and spaghetti.

Reading the Charity Commission's draft guidance on public benefit and religion was described by Tony Wright MP, chairman of the committee, as "like juggling jelly", and he was hungry for some intellectual nourishment from the panel. Arguments for religion's public benefit focused on the happiness it gives believers and the...

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