I’m sure, my dear readers, that you all know about the Church of Jedi. A lot of very silly people decided to muck up their national census office’s statistics by putting their religion as Jedi. What started as a few nerds in New Zealand soon grew into an international phenomenon. There are officially more Jedi’s than Sikhs in the UK!
The big question than people ask (especially middle-aged women like my mum who don’t even know that Vader is Luke’s father) is why?
There are many answers. Some people were protesting against the inclusion of what they saw as an unnecessary and overly-personal question in a government document. Some I’m sure felt they were striking a blow against religion (this is an unpardonable generalisation I know but at the moment it seems that as soon as they reach about 14 teenage boys suddenly hate religion and all it stands for. It seems to wear of after a few years though fortunately...). But there are a few, just a brave few, who really believe it.
You’re scoffing I know. But when you get right down to it, Jediism is actually a pretty sensible belief system. They believe in the force, which connects all living beings together. If you know how you can shape the force to your own designs, use the energies to your advantage (chi, by any other name...). There is a dark side and a light side, and we must strive to be on the light side, by doing good deeds etc. If we do we will be able to perform miracles and live to extraordinary ages. It’s basically a mishmash of all George Lucas’ favourite bits of Eastern mysticism and belief. There’s bits of Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, (and the obvious parallels between Luke Skywalker and Jesus) all mixed together with a side-order of robots (sorry, sorry... I did mean 'droids, honestly).
Ultimately though, most people who identify as Jedi don’t believe in it. They just thought it was funny, which, as Sir Terry Pratchett put it, just goes to show.
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