Reason Magazine
- reason.com
- reason.tv
- reason.org
- Donate
- Site Search:
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsadvertisements
And hey!/How 'bout that nutty Star Wars bar/Can you forget all the creatures in there?
As a follow-up to last week's post about some people who have decided to declare themselves superheroes, here's a BBC report about some people who have decided to declare themselves Jedi:
Hairdresser Barney [Jones] became interested in the Jedi faith after 390,000 other Star Wars fans across England and Wales declared it as their religion on the 2001 census.
An internet campaign was fought to see Jedi officially included in the list and although this did not happen, collators included a special code to register the Jedis.
He said: "As children we always watched the Star Wars films anyway. We noticed that there were a couple of sites on the internet, Jedi church sites.
"We printed off a couple of sermons and did a sermon in our house for a couple of friends one night."
Barney and his musician brother Daniel, from Holyhead, help run four websites devoted to the development of the "faith".
They plan to go to the official opening of a Surrey-based branch or "chapter" of the UK Church of the Jedi in April, and hope to hire an Anglesey venue for their own services.
For some social context, here's a story I wrote back in 2003. Its cast of pop pagans includes fans who worship the gods of Middle Earth, a group of occultists who tried to channel the Amazing Spider-Man, and "a spiritual practice centered around Fred Mertz, Ethel's husband on I Love Lucy."
Every successful church eventually schisms. If the British Jedi don't splinter over the inevitable canon debates, you can expect them to be ripped apart by the eternal nerd argument: Which Star Wars movie is the best?*
* This one, of course:
|1.22.08 @ 10:26AM|#
The video makes me sad. Poor Vader, must've lost his empire pension in the ewok/coke scandal, who knows what else he resorted to to pay the bills
|1.22.08 @ 10:29AM|#
Hippie spiritualism + atheism = The Force. I'm assuming, of course, that nobody thinks they can raise an x-wing fighter out of a bog or use The Force to guide missiles to their intended target.
|1.22.08 @ 10:43AM|#
Vader always made me think of the phone company:
"Reach out and crush someone."
Episiarch|1.22.08 @ 10:51AM|#
I used to bullseye wamp rats in my T-15 back home and they aren't much bigger than that.
stephen the goldberger|1.22.08 @ 10:52AM|#
How the hell is Blondie considered a good band? That video is embarassing for all involved.
B-$|1.22.08 @ 10:53AM|#
As long as you're going with religions invented by bad sci-fi writers, stick with the original.
Episiarch|1.22.08 @ 10:55AM|#
Lamar, do you actually not recognize that line or are you just being funny?
Taktix®|1.22.08 @ 10:57AM|#
Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fort...
|1.22.08 @ 10:59AM|#
Trying to understand the religious metaphor....And I think it's a T-16, but I could be wrong.
Wilkes&Freedom|1.22.08 @ 11:01AM|#
Lame shit. Not that there's any dearth of it. But why that particular piece of lameness? Hello, you are the new lunatic fringe. Reason schmeason.
|1.22.08 @ 11:14AM|#
Warty,
We posted some
video of the Star Wars Christmas Special if you need
to see it. It burnses our eyesss, yessss it doessss.
|1.22.08 @ 11:18AM|#
OK, you freaked me out for a second there, Red
Leader.
Cut the chatter, Red Five.
Taktix®|1.22.08 @ 11:20AM|#
Lame shit. Not that there's any dearth of it. But why that
particular piece of lameness? Hello, you are the new lunatic
fringe. Reason schmeason.
DRINK!
|1.22.08 @ 11:28AM|#
Pro Lib:
Oh Jesus, Jefferson Starship?!?!?!? I hate my parents for bringing
me into a world that could produce such an abomination. Fuckin'
A.
|1.22.08 @ 11:28AM|#
I dig the Tonnika sisters. Anyone got a decent image? Those that I'm finding are too little.
Rhywun|1.22.08 @ 11:37AM|#
The best Star Wars movie is clearly the Christmas special.
Spluh.
Pukeatronic!
Taktix®|1.22.08 @ 11:41AM|#
Rick Barton,
I found THIS when
trying to find out who the Tonnika sisters were, and all I have to
say is:
WTF?
People have too much time on their hands...
Fluffy|1.22.08 @ 11:41AM|#
What about the Church of the Fonz?
Peter Griffin's endorsement is good enough for me.
|1.22.08 @ 11:50AM|#
Warty,
It would've been okay if they'd played "White Rabbit", which
would've added a surreal "What does this have to do with Star
Wars" moment. But that's not what happened.
Still, if I were George Lucas, I would've cast Bea Arthur as either
Maude or as Jar Jar Binks in the prequels. No, wait, actually,
there wouldn't have been a Jar Jar Binks character at all if I were
George Lucas. Maude it is, then. Maybe as Anakin's mother?
|1.22.08 @ 11:51AM|#
With so many of the world's "great religions" based on fiction (except yours, of course), why is one more considered news?
thoreau|1.22.08 @ 11:53AM|#
Serious prediction: The schism will happen when somebody finds a way to profit from the Jedi religion, and somebody else wants a piece of the action.
Taktix®|1.22.08 @ 12:11PM|#
With so many of the world's "great religions" based on
fiction (except yours, of course), why is one more considered
news?
Because light-sabers and force lightning are waaaaay cooler than
stale crackers and cheap wine.
Just sayin'
Brian Sorgatz|1.22.08 @ 12:29PM|#
Guess what? There were discreet Jedi even before George Lucas started making those movies. This image of a Playboy Club bunny from 1971 shows a lightsaber at her hip.
|1.22.08 @ 12:53PM|#
Whew! Yeah, Darth Paul...
I thought every thread around was about Ron Paul now, and I thought
maybe something was going over my head, but I couldn't find the Ron
Paul angle anywhere!
...not that that's stopped his supporters from jacking threads
before.
So yeah, it's all about the Darth Paul rEVOLution! ...thanks, I
feel better now.
BakedPenguin|1.22.08 @ 1:33PM|#
Darth Paul? I thought he was against expanding the
empire.
Romney & Huck, otoh, find your lack of faith disturbing. And
Giuliani will look just like Palpatine in about ten years.
|1.22.08 @ 1:41PM|#
BP,
Empire? What empire? Darth Paul is working with a certain unknown
senator to bring down the republic. It's too corrupt and
bureaucratic and includes too many aliens.
Before this gets taken seriously, I voted for Ron Paul yesterday
(early voting is permitted, nay, encouraged in Florida).
|1.22.08 @ 2:18PM|#
BP,
Happens to the best of us. Look at all of the impossible-to-explain
continuity errors Lucas made in the prequels! And he's a
billionaire.
|1.22.08 @ 2:48PM|#
Pfft. You can't just decide you're a Jedi, you know. If that were the case everybody would have a purple lightsaber.
|1.22.08 @ 3:03PM|#
"If I wielded a light saber, I'd choose 'clear' as my
color."
Yeah? Well, I'd choose make-your-light saber-not-clear as
my color.
|1.22.08 @ 3:08PM|#
Lamar,
Hey! That's not a color! You're just stymied by my invisible blade
of death!
|1.22.08 @ 3:42PM|#
Yep. And then I'd construct a laser gun from junk from Skycraft in Winter Park that has laser bullets that juke-out your light saber at the last second and kill everybody with the force and bounty hunters.
Franklin Harris|1.22.08 @ 9:52PM|#
I started a religion based on the TV show House. It has
three central tenants.
1. You're an idiot.
2. It's never lupus.
3. Everybody lies.
Franklin Harris|1.23.08 @ 1:09AM|#
"tenants" should be tenets.
Working on a severe lack of sleep today.
Franklin Harris|1.23.08 @ 1:12AM|#
If I wielded a light saber, I'd choose "clear" as my color.
Do E-meters detect midichlorians?
Site comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245