A Jedi believer won an apology from a Jobcentre which threw him out for refusing to remove his hood.
Star Wars fan Chris Jarvis, 31, was told he would have to leave if he did not take it down.
Chris is a member of the International Church of Jediism - based on the sci-fi films - whose doctrine states that followers should be allowed to wear hoods.
But when he protested, security escorted him from his local branch in Southend, Essex.
He filled out a complaint form - and received a formal letter from the JobCentre Plus branch's boss just three days later.
Wendy Flewers apologised, adding: "We are committed to provide a customer service which embraces diversity and respects customers' religion."
I wish Mr. Jarvis the best of luck in his search for employment opportunities.
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As long as this is still a libertarian blog, let's stick to the relevant political questions instead of taking cheap shots at a harmless eccentric.
So my first question is, is JobCentre a public or private entity? If it's public, the discussion will be longer and more complicated. In that case, it's similar to the controversy mentioned in Virginia Postrel's The Substance of Style about whether police officers should be allowed to wear dreadlocks. Postrel admits that that particular issue is bound to be rather complicated.
Or at least make it a religion that is actually possible to practice. When I see them controlling people's thought and moving large objects with their minds, they can all themselves Jedi.
Yes, religions based on fantasy are funny. When that guy who was killed two thousand years ago, but then came back to life three days later before ascending to heaven comes back, we can all have a good laugh at their expense!
I don't ever find laughing at religion offensive. I just think it is silly to use the number of believers as a metric of how realistic a religion is. A lot of people make that mistake. I predict you will make the same mistake at 2:34PM.
John just officially asserted that he considers revelation a superior tool of cognition to "crude" reason.
You do realize, of course, that this pretty much precludes you from ever making reference to any fact of any kind in any argument you offer, ever again? Right? That doesn't escape your notice?
I presume that John is referring to the communists of the 20th Century. They were all "atheists" after all. Well post WWII at least, before that they we all Jews. The Nazis kind of made anti-Semitic bigotry and scapegoating unfashionable. So it's a matter of personal conformation bias. Or moronic bigotry. Which one of those is it John?
And the day Wicca goes from small persecuted cult to state religion in the largest most powerful empire the world has ever seen is the day I will start to think they might have a point.
All well and good, but I think there's a bit of a difference in that most Christians don't think they're personally capable of, you know, casting spells or performing other supernatural feats, whereas Wiccans do think that they can perform actual magic(k).
I know Jarvis. He is a member of the International Church of Jediism Prequel Fellowship, and therefore the dude at the JobCentre Plus should have struck him down. We at the International Church of Jediism Chapter Four Convention don't hold with those heretics.
Instead of living in a 100% spice environment, she spends her whole time immersed in an enormous vat of taxpayer dollars. Not quite sure what her secret powers are.
London, May 14 (ANI): A drunk Briton who pretended to be Star Wars villain Darth Vader and attacked two Jedi fanatics escaped a jail sentence on May 13.
Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, donned a black bin bag for a cape and used a metal crutch for a lightsabre when he impersonated the Dark Lord of the Sith on March 25, reports The Scotsman.
He then lept over the wall of a Jedi Church where Barney Jones and his cousin Michael were duelling with lightsabres while filming a documentary.
The fans of the Star Wars films established the church last year in Holyhead, northwest Wales.
Hughes, of Holyhead, bellowed Darth Vader as he hit Barney Jones over the head with the crutch and punched his cousin in the thigh.
At Holyhead Magistrates' Court, Hughes who has a chronic alcohol problem was sentenced to two months' jail suspended for a year.
Ordering Hughes to pay 100 pounds each to the victims and 60 pounds costs and implementing a supervision order, district judge Andrew Shaw said: "There was a premeditated element to the assaults." (ANI)
The hilarity of this article is only increased by the fact that I didn't previously know the Jedi weirdos actually had a physical church somewhere. Awesome.
As long as this is still a libertarian blog, let's stick to the relevant political questions instead of taking cheap shots at a harmless eccentric.
So my first question is, is JobCentre a public or private entity? If it's public, the discussion will be longer and more complicated. In that case, it's similar to the controversy mentioned in Virginia Postrel's The Substance of Style about whether police officers should be allowed to wear dreadlocks. Postrel admits that particular issue is bound to be rather complicated.
I wish Mr. Jarvis the best of luck in his search for employment opportunities.
Comic book stores need employees. To bad that business is in a hole. Record store? no they are doomed as well. Video rental store? They are soon to be gone as well. Book Store? nope.
The very internet that spawned these people is soon going to make them unemployable.
I don't know if i should be sad or laugh my ass off.
I think the Jedi believers are actually a good test case for freedom of religion issues. Most of the Jedi's I've met are sincere in their beliefs, unlike the Flying Spaghetti monster people. So, we're left with having to priviliege all religious-based fashion preferences regardless of whether the religion was invented by stone age goat herders several thousand years ago, or fresh-faced nerds five minutes ago.
Since you consider anyone who believes in anything beyond crude materialism to be "flying spaghetti monster people" you clearly have had many deep conversations about the subject.
But you do make a good point. Religion is what people make it.
Christianity is no more evil than any other "organized" religion. They are all about power and money for those in control. Clerics, no matter their particular religion, are the most evil fuckers ever to walk the earth and should be ruthlessly hunted to extinction.
Uniquely evil? Are you not aware of Islam? I mean, accepting your basic premise that all religion is evil (which I don't), Islam and Christianity have to be at least equal at this point.
Oh, this is just bloody stupid. Dressing up in costumes at an SF convention is fun and all, but when you insist that people take it seriously in real life, you should expect to get laughed it.
Not to be fan-boyish, but wht would a Jedi require an apology? I don't know what the official canon stand is, but the don't strike me as the type who would need one.
It's like expecting a Vulcan to be happy about a mixtape you made him...
Dressing up in costumes at an SF convention is fun and all, but when you insist that people take it seriously in real life, you should expect to get laughed it.
If you're going to start a religion based on a sci-fi film, at least make it a good sci-fi film.
In lieu of the 10 Commandments, I give you the Repo Code.
As long as this is still a libertarian blog, let's stick to the relevant political questions instead of taking cheap shots at a harmless eccentric.
So my first question is, is JobCentre a public or private entity? If it's public, the discussion will be longer and more complicated. In that case, it's similar to the controversy mentioned in Virginia Postrel's The Substance of Style about whether police officers should be allowed to wear dreadlocks. Postrel admits that that particular issue is bound to be rather complicated.
I was taking cheap shots at George Lucas, not this poor guy.
I like cheap shots.
Who are you to get between me and my cheap shots?
You'd think that at a magazine called Reason the commenters would recognize my freedom to cheaply shoot.
I like cheap shots to.
nice...a little after 1pm and I get to start drinking...cheap shots no less.
I like cheap shots and I cannot lie
All the other posters can't deny . . .
+1
Getting jobs from a private sector entity? In the UK?
(But seriously, it's a .gov.uk)
[Waves hand] You don't need me to take off my hood.
"Yes, I do, in fact. Why do you keep waving your hand in front of my face like that?"
Don't knock the hand wave! I actually use it to sell shit. It's surprisingly effective.
We should pick a day to pretend we all think we actually have Jedi powers.
You must not have a lot of Hutts or Toydarians as customers.
Or at least make it a religion that is actually possible to practice. When I see them controlling people's thought and moving large objects with their minds, they can all themselves Jedi.
Kind of like wickens. I love to ask them "so hey what kind of spells can you throw?" They never find that very funny.
Yes, religions based on fantasy are funny. When that guy who was killed two thousand years ago, but then came back to life three days later before ascending to heaven comes back, we can all have a good laugh at their expense!
don't forget his vigin birth - happens a lot.
Parthenogenisis...it is no laughing matter to planeria.
Isn't he/she/it cute?
And people often do. But you find it offensive when applied to Wiccans and not any other time because they are cool I guess.
If you don't have enough faith to take being hassled over your religion, you need to find a new one.
I don't ever find laughing at religion offensive. I just think it is silly to use the number of believers as a metric of how realistic a religion is. A lot of people make that mistake. I predict you will make the same mistake at 2:34PM.
I think it is a mistake to use human beings' crude sense of reality and logic as a measure of any how realistic any religion is.
If they hadn't murdered so many people, crude materialistic atheists would be quite silly.
ooh, snap!
Whoa -
John just officially asserted that he considers revelation a superior tool of cognition to "crude" reason.
You do realize, of course, that this pretty much precludes you from ever making reference to any fact of any kind in any argument you offer, ever again? Right? That doesn't escape your notice?
That's funny. I was under the impression that religionists have murdered far, far more people than atheists.
I presume that John is referring to the communists of the 20th Century. They were all "atheists" after all. Well post WWII at least, before that they we all Jews. The Nazis kind of made anti-Semitic bigotry and scapegoating unfashionable. So it's a matter of personal conformation bias. Or moronic bigotry. Which one of those is it John?
And the day Wicca goes from small persecuted cult to state religion in the largest most powerful empire the world has ever seen is the day I will start to think they might have a point.
from small persecuted cult to state religion in the largest most powerful empire the world has ever seen
You're talking about Islam here, right?
All well and good, but I think there's a bit of a difference in that most Christians don't think they're personally capable of, you know, casting spells or performing other supernatural feats, whereas Wiccans do think that they can perform actual magic(k).
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
This is not the proof you are looking for...
I'll convert if I can have a working light-sabre.
[Insert phallic snark]
In me? Goody!
Church of Jediism? Is that connected to the Church of Involuntary Celibacy?
They're one and the same.
Where do the Klingon speakers fit in then?
Chicks dig exotic languages.
Have you never seen a fish called Wanda?
Klingon, shmingon. Real men speak Mandalorian.
Isn't Jedi Clampett their lord and master?
I will convert when Ellie May comes to my door with that cute, tight, little gingham blouse hugging her galactic curves.
Have you seen Donna Douglas recently? I don't think you want that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....rade_1.jpg
"I wish Mr. Jarvis the best of luck in his search for employment opportunities."
He would be wise to come off as unreliable:
Employer told not to post advert for 'reliable' workers because it discriminates against 'unreliable' applicants
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....z0iMbyMyjT
Nothing is ridiculous in the face of Scientology's existence.
Can't they both be ridiculous?
Yes, but one is a light bulb and the other is the high noon sun in the deep desert.
I know Jarvis. He is a member of the International Church of Jediism Prequel Fellowship, and therefore the dude at the JobCentre Plus should have struck him down. We at the International Church of Jediism Chapter Four Convention don't hold with those heretics.
SPLITTER!!!!
Yousa are all heretics. Yousa in beeeeg trubble.
"This is not the job you are looking for. You can go about your business. Move along."
"We'll call you if any openings for nerfherders open up."
Not to call this a Teachable Moment, but perhaps the LP can get the convention attendees to lose the deelie-bobbers when the C-Span cameras are on.
And as practicing Mentat I'm fed up with the concessions made to the Bene Gesserit...
Curse those damnable witches! Excuse me, I'm off to enjoy a nice 15 year old boy.
Mind ifth I jointh you?
Hey, I'll take a crack at that too.
SEXIST!!!
Just an idle question: Do you think Nancy Pelosi would be a member of the Bene Gesserit or the Honored Matres? Discuss.
With her addiction to Botox, Tleilaxu Face Dancer would be more appropriate.
Or a Ghola.
Ghola
Nancy Pelosi, since her last couple of plastic surgeries, is actually a member of the Navigator's Guild.
They will be wheeling her around in a giant fish tank soon enough.
This is probably the funniest shit I've read all day.
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion...
Instead of living in a 100% spice environment, she spends her whole time immersed in an enormous vat of taxpayer dollars. Not quite sure what her secret powers are.
Deelie-bobbers?
Wendy Flewers apologised, adding: "We are committed to provide a customer service which embraces diversity and respects customers' religion."
Then why didn't she say "Committed we are ..."?
Is this the guy Darth Vader beat up?
There it is:
London, May 14 (ANI): A drunk Briton who pretended to be Star Wars villain Darth Vader and attacked two Jedi fanatics escaped a jail sentence on May 13.
Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, donned a black bin bag for a cape and used a metal crutch for a lightsabre when he impersonated the Dark Lord of the Sith on March 25, reports The Scotsman.
He then lept over the wall of a Jedi Church where Barney Jones and his cousin Michael were duelling with lightsabres while filming a documentary.
The fans of the Star Wars films established the church last year in Holyhead, northwest Wales.
Hughes, of Holyhead, bellowed Darth Vader as he hit Barney Jones over the head with the crutch and punched his cousin in the thigh.
At Holyhead Magistrates' Court, Hughes who has a chronic alcohol problem was sentenced to two months' jail suspended for a year.
Ordering Hughes to pay 100 pounds each to the victims and 60 pounds costs and implementing a supervision order, district judge Andrew Shaw said: "There was a premeditated element to the assaults." (ANI)
More at : Drunk Darth Vader beats jail rap in Jedi church attacks http://www.thaindian.com/newsp.....z0iMhWdcan
Drunken cosplay rampages are almost always hilarious.
The hilarity of this article is only increased by the fact that I didn't previously know the Jedi weirdos actually had a physical church somewhere. Awesome.
As long as this is still a libertarian blog, let's stick to the relevant political questions instead of taking cheap shots at a harmless eccentric.
So my first question is, is JobCentre a public or private entity? If it's public, the discussion will be longer and more complicated. In that case, it's similar to the controversy mentioned in Virginia Postrel's The Substance of Style about whether police officers should be allowed to wear dreadlocks. Postrel admits that particular issue is bound to be rather complicated.
...that that particular issue...
As long as this is still a libertarian blog, let's stick to the relevant political questions instead of taking cheap shots at a harmless eccentric.
You're new here I take it.
I wish Mr. Jarvis the best of luck in his search for employment opportunities.
Comic book stores need employees. To bad that business is in a hole. Record store? no they are doomed as well. Video rental store? They are soon to be gone as well. Book Store? nope.
The very internet that spawned these people is soon going to make them unemployable.
I don't know if i should be sad or laugh my ass off.
The very internet that spawned these people is soon going to make them unemployable.
Ah, but you overlook his unlimited employment potential in the fastest growing sector of what we are pleased to call our economy:
The civil service.
"Your driver's license, suspended it is. Fees and penalties, substantial they are."
+LOL
I guess technically Jedi are civil servants?
Games Workshop still uses brick and mortar stores.
what the hell happened to your RSS feed?
I think the Jedi believers are actually a good test case for freedom of religion issues. Most of the Jedi's I've met are sincere in their beliefs, unlike the Flying Spaghetti monster people. So, we're left with having to priviliege all religious-based fashion preferences regardless of whether the religion was invented by stone age goat herders several thousand years ago, or fresh-faced nerds five minutes ago.
Since you consider anyone who believes in anything beyond crude materialism to be "flying spaghetti monster people" you clearly have had many deep conversations about the subject.
But you do make a good point. Religion is what people make it.
All religions are morally equivalent, except Christianity, which is uniquely evil in addition to being equivalent to Jedi worship.
Christianity is no more evil than any other "organized" religion. They are all about power and money for those in control. Clerics, no matter their particular religion, are the most evil fuckers ever to walk the earth and should be ruthlessly hunted to extinction.
You are clearly a mage. My cleric will totally kick your mage's ass.
Healing SHIELD!
Uniquely evil? Are you not aware of Islam? I mean, accepting your basic premise that all religion is evil (which I don't), Islam and Christianity have to be at least equal at this point.
I think he literally meant the flying spaghetti monster people, not those they mock.
How dare you mock the sincerity of His Noodliness's worshipers.
Repent or spend eternity in Ragu sauce!
If we have to treat Scientology as an actual religion rather than a supernatural Ponzi scheme, I'll happily treat the Jedi as a religious group.
Hell, maybe I'll start a quasi-religious philosophy based on the Eight Virtues of the Avatar.
Yeah but the whole premise of the FSM religion is that religion is stoopid. I haven't heard of any actualy claiming special status.
Oh, this is just bloody stupid. Dressing up in costumes at an SF convention is fun and all, but when you insist that people take it seriously in real life, you should expect to get laughed it.
-jcr
Where are my lawyers?
Let us show you the power of the dark side.
No, Luke, resist the Dork side!
But does the same apply to people wearing football jerseys who are not only non-athletes, but not the person whose name is on the back?
I really liked that alt text, by the way.
Not to be fan-boyish, but wht would a Jedi require an apology? I don't know what the official canon stand is, but the don't strike me as the type who would need one.
It's like expecting a Vulcan to be happy about a mixtape you made him...
I believe that Yoda is really just Grover in drag.
I think Grover's already in drag. At least he minces like a drama queen.
And Elmo's just an attention whore...
Better reply:
"Sith lord, bitch."
Dressing up in costumes at an SF convention is fun and all, but when you insist that people take it seriously in real life, you should expect to get laughed it.
HEY!!
Just for that, laughing at me is now illegal.
I've got black market laughing-at-Congresscreature here! First taste is free!
I've seen those crappy movies, and Jedi spend a lot of time without hoods on their heads.
The most entertaining part is that when you follow the link and see the guy's picture, he's not wearing Jedi robes, just a dirty hoodie.