Australian Jedi 'head of the faith' calls for peace and formal recognition - Sensationalist Headlines

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/226043/adf70c27-27e9-4dea-8291-0d81a8cc0759/00FB7FA5-A7CE-4B7F-84CB-09641BA1C355.jpeg The "head of the Jedi faith" in Australia, Peter Lee, cites strong census numbers and a thriving online community as evidence of a practising Jedi population in Australia. The Lithgow-based Star Wars fan said that in 2001 more than 70,000 Australians marked themselves as Jedi in that year's census. Initially taken as a flippant response, the figure would go on to remain relatively stable, with 64,390 Australians marking Jedi as their religion in 2011, up from 58,053 in 2006. Concerned about wider data implications, the Australian Bureau of Statistics removed any Jedi answers in the 2016 census and pooled them under "not defined". This raised questions around the definition of a belief system and freedom of practice. "You can never get that question wrong. If a person decides that their wheelie bin is their God, then we have absolutely no right to deny him, or to question it," Mr Lee said, as Star Wars fans around the world marked May the 4th. "I'm saying for me, I believe in The Force. It's real, I've felt it. I've used it in my life, I've used it to heal myself and others." Mr Lee became the spokesperson for the faction after the 2001 census and has since spearheaded the movement. "I declared myself Jedi during the 2001 census because I saw something happening and I wanted to be a part of it. I saw that people were starting to say 'We're allowed to believe in what we want to believe in'. May the 4th

I mean yeah, not really any reason why it shouldn't be a legitimate religion, hell, the Jedi belief system is actually pretty wizard.

If they are recognized as a religion, will they practice censorship? Will there be stories that the jedi wouldn't tell me?

Yea about the younglings

will saying "execute order 66" be considered a hate crime?

Order 66 deniers will be tried in some countries.

Shouldn't Lee's title be Grand Master like Yoda?

Yeah how can he be part of the council without being a Jedi Master?

The UK has a shit load of Jedis In England and Wales 390,127 people (almost 0.8%) stated their religion as Jedi on their 2001 Census forms, surpassing Sikhism, Judaism, and Buddhism, and making it the fourth largest reported religion in the country.[27] In the 2001 Census, 2.6% of the population of Brighton claimed to be Jedi.

I wonder what continuity the faith follows. Maybe the old testament for them would be 'Legends' while the new testament is the Disney canon.

You'd think they'd use friggin' sweet oxyacetylene torches for lightsabers instead of that plastic shit.

If Scientology can be a religion, so can Jedi

You mean His Grand Holy Master Jediism was originally more line as a parody religion for most it's followers back in it's heyday (2000s). Today their few both fans and even non-fans are take little more serious about this. Scientology in other hand. Is already Scam UFO religion for close to 68 years old and their members still believe in an 1950s pseudoscience device to can tell so-called "Thetans".

Time to start delcaring that I'm the Sith lord of Australia

What he was getting at is that if Scientology, which is literally a cult made to make money and bully people can be recognized as a religion, then something as harmless as a "joke" religion should be able to be recognized as one too. Both of them have about the same amount of chance as being a "real" religion.

It's bizarre to have a religion whose dogma and future is dictated by the Disney corporation

We are assuming that the sith of coruse don't take over.