The crazy Brits!
Eight police officers serving with Scotland’s largest force listed their official religion as Jedi in voluntary diversity forms, it has emerged.
Strathclyde Police said the officers and two of its civilian staff claimed to follow the faith, which features in the Star Wars movies.
The details were obtained in a Freedom of Information request by Jane’s Police Review.
Strathclyde was the only force in the UK to admit it had Jedi officers.
In the Star Wars films, Jedi Knights such as Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda use the Force to battle the evil Darth Vader, who has strayed to the dark side.
Jane’s Police Review editor Chris Herbert, who requested the information, said: “The Force appears to be strong in Strathclyde Police with their Jedi police officers and staff.
“Far from living a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, some members of the noble Jedi order have now chosen Glasgow and its surrounding streets as their home.”
…….Last year, brothers Barney and Daniel Jones founded the UK Church of the Jedi – which offered sermons on the Force, light sabre training, and meditation techniques.
April 17th, 2009 11:36 am
In the past couple of Census in Australia many thousands of people recorded Jedi as their religion, mostly as a joke it would seem.
However, a quick Google search discovers that there are Jedi temples in Tecumseh, Oklahoma and Beaumont, Texas. The websites say they are real Jedi.
Those crazy Americans!
April 18th, 2009 7:32 pm
I declare, the Church of the Jedi?! Fascinating, absolutely fascinating; it almost makes taking a trip to Scotland an absolute mandatory trip for any serious Star Wars groupie or Star Trek fanatic, just to see it and experience it first hand. Kind of like it is for any serious Muslim believing Islam to make a trip to their Mecca at least once in their lifetime. Who ever would have thought people could twist the aspect of Religion into such lunacy, you think?
May 21st, 2009 1:30 pm
Well, Religion in and of itself is filled with lunacy so I don’t think that anything anyone does could “…twist the aspect of Religion into such lunacy…”. Their church and religion is not much different than any other religion out there. Some christians believe that they well be beamed up to heaven right before the apocalypse happens and demons will come up from the ground and kill people and all of that nonsense. People even believe that if you don’t worship their god that you will be cast into a lake of fire for all of eternity. I really don’t see how a church for Jedi is any more ludicrous than a church for Jesus Christ, Buddha, Allah, or Zues or any other of the literally thousands of deities that exist. They all deal with some sort of belief in an imaginary higher power and have basic rules and customs that each follower must abide by.
April 17th, 2009 12:20 pm
Yeah…yeah… But the article clearly referenced the Brits! I would say that craziness abounds everywhere