Sunday, January 27, 2008

The U.K. Church of the Jedi

Like or hate NPR, give them credit for finding the words to describe this thing that I can only assume is a tongue-in-cheek mutation of humanism.

You will want to listen to this story. If I hadn't, I'd never have known that in the 2001 U.K. census 390,000 claimed "Jedi" as their national religion in England and Wales.

Graham and Mike, I sincerely look forward to your perspectives on this. And if you could get Paul M. to shed some light, I'd be forever grateful.

2 comments:

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Mike Gilbart-Smith said...

There was a huge circular email that went round at the time, saying something like "if you put down Jedi on the census, not only would you actually BE a Jedi, as the census is official, but it would also make Jediism one of the most common religions in the UK". So, yes, it was tongue in cheek, but it also shows that for at least 300 000 Brits, given an opportunity to nail their religious colours to the mast, they would choose rather to make a joke