June 26, 200520 yr http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yo...ire/4624081.stm Do they know they're celebrating the triumph of good over evil with a film in which evil triumphs over good? :D I wonder what the lyrics of the Star Wars hymn might be... "An electric puddle is not what I need right now." (Nina Kalenkov)
June 26, 200520 yr "The service also included a hymn sung to the John Williams Star Wars theme." What can I say? "I tried the most potent Noise Amplification spell once upon a time. Mavellous spell. I could hear the birds speaking to one another in trees over the horizon, I could hear the rustlings as the clouds rubbed against each other in the sky. I could hear the sound a rainbow makes as it arches it's back over the world. Then a dog barked behind me and I burst my left eardrum."
June 26, 200520 yr Isn't star wars about a man who lost his way into evil however was able to change and be saved before he died.
June 26, 200520 yr Author If you look at the series as a whole, yes, there's redemption and the triumph of good. It's still remarkable to see an established religion embracing something which is so 'new age' - the Force is the kind of woolly 'Oh, we believe in something but we're not quite sure what' belief that church leaders rail against. "An electric puddle is not what I need right now." (Nina Kalenkov)
June 26, 200520 yr Its for the kids. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Younglings, cewekeds. They're called younglings. Hawk! Eggplant! AWAKEN!
June 26, 200520 yr Author Its for the kids. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Bless them. :D Or should that be, "May the Force be with them"? "An electric puddle is not what I need right now." (Nina Kalenkov)
June 26, 200520 yr Its for the kids. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Younglings, cewekeds. They're called younglings. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> rofl
June 26, 200520 yr Star Wars is a powerful story of redemption. On the other hand, it's weird to have a church celebrate a series like this. Why not celebrate the Lord of the Rings, then? Fionavar's Holliday Wishes to all members of our online community: Happy Holidays Join the revelry at the Obsidian Plays channel:Obsidian Plays Remembering tarna, Phosphor, Metadigital, and Visceris. Drink mead heartily in the halls of Valhalla, my friends!
June 26, 200520 yr The roman chatolic church will do the same thing but its going to be The Emperial March instead of the Star Wars theme.
June 26, 200520 yr Its for the kids. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It's an example of "The Church" "reaching out" and "getting down" with their modern audience, in an effort to be "more relevant". It is also a neat way of piggy backing on the GL marketing juggernaut ... I can't wait for religious Operating Systems: Micro$oft's Stained Windows ... OBSCVRVM PER OBSCVRIVS ET IGNOTVM PER IGNOTIVS OPVS ARTIFICEM PROBAT
June 26, 200520 yr You really ought to stop contributing to threads with Kaftan ... OBSCVRVM PER OBSCVRIVS ET IGNOTVM PER IGNOTIVS OPVS ARTIFICEM PROBAT
June 26, 200520 yr My mistake, I thought you were suggesting an alternative definition for stained ... OBSCVRVM PER OBSCVRIVS ET IGNOTVM PER IGNOTIVS OPVS ARTIFICEM PROBAT
June 27, 200520 yr They were specifically celebrating the release of Episode III, where good doesn't really triumph over evil.
June 27, 200520 yr I remember the only interesting sermon our priest ever gave was after his kids dragged him to see "Return of the Jedi". Basically he was talking about how the Emperor represented the temptation of the Devil and that despite his many sins, Vader got redemption at the end. So SW made me listen in church for the first (and last) time in my life!
June 27, 200520 yr In the last English census, enough people put Jedi down as a religion that the English government recognized it as an official religion. I'm not kidding.
June 27, 200520 yr Author In the last English census, enough people put Jedi down as a religion that the English government recognized it as an official religion. I'm not kidding. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Lots of people did in fact put down Jedi as their religion, though the census-takers claim these are still useful data as it reveals the growing disenchantment with organised religion and a tendency to look for new age solutions, as well as the power of the internet to organise large practical jokes. However, the UK government doesn't recognise Jedi as an official religion. "An electric puddle is not what I need right now." (Nina Kalenkov)
June 27, 200520 yr My father in law is an English citizen, and he swears it's true. Even better, I've seen the news reports myself. There were enough votes that the census recognized it as an official religion. Imagine on principle if the government went out of their way to announce that they don't recognize the results of their own census as being valid, and better yet that they officially announce that they assume the answers on said census are inherently dishonest. Also imagine what kind of precedent you set by saying the government can take a religion claimed by large numbers of people, and declare it to be a mockery? Why not just declare Christian Science and Scientology to be jokes while we're at it?
June 27, 200520 yr Author I don't think that just having lots of names on the census is enough to confer official status. You would need to have practicing Jedi 'priests' make a formal application for official status, I suppose. If there are such people, I'm sure we would have heard about them by now. George Lucas would probably be suing them for copyright infringement. I found a news article about it here. "An electric puddle is not what I need right now." (Nina Kalenkov)
June 27, 200520 yr You are still wrong, your father in law is mistaken or pulling your leg. And i think you misunderstand how the UK govt uses census data. Please forgive the tone of the post but we are just not that nerdy. Look here. Its from the department that actaully handle the data and it is more up to date than the BBC article posted by steve. A campaign on the internet claimed - wrongly - that Jedi, the belief system at the heart of the Star Wars films, would receive official government recognition as a religion if enough people quoted it on their Census forms. Well if you or your father in law are saying that some people put down "jedi" as their religion in the Uk census of 2001 you would be correct. However if you are saying this: the English government recognized it as an official religion you are incorrect.
June 27, 200520 yr How is he wrong? The above article seems to suggest official recognition is tenuous, as it is officially recognized on the census, but not necessarily by the government (who runs the census). It's really a wishy-washy answer, but the BBC does in fact still have an article there to demonstrate it did occur.
June 27, 200520 yr How is he wrong? The above article seems to suggest official recognition is tenuous, as it is officially recognized on the census, but not necessarily by the government (who runs the census). It's really a wishy-washy answer, but the BBC does in fact still have an article there to demonstrate it did occur. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No, it's not recognised as a religion, it is just a seperate code for processing the census data. Since a lot of people put it on their forms, the cencus office just created an extra statistic in order to better store the census data. It is merely an effort to reduce the number of people they'd be putting into "Other". Since "Other" has a code, is "Other" a religion? "None" has a code too, but would you call "none" a religion? Many forms that ask you for your ethnic background also have an option to the effect of "I prefer not to say". Would you then consider "I prefer not to say" to be an ethnicity? The Government is not recognising that Jedi is a religion. They are recognising that a lot of people claimed it was their religion. Hawk! Eggplant! AWAKEN!
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