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Jedi

Jediism is a new worldview with some ancient origins. The online Temple of the Jedi Order (TotJO) was recognised by the Internal Revenue Service as a public charity in 2015, giving it the legal status of a religion, but TotJO has yet to gain official recognition outside the US. To date it is the only expression of Jediism to receive official recognition. Jediism began in New Zealand in 2001 as a movement to answer the religion question in the New Zealand census (out of love for Star Wars or ‘just to annoy people’). In an early example of ‘viral’ internet content, people around the world followed suit, and in 2001 censuses revealed more than 550,000 people worldwide claiming to be Jedis. Of these, some were becoming seriously committed to the Jedi worldview. The Jedi worldview draws its main inspiration from the Star Wars film franchise and global pop culture phenomenon, which itself was heavily influenced by ancient teachings from sources including Buddhism, Daoism and Zoroastrianism. The TotJO also draws from Christian teachings. The original Star Wars trilogy, which began in 1977, is a particular inspiration. The name Jedi itself may be a derivative of ‘jidaigeki’, a genre of Japanese samurai movies. The Star Wars movies are acknowledged as fiction but are seen to convey some important truths. The Jediism movement has no centralised structure or leader. Followers call themselves Jedi or Jedi Knights, and those who follow seriously often face ridicule and lack of acceptance for their ideas and beliefs. American John Henry Phelan (b. 1950) founded TotJO in 2005 and in 2007 published their Doctrine of the Order, which expresses core beliefs, tenets, code, teachings and maxims. In 2007, Welshman Daniel Jones (b. 1987) founded the mostly online Church of Jediism, which to date does not have official recognition as a religious organisation. According to Jediism, an energy field or life force, which they call the Force surrounds us, permeates us and binds the universe together. The Force has two sides, good and evil and the Jedi must listen to it to know how to take right action. The existence of good and evil is the precondition for free will. It is up to us to choose how to behave, but the realised Jedi consistently seeks the light in everyone and everything and strives to help others and protect the vulnerable and defenceless. In general, Jediism is neutral on the question of the existence of one or more deities, and welcomes all worldviews and religions, though most followers would have a Christian background. While hundreds of thousands of people continue to identify Jediism as their religion in censuses, the number of genuine followers is likely to be around 20,000. The TotJO lists the following as annual days of significance: 21 March, Jedi Creed Day; 25 May, International Jedi Day; 31 October, Youngling Day; 25 December, TotJO Anniversary Day; 31 December, Day of Reflection.

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