-
Linus Van Pelt is pretty clearly a mainstream Christian, probably just slightly more well-read than most Christians. So, not much traction there.
-
Jolly Roger, I don’t exactly see what the problem is here. Sgt. Skywalker can be a Jedi. You can be a Norse pagan. What does it matter? The military should just let people declare their own religions – although I don’t see why they’re that interested – and have done with it.
-
What abuse? If someone is going to declare that he has to go out in the pumpkin patch twice a day to pray, then, well, he’s going to have to go sit in a pumpkin patch and pray, right? It’s not like he’s getting any more or less leeway than, say, a Muslim, is he? And if he doesn’t sincerely hold those beliefs, then it’s not exactly going to be fun sitting in a pumpkin patch pretending to pray, right?
-
Isn’t all personal religion subject to practical military considerations? You don’t just get to say X to the military and do it if it actually interferes with military operation, right?
Perhaps but since he’s fictional it wouldn’t be too hard to make stuff up.
theres not really a problem with this guy being a jedi master. I just think its kind of silly and a bit strange how it can be a religion that people follow. Coming from a movie and all. but thats just me. The military does let you declare your religion. Its not something that most people are interested in knowing either.
Though I would think it would be funny if there was a jedi chaplain. I wonder if a person could claim to worship the God of Wine (was that Bacchus?) and have services consisting of excessive wine drinking.
You’d be surprised what some people will do to get out of work.
“Hey, Skywalker! You’ve got duty driver this friday.”
“Sarge, I have to spend october fridays in the pumpkin patch.”
Sarge: “Dang! Ok, I’ll rearrange the roster. You can pull duty on tuesday”
Skywalker: “hehehe. If I pull duty on Tuesday I get Wednesday off!”
Believe me, I’ve been screwed into shitty duties maybe not by pumpkinists or jedis but by people that were not above twisting any rule or regulations to get out of stuff. Heck, I was deployed because of some super whiney guy. Long story.
Yes, but it can be abused. I’m not saying it is on a regular basis. But I’m betting a crafty jedi could declare Han Solo’s fictional birthday a religious holiday and get it off. Just sayin’.
Its not that big of a deal to me, but I find the whole thing absurd. I don’t expect anything to be done about it. I saw enough silliness this week at work to be kind of done with banging my head on the wall for the time being. As I said to one guy this afternoon “We’re breaking our own backs with the weight of our self imposed bureaucracy.”.
I don’t wear army issue briefs.
Picard’s dead!?!?! How come I haven’t heard. You’d think that would be all over the internet.
Think about these things a little more deeply. How exactly do you distinguish between a religion that is “silly,” “strange,” and “absurd” and a religion that’s not?
My post was largely written tongue in cheek. But age as the only defining factor? Gotta start tradition somewhere.
Now, let’s be honest here: the Jedi Church is clearly tongue-in-cheek.
But I think that Jolly Roger’s problem here is not religion at all, but how he perceives Skywalker’s attitude as lack of discipline.
Um…not quite. There are a couple of fringe groups of white supremacist assholes who spawned from Hitler’s fucked-up interpretation of ancient Northern tradition, and a not-so-fringe group that believes Asatru should be reserved for people of Germanic or Scandinavian descent (which, to my mind, would include just about everybody on the planet, since the Vikings went freaking everywhere), but the raving nutbags are not representative of the faith. You just never hear anything from the rest of us because we’re very quiet (when we’re sober).
I was being tongue in cheek too, but I may’ve accidentally hit on something. If you start your religious traditions in a movie, millions of people are going to see it. That sounds like an easier way to start. If you start your own religion with a group of friends and have to spread it by word of mouth, walking from town to town til you’ve worn holes in your sandals, that shows real commitment.
Just to be clear I I’m not saying the jedi church should be abolished. Even by the military. But it sets a precedent that people can start not serious religions. I think the Pastafarians are pretty cool, but do we need a pastafarian chaplain?
Well since my last two sets of dog tags said Roman Catholic I was pretty much nailed. I’m sure if I was a Druid they’ve allowed it. Top just didn’t have that much of a sense of humor then. It was a stressful time and here was one of his new Section Chiefs acting the clown. It was more bad timing than anything.
It’s been done, sort of. Not a warhammer, but a Scottish claymore, a longbow, and a bagpipe. He didn’t ask anyone for permission, though. I really wonder what kind of claymore it was, the heavy one handed saber or the huge Braveheart-style two hander :p. He was a bad ass, too. Last guy alive in god knows how many operations. Guess the Scottish gods (or, considering how touched that amadan was, more likely the Sidhe) loved him 
On a more serious note, Jolly, I really do think you’re taking this much more at heart than intended. Writing “Jedi” when asked your religion by the State is not an attempt to be all special and shirk duties and whatnot, it’s a reaction against being asked what your religion is by the State - as if 1) you should have one and 2) it made any difference. To an atheist, that’s silly. Come on, Christian ? It’s from a book !
A hardcore Jedi-flavored atheist probably wouldn’t try to get the right to meditate at lunch to get some nookie time with his wife, although come to think about it, he may well push it to make the case that letting Jews off duty during Shabbas, or letting Muslims get off duty to pray and so on, or even that employings chaplains at all are equally silly.
(Plus, consider the obvious tactical advantage of having masters of the Force in the ranks ! 
)
Any religion is only as serious as its individual practitioners.
Do you examine every purported adherent to an established religion to determine whether they are “serious” in ascribing to that religion? When a Muslim goes to prayer, do you check to see if he is sincerely praying? When a Catholic is in confession, do you send a superior in to see if the confession is genuine or just “um … I had evil thoughts” nonsense?
OK I read the OP and started reading the replies because, yeah I was curious what symbol you’d put on a Jedi headstone. I followed the link to the Jedi page and was looking for symbols or some such I saw a link that said somethingorother Jedi Logos. I thought “AH ha, logos, lets look at that”
The link took me to an ebay page and I’m thinking “They sell Jedi Logos on Ebay? What?” Then I look down at the items and it’s little figures, or dolls or something. Just as I’m thinking WTF I look at the description and almost fell out of my chair laughing when I realized that the link was for Jedi LEGOS. They have a link to Jedi Legos on their main page. I just thought I’d share that.
You need to revise that line of reasoning, Soldier. If you want to carry around a warhammer it is entirely within specs. It has nothing to do with religion… it is a useful tool and weapon unrelated to dogma or creed, period. Knife or Spiked Hammer with length… Give me the Hammer, everytime. I would issue Pvt. Jedi a lightsaber as soon as it comes out of Nevada. What, you think your Army doesn’t have a lightsaber?
[bolding mine]
The prohibitions on sex & familial love don’t seem problematic to you? Or do you figure that’s only for monks?
Anakin Skywalker’s experience would seem to disprove the happier life.
Eh, not all of them. A lot of “Creative Anachronism” enthusiasts play pre-Christian Norse personae & wear Thor-hammer pendants without being racists. I expect some of them have at least dabbled in Asatru.
I dislike non serious religions as much as the next guy but I don’t think there’s a clear line somewhere in the middle of Jedi, Discordians, Satanists, High Holy Days only Catholics, and fundamentalists where you can say “beyond THIS is obviously a silly religion”. I of course have my opinion, but don’t want the strength of government behind my opinion due to the precedent it sets.
ETA: which is a way of saying that if they allow chaplains for religions the government considers “serious” I dont think there’s a clear test of serious religions: the above list was an off the top of my head sliding scale. If you allow one you should allow them all along with the same reasonable religious accomodations you allow other religions.