Jul 15, 2008

Not Sure What to Make of This


The Preaching Now newsletter has the following interesting tidbit. Surely, there is a sermon illustration her somewhere.

More than 70,000 people in Australia have declared they are followers of the Jedi faith, the religion created by the Star Wars films.

According to a BBC story, a recent census found that one in 270 respondents--0.37 percent of the population--say they believe in "the force," an energy field that gives Jedi Knights like Luke Skywalker their power in the films.

Most of the 70,509 people who wrote "Jedi" on their census forms were suspected to have done so in response to an email encouraging all Star Wars fans to get it recognized as an official religion.

The majority do not seriously tell each other: "May the force be with you," according to Australian Star Wars Appreciation Society President Chris Brennean.

"When you look at it, you probably have about 5,000 people in that 70,000 who were true hard-core people who would believe the Jedi religion carte blanche," he told ABC Radio.

"Then you would have 50,000 fans who said, 'Oh yeah, we'll just put down "Jedi" for fun, we don't actually have a religion of our own.'

"Then you probably have 15,000 people who did it just to give the government a bit of curry," he said.

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