Here's an interesting one from the UK. Apparently the 2011 census in Britain will be the last one done for a while, because some rather open-ended questions seem to be skewing the data, according to the Office of National Statistics.
Rapid shifts in demographics -- particularly the large influx of emigrants to the UK -- render the census data obsolete fairly quickly, so the ONS is considering changing their system to one in which they would use existing records. Data from tax assessments, medical records and so forth might be used for the future census polls, supplemented with random telephone surveys. Here's the part of the article, though, that jumps out at me:
"Prank responses to questions that are perceived to be too intrusive have also knocked confidence in the current system. In 2001 -- the first time a voluntary question was asked about faith -- almost 400,000 people took inspiration from the Star Wars films to claim that their religion was "Jedi". This was in addition to about 7,000 people who said that they were witches."
What I'm wondering is why does the ONS assume that these answers are pranks at all? Britain has a huge population, so it's not unreasonable that 7,000 identify themselves as witches. Certainly, the question of whether Jedi is a valid religion has come up before, but if someone writes that in as their spiritual path of choice, what entitles the folks at the ONS to rule it a prank, rather than just a belief system they don't understand?
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Rapid shifts in demographics -- particularly the large influx of emigrants to the UK -- render the census data obsolete fairly quickly, so the ONS is considering changing their system to one in which they would use existing records. Data from tax assessments, medical records and so forth might be used for the future census polls, supplemented with random telephone surveys. Here's the part of the article, though, that jumps out at me:
"Prank responses to questions that are perceived to be too intrusive have also knocked confidence in the current system. In 2001 -- the first time a voluntary question was asked about faith -- almost 400,000 people took inspiration from the Star Wars films to claim that their religion was "Jedi". This was in addition to about 7,000 people who said that they were witches."
What I'm wondering is why does the ONS assume that these answers are pranks at all? Britain has a huge population, so it's not unreasonable that 7,000 identify themselves as witches. Certainly, the question of whether Jedi is a valid religion has come up before, but if someone writes that in as their spiritual path of choice, what entitles the folks at the ONS to rule it a prank, rather than just a belief system they don't understand?
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Well, see, Jedi is just this totally made up thing that just like some guy came up with. Like, totally! lol At least that is what some might reason, forgetting that at some time everything was just some made up thing that some guy or gal came up with! Thats’ the thing I think that often trips up pagans, themselves – worrying too much about trying to hook up with older traditons in order to bring validity to what is actually often just some fairly recently made up thing. Yes, I get that the spirit is there and many of the forms but we really don’t have a lot of hard evidence of what ancient religions were really like since history is written by the victors and most of the time that wasn’t the pagans. Or if it was, they assimilated so fast that they quickly forgot their own traditions. I don’t say this to denegrate neo paganism but to free it from misunderstanding, stereotypes, and fear. But hey if 400k people in England want to be Jedi, have at it! It’s probably better documented than most religions! lol
I can understand their concern about Jedi, but witches? That actually seems like a reasonable number. In light of the fact that they shouldn’t be making judgements on what is or isn’t a legitimate faith system, they should include them all, even if it means including Jedi.
Jedi’s are a made up religion.
So is Scientology. L Ron Hubbard anyone?
All religions were “made-up” at some point. No one should be so quick to judge.
If I choose to travel a path that was “made-up” by someone else…then that’s MY choice. If I receive inspiration from something that was “made-up” from someone else, again that’s MY choice.
All I’m saying is that just because something is “made-up” doesn’t make any less real to an individual. If said individual wants to make a claim that they are on -that particular path…then So Mote it Be.
Actually, if you look at the Star Wars path of the Jedi, it -can- be adapted to a legitimate spiritual path. I’m not saying I’m ready to start saying my last name is Skywalker or I’m ready to start building a lightsaber, but I know a few people who actually do declare that as their religion, and they actually are rational human beings who don’t necessarily believe that the movies and books are real.
This is kind of ridiculous. Why does it have to be a joke?
If this method of doing a census is such a problem, maybe they should make everyone go back to their home town and be counted there. It worked for Herod two thousand years ago…
If people took the jedi faith seriously, it would be pretty good. Belief in a unifying force that interconnects all things and path that says do no evil sounds pretty good and isn’t too far from the foundations of Wicca.
I identifed myself as Jedi on that Census form, & so did my husband. There were 3 reasons:
1)We felt that the ONS ought to mind their own busines about personal beliefs.
2)We didn’t want to identify as Pagan on any National register – a friend had had wood piled against her walls & chants of “burn the Witch” recently, with 2 children in the house; we are in a work/school situation where coming out would be inadvisable.
3)So-called confidential data seems to be lost with embarassing regularity in Britain.
At the time, I hadn’t heard of anyone actually following a Jedi path, although I now know that some use this as a spiritual Path. I remember a recon friend of mine put down her religion as “Maenad” – I wonder if that threw them?
Heres to freedom – I wish!
Bright Blessings, Arianne.
I think everone is focusiing on thewrong issue here.
The troubling thing I saw in the article is tha they are wnting to create a sytem that gathers informtionfroma varity of sources to arrive t census data. That same system can easily be used by the government to keep an eye one’s citizenry. Here in the USA if such asem were to be put into place, it could be used to deny medical ins,car ins, etc. These are troubling times we are in.
I’m a bit disappointed in England. I had thought they were a bit more accepting of Wicca. If their government does give money to communities for churches and/or meeting halls, which is – I’m assuming – why they’re asking, then why don’t they have a system to give so much to that building, going by attendance records, repairs, and programs offered for that particular church, temple, meeting hall, or whatever. Even in gathering information for government money, they don’t have to be that intrusive. There has to be a better way.
I forgot to add …. the United States should do that, too.
I happened to stumble on this a few months ago on the web. That Jedi is actually a up an coming real religion with 1000’s of members. I did a double take personally, I am a star wars fan and a trekkie but really. My husband was jumping up and down about he is really a HUGE star wars fan and joined the religion. I prefer my witchcraft thank you but to each his own, I think the Jedi actually reminds me of Taoist and other martial art related faiths.
I wonder if Jedi became a recognized religion, would vandalisms, etc., be reported as acts of the Sith rather than Pagans or Satanists???
The “Jedi” thing was pre-arranged by heaps of people for the lulz. We did the same thing here. They were talking about it before the Census on the radio and everything. All in the name of good fun. Absolutely not serious in any way.
If you’re not actually moving things with the Force, you ain’t a Jedi, and I don’t understand why it would be okay to nick off with someone else’s intellectual property in order to make your belief system sound cooler.
A Roman Catholic friend of mine put down his religion as Jedi purely as a protest against a question on faith being included in the Census and I believe many others did the same.