(n.b., I'm placing this here because it feels dishonest to place it anywhere that Guests don't have access to it, given the nature of the information within.)
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Adder wrote: They do not have to take the Oath to learn about, consider, immerse into what it means to be a Jedi, or adhere to the doctrine do they? I didn't think so, rather it's just required to join this registered religious entity (church) officially. Unless you taking the Oath actually was integral to the experience of immersion, in which case that is a good thing I think
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FAQ wrote: After registering on the forums, you will be considered a 'Guest' (FAQ: Guests). If you are under the age of eighteen (18) please skip to (FAQ: Under 18). If you are eighteen (18) or older and wish to become a Jedi as defined by TotJO you need to send in a valid Jedi Application and take the Simple Oath.
In a conversation yesterday when I was discussing this, a (former?) Catholic expressed a kind of curiosity why I wouldn't require Jediism to have an oath up front when it was implied that every other religion did. Many do, but it's not the same kind the oath is--Catholicism has confirmation, but that's an initiation into the faith, not a specific parish, church, or other subset of Catholicism.
They don't, though. Many religions don't have this kind of initiatory nonsense. As far as I know, Shinto has no initiation rituals. Here in the American South, where protestant denominations like Methodists and Baptists reign supreme, we have no initiation rites for that sort of thing. If you want to join the faith, you get an initiation (you "get saved" and/or "baptised" to become a Christian), but if you want to join a specific church, you fill out a membership form.
I feel that, since the purpose of any initiatory ritual is to play gatekeeper, perhaps Members (who may or may not seek rank, in time) be given the application to fill out and "join" the church, and that we should save the Oath and it's initatory baggage for those who want to start the path to Knighthood.
I've said it before, but not every Member here wants to--or is cut out to be--a Knight. Some of them are happy just to sit in the pews and be as Jedi as they can in their daily lives. And we need to be more accomodating of that. I think moving the oath (off-topic as it may seem) fits into that category of concern.
Why? Well, let's review the
simple oath
, shall we?
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Oaths of the TOTJO wrote:
"I profess before all my fellow Jedi that I, [name] born on [dd/mm/yy], without reservation, choose the Jedi path, until I am ready for Jedi Knighthood or I otherwise decide, with all its duties and responsibilities. I shall do that which is right and profess my allegiance to the Force. During that time I promise to do my utmost to uphold the Jedi teachings, and to live a life as is worthy of a Jedi."
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As you read this oath, please remember that most of our teachings are hidden behind the door
of this Oath. This Oath is currently the key that unlocks your ability to progress (though perhaps not to read) through the IP, and without completing the IP, you can never get to the next barrier to knowledge, Apprenticeship. We're pretty open here, but most of the teaching is locked behind the Simple Oath door.
I profess before all my fellow Jedi that I...without reservation, choose the Jedi path...
Before you work through the IP, do you have a proper understanding of the Jedi Path? I don't mean read through the Campbell and Watts--you can do that anywhere, at any time, and be no more Jedi than a tablespoon. I mean do you really understand the lessons we learn from the IP, deep down, as they pertain to TOTJO Jediism? How much of the path do we put out in the open? Only what we show in our sermons and discussions, and those are the places we often disagree on what that "path" is or means.
Can you really, then, expect people to choose that path "without reservation", even given the temporary nature of the oath? Do they have enough information to make that decision at that point? I don't mean, "Does Billy understand?" or "Johnny catches on quick" or "Sue is top of her class..." I mean universally, to a member, do they understand the path well enough to act "without reservation"?
Call me on it if you will, but I
still have reservations about it sometimes. Not the Jedi path at large, but the way we teach it here. I think we all do. That's why we disagree so often. We look at the oath as a test of seriousness without looking at the words in it. It's like schoolchildren in America reciting the Pledge of Allegiance without realizing the seriousness of what they're saying.
...with all its duties and responsibilities.
What are its duties and responsibilities? We have a "Jedi Believe" section that tells us what to believe. We have a Jedi Code that gives us some crytpic knowledge of "the game of Black and White" Watts was so fond of preaching. We have a Jedi Creed, which is a repurposed prayer from another faith. But we don't ever really say what our duties and responsibilities are. What should we be doing? How should we be acting? The next line tells us "I shall do what is right," but we've never collectively been able to decide what that is. Doesn't everyone, deep down, do what they think is right? Everyone doing what is right is as easy a way to become a murderer as a saint, so that clarification actually muddies the waters a bit more. What do we mean by "right"? Who's right? A universal right? Are we preaching morals? If so, where do we list them? A personal right? If so, how do we know what that is? And if we're doing it already, why do we need someone to help guide us to a place of self-understanding?
and profess my allegiance to the Force
What is the Force? Do we mean it in a Georgian sense? ("Lucasian" didn't sound as pretty) Do we mean it in an animatist sense? Do we mean it in a scientific sense? We don't even
discuss the Force here anymore. We use it when we compare to fiction. We use it in our traditional hellos and goodbyes, watering down any meaning it once had through sheer repetition without belief. Some of us use it as a replacement word for "God" or "spirits" or "mana" or "chi." Some of us think of some scientific constant, yet to be discovered. Some say it's magick, or reiki. Some say it's just a damn fine word, and we should use it a lot because that's what Jedi do. How can we profess allegiance to something we won't discuss, define, suggest, or prod? How can we profess allegiance to a strange concept as distant from me as someone I've never met, or the idea of walking teakettles? Are we right to ask for allegiance to something we won't lay bare?
I promise to do my utmost to uphold the Jedi teachings, and to live a life as is worthy of a Jedi.
At the point you take this oath, you haven't had any proper Jedi teachings, except for maybe the fictional Jedi ones, which we're so quick to dismiss. Do guests even have access to the IP? I don't remember. If they don't, then they cannot possibly make the Membership decision in good conscience while this oath is the doorway to entry, because they'll be diving blindly into something they're already agreeing to. One could even argue that you don't really get a good sense of Jedi teachings until
after the IP, because it's really just a buffet of new ideas for you to ponder and no actual instruction.
What is a life worthy of a Jedi? Again, at the point you're making this decision, you're a Guest, so you really only have the fiction to base it on. "But we're not like
those Jedi," we remind people in open discussion. So there is confusion. So there is misunderstanding. And yet we ask people to make decisions based on this confusion, to bind themselves spiritually and legally to a congregation and a corporation based on information they do not have.
Do you understand now why I have a problem with the placement of the Simple Oath?
