The First British Army Jedi.

I found it disturbing that on my one day of rest during British Army training, I was being forced to awaken and parade in suit and tie for inspection.
after inspection we marched into the COE where the padre spoke about what it meant to have faith in christ as messiah.

I read the rights of a soldier. I knew my abilities and I knew the laws protecting the individual from the leviathan.

I, as all of us at that particular barracks in Yorkshire, were considered junior soldiers. Having volunteered for the war against the infidels that was raging in the deserts once considered ancient Babylonia. we were being training by soldiers experienced in modern combat.

The platoon of young soldiers and I were standing to attention being inspected when I voiced my thoughts loudly. 'Corporal!'
the corporal looked at me and asked, 'what is it?'
'I am requesting permission to speak with the padre after church.'
the corporals and sergeant and lieutenant stopped their inspections and conversations to listen to the exchange of words.
'in regards to what?' asked the corporal.
'request to change religion.' I stated.
'from what, to what?' barked the corporal enquiringly.

straight faced I stared ahead. jaw held firm and said loudly and clearly, 'from Methodist to Jedi.'
the platoon of soldiers began to howl with laughter. I remained standing to attention firmly, well disciplined, giving away no emotions.

'what the f**k is a jedi?' asked the corporal grinning.
'I think he means Jedi, as from the films.' the lieutenant stated with a wry smile.
the sergeant grimaced and looked at the lieutenant and asked, 'is that a religion now?'
the lieutenant smiled and said, 'yes, it was in the news recently. they signed a petition and had enough signatures to be considered an official religion.'
the sergeant seemed astounded by that fact and bewildered he muttered to himself.

the corporal stared at me while the laughter of the soldiers in training subsided. 'what makes you think you are a Jedi?' he asked me firmly. staring straight ahead and still to attention between the other soldiers on parade I stated firmly.
'I feel the force, corporal.'
the other soldiers began to howl with laughter again and the other platoons on church parade began to lose their discipline and look around with curiosity to see what was causing such a loud mirth on the parade square.
some of the corporals chuckled and the sergeant even smiled.
the lieutenant stared at me inquisitively with a twinkle in his eyes and I could see he was surmising my reasoning for the request.

he looked at me and said, 'i will not allow you to speak to the padre about something so ridiculous.'
I looked at the lieutenant and said, 'that is not within your ability sir, according to the individual rights of a soldier, each man and women in the British military has a freedom of religion. as such, I choose to convert to jediism.'

'there are no other Jedi in the Army.' the lieutenant stated, 'therefore there are no churches or clergy and so we wont allow it, because you have no place to worship. its a cult.'
the rest of the soldiers stood to attention listening to our conversation avidly. some were still laughing.
'that's fine, sir.' i said loudly. 'i have already decided that i will spend my sunday mornings, meditating on my bed, while the other soldiers go to church parade.'

the soldiers started to laugh again.

it was a known fact that soldiers who called themselves atheists were forced to stand outside of the church during the Sunday services, yet my decision to be a Jedi meant I could meditate at a place of my choosing. a stroke of genius. the fact being that if they denied my ability to meditate in my chosen place, it would be considered illegal.

the lieutenant and the platoon staff absorbed the information I had given them. 'we wont allow it.' the sergeant said.
I knew, that he knew, that if I was allowed to become a Jedi to subvert church parade, then in droves, the entire barracks and then the entire army of the British military would become Jedi, to avoid parading on their day of rest during training. it was a known fact many COE soldiers converted to Catholicism.. merely because the catholic priest provided cookies during mass.

'we wont allow it.' the lieutenant repeated.
'you have no choice.' i stated, 'it law, and i am protected by law. you do not have authority to subvert or persecute my faith. its in the book, the rights of soldiers. read it.'
'fine.' the lieutenant stated angrily losing his composure, 'if you write a ten thousand word essay on the flaws of Christianity and have it at my office by tomorrow morning, I will allow you to convert.'

the following morning i handed the ten thousand excellently written documents on the numerous flaws within the gospels of the new testament. i also stated the numerous reasons on why the jedi order was based on teachings from all faiths and i also requested to inform the platoon staff that i had taken the name, padawan. (name here)

that evening the platoon was on last parade, (nighttime parade) lining the platoon barracks corridor. the sergeant was reading the rights of a soldier book in the platoon office. in a furious anger he threw the book out of the office and yelled enraged, 'i shall not allow a junior soldier of my platoon to become a f**king Jedi!'
the platoon began to laugh and hoot with derision at the sergeants frustration.

he stormed out of the office and shouted my name loudly. i stamped to attention and replied firmly and loudly. 'sergeant!' he stomped towards me and stared at me, inches from my face, grinding his teeth. he poked me in the chest repeatedly with his pace stick while saying, 'i am not going to be the first person to allow a Jedi in her majesties army! do you understand that!'
'yes sergeant.' i said.

the following morning the sergeant and the corporals began to inspect our room. (unusual, as it was usually only one corporal per room) they honed in on my bed area and began to inspect it. as usual it was spotless and well maintained. they threw the clothes on the floor and emptied the drawers on the floor. 'the drawers seem clean.' one of the corporals said.

'why are there crisps on the floor?' the sergeant asked me. startled by the strange lie i said, 'there. there aren't sergeant?'
he produced a bag of crisps and emptied it on the floor and trod it into the carpet with his boot. 'that's night parade.' he said grimly. '19:00 hours.'
'yes Sergeant.' i said.

at 1900 hours i was on parade in immaculate uniform. again they lied about the standard of my dress until i was on parade each evening all evenings, becoming more and more tired.

after a few days i considered that the gamble to save energy by missing church parade was not worth the energy being lost by the persecutions. therefore it was better to acquiesce to the persecution and change tact to conserve energy. as the goal was to pass the British army training.

one fine morning the sergeant and the corporals were rummaging through and messing my bedspace when the corporal asked, 'do you still feel the force?'
'what force?' i replied. he stopped throwing my clothes on the floor and said, 'are you still a Jedi?'
'what do you mean?' i asked.
he said, 'do you still want to be a Jedi?'
'i am a christian.' i stated, 'i always have been corporal.'
the corporal looked at the other corporals and the sergeant smiled said loudly. 'Good.'
they exited the room.

it was in that way, that the British army nearly became the first Jedi army of the universe.

yet was foiled by the persecutions by 'Christians' in contrary acts of their beliefs and rights to protections against persecutions. a noteworthy part of British history, considering I should have merely converted to Buddhism.

Is that a true story? Action though needs to be well considered and planned, and it sounds a bit rushed. Recruit school is probably not the best place to make a scene about what probably is an administrative matter. As far as I'm aware there are plenty of non-Christian's in the UK MoD, check out this page;

http://www.army.mod.uk/join/Equality-and-diversity.aspx

Humanist seems to be an option, and might be close to Jediism.

But yea, things take time. Entrenched discriminatory attitudes and behaviours can take time to die off in cultures so used to them.

it could have also just been a test they devised to see how determined you are...

sometimes it's better not to "rock the boat" until you have sufficient floatation...other times "rocking the boat" is the only way to achieve success...

What is the purpose of this story?

Why did you choose to ask to change your religion in front of all the platoon? What would be the result if you would do it in a more discreet manner?

Don't you think you may have insulted your lieutenant by handing him an essay with the flaws of his religion? It hasn't occured to you that they (your superiors) may have felt provoked from your attitude and acted like that to "punish" you?

What were your feelings after the ending you describe, when you chose to deny your beliefs? Did you regret about all this or you would do the same thing all over?

Thank you in advance for your answers, they would be of use to me to understand this whole story.

A fun story The defiant under dog standing up for his rights under the persecution of his peers.

but Aye...I agree with the others. Being "Jedi" Isn't about standing out or above the laws, especially in a military field where you are there for your country not for yourself. Jedi, in fiction anyways, are taught to be inconspicuous and to blend in with the citizens, to not stand out above them and most certainly never to stand out above authority. The Jedi Behaviors also teach us similar tenents.

This goes hand in hand with another thread concerning the defense of Jediism. This is a good example of how and why the "Defense" of something of this nature is poorly placed as it can lead to extremities such as this and is counter productive to what Jediism is really about.

A Jedi should rise to the occasion and face the challenges placed before them. Not attempt to change the structures of others because you wish to be defiant to others opinions and beliefs...or even rules and laws.

Besides...Meditate in bed? Sounds like an excuse to sleep in while your other teammates bust their arses off....probubly what they were all thinking too.

That makes me wonder one thing. Indeed, I have been wondering it for a while.

As Jedis, we are supposed to mediate conflict and help it to get to a good solution, not to create conflict and stir trouble. However, I've always seen myself as a catalyst, a character of a change. Sometimes, if you don't stir things up, never changes.

Like two days ago, I had a problem at the supermarket parking lot, because I wanted to park my motorbike out of the motorbike defined space. My justification for that was that it was unfair of the supermarket to put bikes out in the open, while cars are protected from the weather. It was hot and sunny, and I have a kind of allergy to the heat, so I tend to avoid stopping my bike under the weather.

There were other bikes parked at car's places, but it was early in the morning, and there were more than 100 open car spaces, but the security guard came to complain with me.

I filled up a complaint in the supermarket's website, and the manager called me, saying nobody had ever considered the potential troubles for bikers to have their motorbikes out in the rain and sun, and that, because of my complaint, they were going to create some bike places under the cover.

That solved my problem, and something that several other people had complained to me when I was either parking or going out of the parking lot.

If I hadn't made this complain, nothing would have changed.

So... due to being a conflict solver, am I, as a Jedi, supposed not to fight for what is right, even in the small things? Or should I just see things going sour without making anything?

DISCLAIMER: I know I didn't do right to stop my bike there, my day had started bad and I'm still a long way to go and be able to attain proper enlightenment and be what a Jedi is supposed to be.

Almeida wrote: As Jedis, we are supposed to mediate conflict and help it to get to a good solution, not to create conflict and stir trouble. However, I've always seen myself as a catalyst, a character of a change. Sometimes, if you don't stir things up, never changes.

You had valid concerns and went through proper channels to file a grievance to help enact positive change, I see no problem with that part. The key issue in confrontation is one of de-escalation; we do what is needed to keep a situation from getting out of hand in the heat of the moment (or even better, do our best to avoid a situation that may unnecessarily even involve a "heat of the moment" to begin with), keep calm and continue working for positive change through the most peaceful means available whenever possible.