Petition for Jediism; Please read!

Hello all,

It's recently been brought to my attention that there's a petition to recognize Jediism. Why are we not signing this? There is absolutely no reason why this shouldn't be given it's proper status seeing as I can trace all religions back to Africa. Most religions practiced today started as fiction. Stories passed down from age to age. These stories branched in to the major religions we practice today. Should we not accept Christianity because there might not have been a Jesus? Or maybe we should not accept Buddhism as it's from Hinduism and who really knows is Gotama is real anyway. Or maybe we should forget the whole Hebrew thing seeing as it's so close to the religion of Ra. Don't even get me started on Scientology and it's blatantly obvious fictional roots (After all L Ron Hubbard was a science fiction writer who was quoted as saying \"If a man really want's to get rich, he should start a religion) Now despite the darker side of that religion they've done way more good then bad and I guarantee you that no one high up really believes in lord xenu because they know, like we do, that it's the metaphor that counts. It's all just stories that provide a window to our true nature, and show us a path to overcome it. That's all religion was ever meant to be, a window to the \"you\" hiding behind all the things the world of man has added.

So in light of this knowledge how can we deny Jediism? We don't really believe there's a Luke Skywalker that's guiding us. We know Yoda was made up. What we follow is the structor that Lucas laid down by using Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and smidgins of Christianity and New age spiritualism. So I ask you to please sign this petition. Below is a link to it and I encourage any and all that believe in religious freedom to please sign it. Thanks for your time in advance and may the force be with you always.

In the Mystery,
~Merin~

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?jedinow&51

This is much more complex that it appears. Neither The United States nor any state recognizes any religion and cannot do so. They are prohibited from this by The First Amendment. Our ministers have signed marriage licenses in several states just like any priest, rabbi or other minister and that's as close as it gets to 'recognition'.

In other countries each has widely different requirements and not even a billion signatures on a petition meets those requirements. One problem is when people on census forms put Jedi or Jedi Knight instead of Jediism or Jediist. The first two are not names of religions but trademarks of George Lucas.

One of the reasons I was so careful to properly incorporate TOTJO as a non-profit religious, charitable and educational corporation was not so much for our sake in the US but to eventually facilitate groups outside the US. I've been researching and gathering information on this issue five years now.

Just a quick example of one single country:

Australia requires that a new religion have a published doctrine and creed and show that it has been in existence for four years. Then there must be a group of at least 25 members who meet at least once a month at a regular location. This is one of the simplest examples. From there it gets tedious and very complicated. Thanks to some folks like Daniel Jones, who shall remain nameless, Jediism is seen as a bunch of fanatics pretending to be movie Jedi in the UK and it's going to be a long hard uphill battle there.

I have a legal book on my shelf that is over 1,200 pages and it is just on the problem of the definition of religion in international law.

I agree with your reasoning and I wish it were so simple as getting enough folks to sign a petition or vote but alas that's not the way it is.

By all means sign the petition just don't hold your breath.

Know that TOTJO is committed to chartering churches and temples in other countries and helping them with all the necessary evils of being 'recognized'. This is one of the reasons I bothered to finish my law degree.

MTFBWY

It's nice to see your face John. I agree it's more then just an uphill battle as long as people are running around trying to police the neighborhood and regard themselves as \"Defenders of the helpless\" by using force. Add to that the attention hogs and we have one hell of a fight on our hands. So while the petition may not amount to a hill of beans in the legal world, it has a far greater meaning in my opinion in the spiritual one, unity in common beliefs. The more people that come forward and believe the more people that will come forward and believe and so on. So to me it doesn't matter if we win the legal battle, it's about standing up and being counted. I'll leave the legal battles to your much more experienced hands Master, although I'll gladly be your moral support. Its the battle for the heart that concerns me most.

By all means show your moral support and sign the petition if you feel like it. I'm not being a Grinch just letting you all know that we are and have been working for this on the legal end and it will happen.

one way of looking at a petition is that while it may not bring about a great deal of success on the legal end it could go a long way in bringing public attention to the issue. or i should say some positive attention as opposed to the abundant negative attention being garnered by the church in wales. it's always wise to pick ones battles carefully and to always be fully prepared. by all means sign the petition and vote on it where applicable, but always remember it's the politicians that have the final say and they always follow their wallets or whatever will guarantee re-election even if it's wrong.

I find this interesting, (and yes, I am going to go sign it as soon as I post this).

There are world recognized religions that are not recognized in certain countries. As a certain religious group gets into power, the try to abolish the other, competing, religions out as false.

But that doesn't make them any less real to the followers.

I said the other day, and I'll say it again... even bad publicity, is good publicity.

Even if a government entity will not, or can not, recognize a religion. It draws attention to the cause as cohesive collection of people trying to do something, and will attract other like-minded people to it.

And besides, do we do any of this, with the worry of what other people might think in our minds?

I think we all agree, but have just phrased it differently...

-MTFBWY-
Jestor

Signed....

only 92 signs... maybe was way better without that... now the world knows, that there are less than 100 followers