What was your reason for becoming a Jedi

here is mine...raised loosely in a Jewish housedhold, mother baptist, father assumed Jew, as time went on they divorced, I fell into pagan ways, loved every moment of my expansion there as alot of my beliefs were already part of it. Mother found my 100 books on everything pagan and called me the son of Satan, made me laugh and she burned them all..books..just books..anyway..I moved away went to many churches, catholic, apostolic pentacostal, etc...then searched the internet one day for jediism..and here I am...TOTJO fell into my lap per se and I am enjoying every moment I can with it.

There are many reasons I am going through this. First off, I came from a very broken home. My parents were both alcoholics and drug users. When I was five my grandparents got custody of my brothers and I. However, during that time I was with my parents I had to find solace somewhere. Like many other people, I turned to religion, which started my fascination with religion and spirituality. Ever since I was a kid, I was an active Catholic and after I left high school, I went to seminary.

The seminary was at a Benedictine monastery. This really opened me up to spirituality outside the usual Catholic sense. The great thing about this place was there were so many places to go meditate. While I meditated on things like the Passion, the Roasry..etc…I felt there was something else out there other then the dogma of what the Church taught. Going through formation we had to look at ourselves, our failings and such and in many ways we learned to be like Jedi and I tried to model myself by the Jedi code and would say it to myself most days. I had grown up being a fan of SW and I can remember having discussions with my priest friends how the Jedi were perfect examples of the perfect Catholic. So while I was here and this place I even jokingly referred to it as the Jedi temple.

In January, I realized I could not in all honesty continue. I am gay and I was tired of frankly having to repeat the Church’s line on everything and hide who I really am, so I left. There are days when I do miss the quite atmosphere and the ability to drop things and just go spend time finding that inner peace. That’s why I know if Jediism every started a monastery I would be the first one in line.

My grandmother (who was more or less my mother) died in February. It was Jediism, not my Catholic faith that brought me comfort. It was the teachings of the Jedi that made me be able to come to terms with her passing helped me know she is still with me and I will be joined with her one day.

While I have drifted a little from my Church my love of what Jediism has only grown. The peace that the Code and the tenants of Jediism gives me has made me decide to follow through and try to learn all that I can and my hope is I can become ordained and pass on these great teachings.

It seems that you understand the truth behind the dogma - my partner was kicked out of his Catholic church because he wouldn't \"repent his sin\" of being gay. Yet one of my Reiki masters is a devout Catholic chaplain and is very supportive, even attending our handfasting! I've also seen a directive from the Pope when he was Cardina Ratzinger denouncing Reiki as evil and occult so go figure!

It goes to show that the individual's opinion colours their dogma and it's your personal connection to the divine (whatever form it takes, it's also within you) that counts.

Maybe you and Fr. Jon could share monastic stories (he was Franciscan) one day? My only experience is as a Benedictine in a past life so I'd be fascinated to hear more. Thank you for sharing!

MTFBWY

I feel so lucky. My parish and my priest have been VERY supportive of me my entire life. When word got around why I left it was basiclaly like \"Meh, who cares\". We have a lesbian couple very active in our Church and again...no one cares, they are part of the community. I feel so lucky for that becuase I have heard the stories of being more or less kicked out. I'm sorry your partner had to experiance that side of the Church...it's not fair because it can be so loving as well. And I will have to speak to Fr. Jon, I considered the Franciscan's at one point...there is a group of them near where I was close to one.

we certainly are an eclectic group, each sharing similar demons of the past yet traveling completely different paths and arriving at the same destination....prior to beginning to train as a jedi, i didn't have a particular religion pushed on me my family pretty much left it to us to explore and decide....martial arts lead me to zen, which is so very similar to jediism that it was an easy lateral step over...

the vast diversity within totjo makes us all the stronger for it, i've been in many different churches from many different aspects of christianity and nowhere have i ever witnessed the degree of openness and acceptance as we have here. society could truly learn alot from us, at some point it will be up to each of us to teach those lessons not only to our apprentices but to all who will listen. only then will the world truly become a better place.

I first came to the community back in '98 in hopes of finding people that studied kendo or swordsmanship and hopefully get some sparring in.

Silly and shallow? Perhaps. But it is what it is. haha

I was born and raised in the Mormon church. Several years ago after I was discharged from the military I began exploring different churches and religions. The more I looked the more confused I got since every one seamed to believe similar things but put their own spin on things. One day a coworker told me that the military was now allowing people to put Jedi on their ID Tags (Dog Tags) so I thought well it must be a real religion and began looking into it. When I found this site and started the initiates program I found that everything I was learning helped fill in the holes in my life and bridged the gap in what I knew and what I believed.

I was raised in a Methodist family, practically forced to go to Church even when I was sick. I despised being made to 'believe' someone else's beliefs.
Once I was old enough to not go, the overabundance of hypocracy turned me to look elsewhere. And, yes, when I saw Star Wars in 1977, the entire Jedi mythos entrigued me, always did.
I was always fascinated with mythology and legends and the repeat occurance of 'fire swords' ( from everything from Mayan myths and more) and such have always caught my attention.
In the 80's I found a local mentor who called their classes \"Homo Novus Jedi\". I began classes out of curiosity, but realized I was 'growing' and felt better personally and spritually than ever before in my life. It entailed many various sources and she culled bits from here and there and made them all work together, she was amazing. I met a woman in 1989 and was married in 1990 and lost touch with my mentor. Well when the wife became a fundamantal, the whole marriage fell apart. I saw more hypocracy than ever before. I felt that I had backslid something terrible. With the divorce final I have attempted to start back on the path that felt right to me. I had joined here in 2007 but one things or another was tying me down, but now am back. The journey has been painful and trying but the lessons have been well learned.

I decided to become a Jedi because it was what I was looking for. It filled the voids that were left by the religion I am practicing with it.

I have been a Christian most of my life. Long story short there was a lot of things going on in churches that I did not like and that I felt were not becoming of a Christian. So it put me off from going. From time to time I would visit one that I was a little more compatable with, but there were still some voids left.

I had heard of Jediism so one day I looked it up to see what it was about, and found this site. It was what I was looking for and filled the gaps! And that is the great thing about it for me, I can still practice Christianity, or I can still believe in God, and be a Jedi at the same time.

And there were things that I wanted to change in my life. The path that I was going was not leading me to anywhere good. I wasn't into dangerous things, but I was starting to become an angry person. And some of the things I am learning here are helping me to put that behind me.

'I have been a Christian most of my life. Long story short there was a lot of things going on in churches that I did not like and that I felt were not becoming of a Christian.'

Hunny many of my christain friends say the same thing.