One of the Newer Churches

The Jedi Church, discussed in a recent post at Get Religion, which recounted the founder's difficulties at a British supermarket when he would not remove his Jedi hood. They have a website, but it doesn't appear there are any brick-and-mortar facilities where you could attend ... Jedi worship.

The current work of the Jedi Church (apart from raising the Force Awareness of its adherents, I imagine) seems to be directed at getting governments to recognize membership in the Jedi Church on census forms and other government documents. The website makes the point that if Wicca and Yoga are allowable responses to declare one's religious affiliation, on what basis can a government rule the Jedi Church invalid as a response?

While the status of the Jedi Church may not be a live issue in your family, this is more than just a joke: which religions or denominations are recognized as legitimate in a given country is very much a live issue in many places. There are countries, for example, where the LDS Church is not yet granted official recognition. In the United States, the Establishment Clause not only prevents the federal government from establishing a national church, but also, as presently applied, bars the government from becoming entangled in any religious affairs. This prevents the formation of an "official religion" registry of the sort encountered in some other countries. The Jedi Church presents the sort of implausible but legally troubling scenario familiar to law students. It may not look or sound like a church, but is there a legal basis to deny it or its adherents the benefits that might accompany such a designation?

Interestingly, the Google ads at the bottom of the Jedi Church page included (when I visited it) a link to Mormon.org. I'm wondering whether keywords at the site triggered the ad (perhaps "good" and "evil"), or whether the online evangelization team at LDS HQ thought that Jedi Church visitors would be particularly receptive to suggestions to learn more about the LDS Church: "These are not the droids you are looking for. Move along to Mormon.org."

Comments

[Jamal]

Does one really need to get into what are officially recognized religions to deal with this case? Why not set a numerical population threshold (percent or absolute) to get officially on the list on forms? If you don't meet it, keep "other" with a write-in as an option. Problem solved. Of course I realize in practical terms many governments don't think in those terms and insist on having an official list, but in theory if they could drop that insistence, it seem simple to solve and simultaneously provides a self-adjusting mechanism to separate cranks from genuinely growing new religions.