guardian.co.uk/world/2009/se … hood-jones
Jedis accuse a big store chain of discriminating against them. When will religious intolerance end?
Although this does pose an interesting question: What separates a religion from a cult? How do we even know whether it’s serious or a coordinated joke? And if we’re blowing the horn of blind tolerance, where do you draw the line?
The plural of Jedi is Jedi. When oh when will the people learn.
…to be distinguished from Jedist, being a sect of Clampitarianism…
Can’t say I was ever a Star Wars fan. As long as noone feels offended.
Gotta love the imagination of folks
I think Jedi should be allowed to wear their hoods in public as long as they are not loaded.
My 8 yr. old son received his Jedi training diploma at Disneyland this summer. Kids gather infront of an outdoor amphitheatre and a Jedi knight chooses a selection of them to come up front and receive their training before the onlookers. Then they have to prove themselves against Darths Vadar and Maul (I have video of him defeating Darth Maul, which I shall save for his wedding day…). It wasn’t until the third performance of this show that my son was finally chosen (after I clued in and went & bought the t-shirt, which magically worked like a charm and is now his lucky shirt)… one of those rare occasions where I “Go Dad” on the situation and make the thing happen (it was truly crushing my heart). Don’t know how many kids leave that show unchosen, wondering why the force wasn’t with them. 
Nonetheless, the positive of it was that it was something of a proxy for spiritual experience for him, and continues to inform his imagination with ideas of noble purpose and all that jazz. I understand there’s something like 400,000 persons in the UK who list Jedi as their religion. It’s interesting to see it grow as an explicitly contrived “spiritual” movement. Its tenets leave little room (at least on the layman’s level) to argue that it is not promoting positive social perspective on issues such as responsibility for others and being “true to oneself”.
I wouldn’t classify it as a “cult”, though, as it is too mainstream in its source material, and not concerned to be experienced in a context removed from everyday society.
In short, I currently encourage my son’s Jedi pursuits, and would surely “Go Dad” on any corporate entity which discriminated against him for holding those beliefs. 
ROUZBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!!! 
I prefer Trekies they are more normal 
Best darn series ever IMO, all of them including the movies.
In all seriousness, I side with the complaint.
I don’t think it was right to force him to remove his hood.
Regardless of the silliness, the rule they have for hoods is similar to some older rules for orthodox monks long ago.
If, for some reason, someone resurrected such a practice for Christian monks now, it would not be challenged when someone informed that they were a monk and could not remove their hood in public.
And a comment like, “The pope doesn’t wear a hood”, or “The devil wears a hood” would be horribly insulting.
However, this took place in Wales, and from what I understand, Wales has a problem with youth crime.
To the point that an inventor over there has come up with a device that makes a really annoying sound that only younger ears can hear just to drive the youth away from loitering around shops; where they commonly are causing problems with general passer-by’s.
So, it makes sense that the store has a rule against concealing the face, especially among youth and young adults.
If I was the founder of such a religion, I would establish an official hood that was marked in some way so that it was really obvious when someone was wearing it for religious reasons.
It wouldn’t solve the problem entirely, and someone could abuse that for a crime, sure, but it might be something to work from.