Star Wars Hits the Celestial Big Time

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from the Bend, Oregon, Bulletin, October 6, 2001, with a headline:  “Jedi Knight, a popular religion,” dateline, London.  Centuries after King Arthur, a new type of knight is wandering Britain.  Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker would be proud.  “When asked their religious affiliation on the 2001 census forms many Britain are writing in, ‘Jedi Knight’ government officials,” said Wednesday.  So many in fact, that the government has been forced to give “Jedi Knight” its own category when compiling census results.

Tom:

This is amazing, this is about religion.  I can remember how many years ago when we addressed Star Wars and all that and we said, hey, this is about religion but nobody wanted to hear about it.  Now they’ve got their own category, they have their own monks, the Jedi Knights; I guess you could call them monks of some sort.

Dave:

But is this an idea—well, apparently a large number of people have come up with this, but do they meet together?  The article doesn’t say that.

Tom:

So what about the religious basis?  Let’s sort of analyze this from afar as it were.  What religion would they be worshipping?

Dave:

Well, it’s quite clear.  In the Star Wars series this is the old religion.  That’s what the officer, you remember, says to Darth Vader, “You’re followers of the old religion.”  Well, the old religion is Wicca, witchcraft, and, indeed, that’s what it is, has a dark and light side, they are worshipping the Force and this is a very appealing god.  This is the god who isn’t going to tell you what to do.  You can play the dark side if you want, you can play the light side.  If you can figure that one out, that a Force has a dark side and a light side.  Obviously then, it’s impersonal and amoral.  Who could say that the light side is better than the dark side?  What do you mean, a light and dark, but that’s a witchcraft term, white magic, and black magic.  So, it’s a delusion, but there are many people, it’s a New Age idea of course, it’s mind power, and if you really believe it you can make it happen.  This is what Yoda tells Luke Skywalker and Luke can’t pull that ship out of the swamp, but Yoda does it with his mind, and this is an appealing idea.  All the psychics claim to have this kind of mind power.  We have parapsychology in some of our very top universities.  The parapsychologists are seriously searching to try to find how this so-called mind power works.  That 90% of the brain that, supposedly, you don’t use.  It’s a delusion but Tom, it’s a satanic idea because Satan said you can become little gods and he’s got to, somehow, deceive man into thinking that he does have these powers and this human potential.  Satan isn’t always there, his demons, he’s got plenty of them, they can pull a few tricks, poltergeists, and so forth and move objects and make people think that they have this mind power.  But nobody has been able to function like this.  I was talking day before yesterday in Germany with a former high level Buddhist and he knew the Dalai Lama. And he thought that the Dalai was really enlightened. That the Dalai Lama was the 14th reincarnation of the original Dalai Lama, that he was a Bodhisattva and that he was a little Buddha, that he really had these miraculous powers, god-like powers, and you know the Dalai Lama goes around initiating people like Yoda initiated or Obi-Wan initiated Luke. And I said to him—I mean, he is a Christian now, but I said well, he had to hold an umbrella up to keep the rain off of him, didn’t he?  Did you ever notice that he had any supernatural powers?  I mean, he talked about it, he is going to bring peace to this world by Tibetan Tantric Deity Yoga and teach each person that they are little gods and they can create their own reality.  And, I said to him  did you ever see any evidence that the Dalai Lama could create his own reality?  No, but he said he had tremendous presence; tremendous power that would just captivate people, but as a practical matter it didn’t work.  So, it’s a dream!  If we could just do that—if I could just manipulate the stock market, for example, then I could buy a stock and make it go up and then sell it, and so forth.  If I could just control things as I want them to be— Tom, we would have a bunch of Darth Vaders and Obi-Wan Kenobis walking around this world zapping one another with psychic power; it would be a horrible world if you could make anything you wanted happen to happen, anything you wanted to happen if you could make it happen—aww come on!  But I guess these Jedi Knights, that’s what they think they are doing and that’s their religion.

Tom:

Dave, I was thinking just back to about a year ago when you were sitting next to a Marine on an airplane—

Dave:

From Okinawa.

Tom:

Yeah, he was into Wicca, but now, this Jedi Knight, it isn’t just a matter of some guys meeting together over in Great Britain.

Dave:

And the Marines, by the way, on Okinawa, they met together these that were into witchcraft.

Tom:

So, this is, as you said, this is old, this goes back to the Garden of Eden as a matter of fact, not just Wicca, it’s a part of Hinduism, it’s a part of Yoga all of that.

Dave:

It’s the big lie.

Tom:

Yeah.

Dave:

Well, it’s a tragedy that people will embrace it, but one day they find out it is not a Force, but God who created us, and we are accountable to him.